Street Fighter

Street Fighter 1994, color Rifftrax. Ming-na Wen! Yay! Raul Julia! Yay! Van Damme! Eh.  Kylie Minogue? Really?   Ok, 30mins in and Ming-Na is carrying the movie for me.  She’s great. Movie is very silly, but better than Super Mario Bros. Really loving Ming-na.... this was 1994. I just saw her on SHEILD in 2020 and she is exactly as hot now.  Not that Raul Julia isn’t excellent too. He’s neither a Doppler nor a Fingle in this. He runs the country of Shadowloo, which is a combination of a Roy Orbison song and a Desi Arnez song.  (Shahdaroba and Babalu)

 This movie is going to take me forever to get through if I keep annotating everything. Also pausing to stare at Ming-na. I’m only 36mins in and it’s easily been 45mins since I typed I was 30mins in. Diving in, no more notes.   Ok. Finished it. It’s a pretty funny one. 

Rewatch  I didn’t write much last time. And I know it’s because I was distracted by Ming-Na Wen.  It’s been on for 6mins, and she is really cute. Movie from 1994 and I watched her earlier tonight in 2022 on Book of Boba Fett. Anyway, I don’t think there’s a plot. Raul Julia, who died after this movie, is an evil cartoon video game bad guy and dictator. Van Dam is a soldier for the good guys, I think. Ming-Na is a reporter with Van Dam who has a personal vendetta against Raul Julia, who probably has a character name. He's in fancy military dress. General Something or other. Also, other stuff happens. I have no idea why Kylie Minogue is a soldier with Van Dam. Also there’s a guy with an eye patch who runs a fighting place, though not in a street. But now he’s in prison with some arms dealers who tried to double cross him with toy guns and…. This is seriously not worth describing. I can see why I skipped over plot and just focused on Ming-Na being super cute last time. At 27mins in, she’s goes Ninja. I don't really know what's going on in this movie. It isn't the nonstop assault that was Super Mario Bros, but it is a bit much at times.  I didn't finish the rewatch, but I think this goes fairly high in the second tier, and depending on how much you like a certain Asian American actress, your rating may be higher.

Bonus! Episode 60 of the podcast "How Did This Get Made?" covers Street Fighter. I love when they focus on a movie that Rifftrax or MST has riffed. Here's the description of the episode:

Finally a movie that stayed true to its video game adaptation by having no plot. John Gemberling joins Paul, June, and Jason to figure out who is a native of Shadaloo, why Jean-Claude Van Damme pretends to be dead for a really long time, and what the hell was the reason for Van Damme to play a home video tape while driving a boat. They’ll also share their favorite lines, explore all the shoehorned elements of the video game, and explain to June what “street fighting” really means.