Somewhere is Southeast Asia, general Bison and his henchmen want to acquire territory by force and establish his own pseudo-state, Bisonopolis. They also attempt to create a mutant soldier in a lab as a prototype for a future army to take over the world. Bison captures dozens of aid workers and threatens to kill them if he is not paid 20 billion $. The Allied Nations, led by Colonel Guile, are trying to stop him. Guile recruits two jail convicts, Ken and Ryu, as spies who infiltrate the gang of one of Bison's warlords. Chun-Li, a reporter, also wants to take revenge on Bison, who killed her father. Guile launches an assault on Bison's headquarters, beats him up in a fight and causes an explosion of the base. Guile, Cammy, Ken, Ryu, Chun-Li and the others rejoice.
The third live-action film adaptation of a video game, "Street Fighter" has the same attributes as the first two said film adaptations, "Super Mario Bros." and "Double Dragon": a patchwork that isn't that much inspired, but at least it has heart. Director Steve E. de Souza refuses to take the obligatory good vs. evil story too seriously, and thus some charm can be found in this cheesy, relaxed, sometimes even humorous approach. Raul Julia, in his final film role, plays villain Bison deliciously over-the-top, and easily overshadows all other actors combined. In one great moment of pure comic-book villainy, Chun-Li gives a long speech about how Bison's army attacked her village and killed her father, after which Bison nonchalantly replies that he "doesn't even remember" that episode: "For you, the day Bison graced your village was the most important day of your life. But for me, it was Tuesday..." However, while Julia gave it his best, the others didn't: one of the weakest links is the main protagonist, Guile, who is disappointingly bland and boring, and almost seems like a supporting character in the first half of the film, where Bison appears much more frequently. When the bad guy is more interesting than the good guy, then that is a problem. The writing, which encompassed several characters and subplots, one even involving a mutant soldier nurtured in a lab, is thin and lacks highlights, whereas the editing is abrupt and rushed during some battle sequences. However, one simply cannot be angry at "Street Fighter" for two reasons: for one, it is one of the rare movies featuring Kyle Minogue in a role. For the other, the supporting character of Zangief, one of Bison's henchmen, is a small comedy gem: when everyone watches a live TV transmission of a truck full of explosives heading at their headquarters, Zangief shouts: "Quick, change the channel!", whereas the ending even has the best joke when he has a self-critical realization ("Wait, Bison was the bad guy?!"). A 'guilty pleasure'.
Grade:+
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