Street Fighter (1994) - Movie Review

[caption id="attachment_322" align="alignright" width="258"] Official Score = 1 1/2 Devils[/caption]

In the 1990s there was a video game that was extremely popular among my friends and I, a game that in a lot of respects would end up dominating our gaming style through out that decade... That game of course being, 'Street Fighter 2' (1991)!

This game I have to say was truly an amazing fun time, I mean as far as competitive fighting games go, it was a lot of fun being able to not only beat up your opponent, but to beat them up using all sorts of fire balls and the like... So when the movie came out, you know I had to see it!

Don't get me wrong, this movie was not the best that could have come out, but besides the fact that this movie was a fun action extravaganza (the likes of which aren't really seen anymore), they also had that James Bondian style use of, 'science'... Or in the movie form, 'Science Fiction' and that, I have to admit made this movie great!

You see, this movie, which was Written & Directed by: Steven E. de Souza (Commando). Starring: Jean-Claude Van Damme (Time Cop), Raul Julia (The Addams Family), Ming-Na Wen (Marvel's Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D.), Damian Chapa (Under Siege), Kylie Minogue (Holy Motors), Roshan Seth (Ghandi), Wes Studi (Heat), Byron Mann (Red Corner), Grand L. Bush (Demolition Man), Peter Navy Tuiasosopo (Batman & Robin), Jay Tavare (Adaption), Andrew Bryniarski (Dracula Guest), Gregg Rainwater (Ocean Tribe), Miguel A. Núñez Jr. (Lethal Weapon 3), Robert Mammone (Mystery Road) tells the story of General M Bison (Raul Julia), his organization, 'Shadaloo' and the war that he is waging against the forces of the, 'Allied Nations' (This movie's version of the U.N.)...

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="608"] Colonel Guile (Jean-Claude Van Damme), with Lieutenant Cammy (Kylie Minogue) along with another soldier at, 'AN' HQ![/caption]

You see General Bison is kind of the worst of the worst of slime and villainy... He is holding Dr. Dhalsim (Roshan Seth) hostage, and is forcing him to create a new drone super soldier out of a soldier that he had kidnapped by the name of, 'Carlos Blanka'...

With all of this in mind, a group of the most classic of heroes has come to fight against the rising tide that General Bison represents, including: Colonel William F. Guile (Van Damme), who is the commander of the, 'AN' forces, and is itching to take down General Bison and find out what happened to his friend, 'Blanka' (Robert Mammone).

Chun-Li Zang (Ming-Na-Wen) & E. Honda (Peter Navy Tuiasosopo) have come in to take down Bison as revenge for General Bison having killed her father...

And heck, even Ken Masters (Damian Chapa), & Ryu Hoshi (Mann), who are literally in the wrong place, at the wrong time and end up being forced to go up against General Bison... And that is just to name a few!

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="470"] Guile Vs. M. Bison... Begin![/caption]

In the end, it will be up to these, 'Street Fighters' to take down General Bison and the rest of his goons, because let's be honest... In the end, if they can't then no one can!

As for the bad stuff... The truth is, is this movie was meant I think largely for kids, and so it has a very high, 'cheese' factor, I also thought it was kind of weird that they didn't give the cast their fireball throwing capability, but they practically turned Blanka in to the character from the Video game...

Also I have to admit that I thought that the way the character of, 'M. Bison' was way to over the top... I mean I can understand why they got Raul Julia for the role... Considering that he was as flamboyant in this movie as he was in, The Addams Family (1991)....

As a side note though, this was Raul Julia's final movie (he had actually died during the making of this movie.)

In the end despite the fact that this movie was not one of the better ones, it does have it's moments, and if you get a chance, check it out... I mean you almost kind of have to if you liked the video game!

http://youtu.be/HsTKoGcFS78

Universal Solider (1992) - Movie Review

[caption id="attachment_325" align="alignright" width="263"] Official Score = 3 Devils[/caption]

When I was a kid (as I am sure was the case with a lot of us that grew up watching action films in the 1990s), we can all remember the good ole days when the movies that Jean-Claude Van Damme (Time Cop) didn’t suck!

Well that isn't entirely fair of me to say, the main reason that I say that, is that for the last many years, Van Damme has been doing really low grade films that didn't sound to good to me (although, I have heard that he has been picking up the pace, what with having recently done, The Expendables 2 (2012) and the latest sequel in the Universal Soldier franchise!

And speaking of the Universal Soldier franchise, I thought that I would review the first Universal Soldier movie as this movie holds a special place for me as this was the first movie that I ever saw of his in the Theater!

That’s right folks, you see, this movie, which was directed by: Roland Emmerich (The Noah’s Ark Principal), and which stars Van Damme, Dolph Lundgren (The Punisher) and Ally Roberts (The Profiler), told the story of how in the early 90s, the government decides to revive dead Soldiers that had died in combat at some point in the last 30 years and enhance them in every way so that they could become a sort of genetic super solder…

The only problem is that two of the genetic super soldiers that died in Vietnam and had been brought back to life for this program, by the name of Luc Deveraux (Van Damme) and Andrew Scott (Lundgren)…

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="420"] The Universal Soldiers in action![/caption]

Now before Deveraux had passed away, he was sort of a mild mannered good soldier that was fighting for his country like any other good soldier would have done, but Andrew Scott had been suffering from combat fatigue and was starting to get more and more violent in the way that he would kill the enemy!

In the end though, as both Luc and Andrew begin to remember their old lives, Luc starts to want to get back to the life he had led before he died in Vietnam, but before he can do so, he has to try and stop Andrew Scott from continuing with the bloody massacre in the United States in the early 90s, that he had started in Vietnam decades before!

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="600"] Luc Deveraux (Jean-Claude Van Damme) a re-animated super soldier who is about to remember who he really is![/caption]

For me, I have to admit that I still freakin love this movie! It had a great cast of action super stars at what I still believe to be the height of their careers, it had a fun (somewhat believable) story line, as well as fantastic special effects that I still think are pretty awesome!

All in all, if you have a chance to see this movie, then I highly recommend it, it is a fun one, that you might like as well!

http://youtu.be/gBUTgd4M6w8