Street Fighter. Absolutely worst video game adaptations

June 12, 2020

Street Fighter

What is it? Epic kitsch
Where to watch (at your own risk): Rakuten

Jean-Claude Van Damme is best known from his roles as Jean-Claude Van Damme. He may lack outstanding drama roles in his portfolio, but as a hand-to-hand fighting baddass, he's simply irreplaceable. Except that in the case of Street Fighter, he is rather a caricature of himself. That's not really the fault of the Belgian fighter – there are probably more holes in the script than mods to Skyrim. Van Damme was reportedly also under the influence of drugs, including cocaine, at the time of the *shooting.* At least that's what the director says, unable to come to terms with the crushing criticism that rained on his film after premiere.

Stylistically, Street Fighter is reminiscent of 1960s comic strips – in that it's painstakingly kitsch. But if he had been at least remotely consistent in that aesthetic, it might have been more digestible. Unfortunately, de Souza interweaves slapstick humor with tons of exalted kitsch, and he does so with the grace of Mr. Bean.

The protagonist flexes biceps and throws bizarre one-liners; his sinister adversary is reduced to being a sinister adversary, and the two female characters (one of whom is the later Agent May from Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.) are... well, they are. As pretty much the entire movie. And it's hard not to add – unfortunately.

Although adaptations of video games are relatively rare, at the beginning of the 90s, two big productions were created around the same time. Jean Claude Van Damme actually had to pass the role of Cage in Mortal Kombat in order to portray Colonel Guile.