Street Fighter (1994) Blu-ray Review

Plot:

In the Southeast Asian nation of Shadaloo, civil war has erupted between the forces of drug lord-turned General M. Bison and the Allied Nations led by Colonel William F. Guile. Bison has captured several A.N. relief workers, and via a live two-way radio broadcast, demands Guile secure a US$20 billion ransom in three days. Guile refuses and vows to track Bison down and place him on trial for his crimes, but his assistant, Sergeant Cammy White, is only partially able to pinpoint Bison’s location to the river-delta region outside the city. One hostage is Guile’s friend Sergeant Carlos “Charlie” Blanka, who Bison orders taken to his lab for his captive doctor and scientist, Dhalsim, to turn into the first of his supersoldiers.

Review:

At the time of its release in 1994, Street Fighter was met with less than stellar reviews from critics and many video game fans. However, despite its failures, the film was not a box office failure, grossing $99.42 million against a $35 million budget. Street Fighter is just pure harmless fun that doesn’t take itself seriously at all. His tongue is in his cheek all the time, so we know to just sit back and enjoy 100 minutes of escapist entertainment. In an interview with writer/director Steven E. de Souza, he discusses how there was talk of people like Stallone, Arnie, or even Harrison Ford playing Guile, but due to lack of budget, they chose Jean-Claude Van Damme.

Street Fighter (1994) Biography, Plot, Production, Release, Home media, Box office, Scene.

De Souza discusses how, in this film, Guile had to be from Louisiana to explain his accent, but he ultimately did not make it into the final cut. I still love JCVD in this movie, and even if the behind-the-scenes stories are as interesting as the movie itself, Van Damme is still great, especially when he delivers arguably the greatest speech of all time. Raul Julia sadly passed away after this film, but it practically eclipsed everyone by giving Bison a bit of authority; his kids were big fans of video games and it was thanks to them that he made this picture. About $10 million of the budget was spent on Van Damme and Raoul Julia’s fees, but a few supporting actors went on to become big stars in their own right, like Byron Mann and Ming-Na Wen.

Byron Mann was well cast for the role of Ryu, and he plays a hilarious prank on Ken (Damian Chapa), which elicits laughter. It’s funny how everyone pronounces Ryu differently… Some of the dialogue is a bit awkward, and the fact that it doesn’t involve a tournament might upset video game purists, but as a simple action movie, Street Fighter remains a good time. There is a sense of fun when he never takes himself too seriously, so if you accept him for who he is, you’ll love it. The film looks well remastered, with decent audio and subtitles; for some reason this is another disc from 88 Films that doesn’t have a scene selection in the main menu, which is weird but not a big deal. The interview with Steven E. de Souza is fascinating and gives some insight into what went on in the making of the film.

Damian Chapa seems to look down on the action genre in his interview and he didn’t even know who JCVD was before filming, but he did have some nice things to say about Raul Giulia and I love it when the actors are honest in interviews. I also enjoyed listening to Graham Revell talk about making the film’s score and how he combined it with the songs so it never sounded harsh. Byron Mann has the best interview, which is about 35 minutes long, and talks about preparing for a role-playing event, even though he hasn’t played a video game before. The deleted scenes are nothing special, but there was a brief fight between Cammy and Chun-Li, but otherwise it was unnecessary and it’s understandable why it was cut.

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All in all, Street Fighter might not be what fans expected at the time, but now, watching it now, it’s essentially a parody (the director even admits it), with lots of laughs, funny characters, and decent action. Hearing all the stories on this CD about having to reschedule due to Raoul Giulia’s failing health, it’s a miracle the movie was made at all. 88 Films did a good job with this disc, although it’s a pity there’s nothing new from JCVD, but as someone who’s been trying to interview him for almost 10 years, I understand why he didn’t participate. However, if you enjoy this movie and can accept it for what it is, you’ll have a good time here and enjoy the escapist entertainment that it is.