With Fox reviving interest with a second try at ‘Street Fighter’ with the new ‘The Legend of Chun Li’, and Capcom’s release of the much-awaited ‘Street Fighter 4,’ Universal saw the perfect opportunity to unleash Jean-Claude Van Damme’s mighty epic ‘Street Fighter to Blu-ray. And, yep, fifteen years later, ‘Street Fighter’ still sucks.
In retrospect, the film I was once extremely excited about seeing back in my junior-high days of ’94 never had a chance. Getting writing/directing chores were Steven E. de Souza, a at one-point accomplished screenwriter with scripts for ’48 hrs’ and ‘Die Hard’ under his belt but in 1994? Recent projects included ‘Hudson Hawk’, ‘The Flintstones’ and ‘Beverly Hills Cop III’…ouch.
And again, I thought casting Van Damme as Guile was cool back when I could mimic his drunken dancing bar scene in ‘Kickboxer’ step by step.
Now? His ham-fisted delivery and inherent goofiness was just one more step to the wrong side of camp. Combined with a, let’s just diplomatically call, ‘theatrical’ performance from Raul Julia (his last film) - a fact that deeply saddens me whenever I think of it and quite possibly the worst possible game-to-film character adaptation ever with Blanka turning from a muscle-bound Brazilian monster into a some sort of green-painted caveman with a orange fright wig and we arrive at a film that firmly needs to display on the comedy aisle.
The ‘story’ or what I like to call screenplay mad libs starts off in 'Shadaloo', a Southeastern country under the tyrannical, camptastic rule of General M. Bison (Raul Julia), who lords over his army from the safety confines of his military fortress buried under the ruins of an ancient Buddhist temple.
With Bison kidnapping a host of 'Allied Nations' workers, it comes down to Colonel William F. Guile (JCVD) and his super-awesome stealth boat to lead a rescue effort. Along for the ride are chuckleheads Ken (Damian Chapa) and Ryu (Byron Mann) and television reporter Chun-Li Zang (Ming-Na Wen), Honda (Peter Tuiasosopo) and Balrog (Grand L. Bush).
Cammy's (!) in there too wearing a short skirt as well as, Zangief, Sagat (Wes Studi), a particularly embarrassing Vega, and 'Dr.(?!)' Dhalsim who mutates Guile's bff Carlos into the aformentioned "Blanka".
Considering Souza's commitment to do his damndest to get every character in there, most of which succumb to the script in the least plausible ways - Bhalsim's a doctor!, Honda's a Samoan!, - the characters drop in and out of the movie like targets at a shooting gallery without the least bit of introductions.
This movie, funnily enough, stays as an ensemble piece despite the presence of marquee headliner Jean-Claude. He shows up here and there to sonic boom his dialogue and naturally gets the climatic showdown with Bison but his screen-time is fairly balanced with the other 56 characters.
The action is standard American mid-nineties quick-cutting with very little to impress here. Van Damme does manage a flash kick for the fans but...yeah, that's about it regarding action.
I will say the movie doesn't look cheap with some fun set and costume designs and slick cinematography and if you go into the film as if it were a spoof of action films, it almost kind of works i.e. the 'Street Fighter' sequence in Jackie Chan's 'City Hunter'.
Those few good points being said, the film played straight is terrible and with this film following the 'Super Mario Brothers' movie by one year, it's a wonder game to film adaps weren't outlawed.
One more good aspect is the 2.35:1 1080p transfer which actually breathes a bit of new life into the film with sharp, vibrant colors and a pumping English 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio track. Impressive for what's now a fifteen year-old film.
We unfortunately get no new features despite this be labeled as an ‘Extreme Edition’ except for a handful of high-def trailers for 'Street Fighter IV'.
All other supplements were carried over from the previous DVD release, or actually the Laserdisc (Steven Souza says 'Laserdisc' in the commentary!) which includes the director's commentary, a Making of, Outtakes, Deleted Scenes, Storyboard and Videogame Sequences (where I was sorely reminded of the 'Street Fighter' game that was released alongside the movie that featured the digitized actors) and 'Archive' material.
Technically, this BD-release is quite good with the colorful film popping off the screen. One problem though: You actually have to watch the film to enjoy the colors….There could be some campy fun to be had here but you've been warned.
Street Fighter: Extreme Edition [Blu-ray] is now available at Amazon . Visit the DVD database for more information.
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