I know Kung Fu.
Show me.
I love fighting games.
I grew up with Tekken 3, Marvel Vs.
Capcom 2, X-Men Vs.
Street Fighter, Capcom Vs.
SNK 2, and a fair amount of Mortal Kombat games.
Whether I was at home with the Playstation One and Super Nintendo, or a local Pizza Hut back when you could actually sit down and eat and there were some arcade games you could play.
I took notice of the fighting games.
I was also introduced to movies from a very young age and it did not take long for the two mix.
With the Mortal Kombat movie being a favorite among my brothers and I.
But there are many more movies based on fighting games.
Some of them are absolutely dreadful and some of them are… okay, well most of them are bad.
And I want to talk about them.
The live action ones.
Because if I were to include animated ones and all the web-series then we're gonna be here all day.
Let’s discuss the questionable section of cinema that is fighting game movies.
Let’s start with one that has largely gone under the radar.
King of Fighters is about a martial artist named Rugal Bernstein, Bernstein, Bernstein.
.
.
Ray Park who brings fighters to an alternate dimension via Bluetooth headset.
Bio-digital jazz, man.
Once they arrive, he challenges them to prove that he is the King of Fighters.
He’s also apparently is trying to summon some kind of demon thing but uh, we're not gonna talk about that.
Maggie Q leads her team of Sean Faris, Will Yun Lee, and David Leitch in an effort to put an end to Rugal’s games.
Based on that cast there should be some truly solid moments in here but somehow its just bland, straight to home video action.
And that’s pretty shocking when you look at the director.
Gordon Chan directed King of Beggars, Fist of Legend, and Thunderbolt.
Ray park and Sean Faris are exceptional martial artists And in just a few years David Leitch will codirect John Wick, direct Deapool 2, Atomic Blonde, Hobbs and Shaw.
Sadly, none of it resulted in anything spectacular.
I just got bored.
Everybody out.
Let’s move on from something bland to something bright, colorful, and full of moments that will make you ask But why? DOA Dead or Alive.
A series made for horny teenage boys.
Made by a garbage man child with one thing on his mind Boobs.
Oddly enough, DOA is mostly pretty accurate with its source material.
There's the tournament and core group of characters, except for the main villain who I'm pretty sure was made up for this movie.
But why? There's even a mostly solid cast including Kane Kosugi, Kevin Nash, Devon Aoki, approximately 45 seconds of Robin Shou, Silvio Simac, and umm.
.
.
Eric Roberts But why? Jamie Pressley is also in this movie and while I tend to enjoy her in other movies, she’s pretty unnecessary here.
Okay now let’s get really negative.
This movie is trash.
The jokes are not funny.
The action is undesirable, and the choreography is atrocious.
The final battle is the main heroes versus Eric Roberts with high tech glasses that make him an incredible fighter.
I mean you could cast any incredible martial artist to be any number of preexisting characters from this series but instead you did this? But why? And I don’t know why, but I always felt like this movie looked like a really bright Fanta commercial.
I wouldn’t blame you if you thought that DOA was directed by Uwe Boll.
There are so many elements to this movie that scream his name.
But, while you wouldn’t be blame for thinking that, you couldn’t be further from wrong.
DOA was directed by Corey Yuen, another director who has arguably reached legendary status thanks to his work in Hong Kong.
Directing movies such as Yes, Madam, Ninja in the Dragon’s Den, Righting Wrongs, My Father is a Hero, No Retreat No Surrender, and even The Transporter.
And for some reason he directed Dead or Alive which brings me to ask.
.
.
But why? Now this movie may not be entirely his fault.
DOA was written by three of the most random people I’ve ever seen.
Two of them wrote some movie called Devour along with episodes of Bill Nye the Science Guy And the other guy wrote Pretty Woman, everyone’s favorite Keanu vehicle Chain Reaction, and Under f***ing Siege.
He also wrote The Pizza Man with Bill Maher… Yeah that’s probably a bad sign.
Moving on to a movie that I actually enjoy.
I mean I don’t really recommend it, but I enjoy it.
Tekken isn’t the most accurate to its source material, but it hits the beats that it needs to.
I mean really it misses almost all of the major plot points of the series except for the familial bonds.
But hear me out.
Tekken has one of the most epic video game movie casts I have ever seen.
The Wholly underrated Jon Foo plays Jin Kazama, Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa as Heihachi Mishima, Ian Anthony Dale as Kazuya Mishima, Cung Le as Marshall Law, Gary Daniels as Bryan Fury Luke Goss is Steve Fox (which isn’t the most solid), But then, you got the real life Eddy Gordo Lateef Crowder to play Eddy Gordo.
Perfection I don’t care how many live action adaptations of Tekken we will ever get but Crowder needs to be Eddy every single time.
The action isn’t perfect but its worth a watch or two.
At times I wish there were more of it and some of the fights could be paced better, but Tekken is the definition of watchable.
I can’t really say the same for the sequel.
Tekken 2: Kazuya’s Revenge is one of the most bizarre movies I have ever seen.
This is pretty much a tekken movie in name only.
This time Kazuya takes center stage and is now being played by Kane Kosugi.
He wakes up in a hotel room having no memory of how he got there and probably even who he is.
Throughout the movie he runs into Gary Daniels reprising his role of Bryan Fury.
But much like all of the costume design, locations, or sets, nothing about him says Tekken.
Apparently, this movie was more than half-way through development before they decided to make it a Tekken movie, and that is very obvious.
Tekken 2 Kazuya’s revenge is very boring, eerily quiet, and lacks any character at all.
By the time I reached the end of the movie the only thing that came close to saving it was a pretty awesome final fight.
This fight is all I can remember about this movie that didn’t even try to represent its source material in any way what-so-ever.
The whole movie just had me like.
.
What are you? The next entry is not really a fighting game, it’s a side scroller beat em up.
Wild card, bitches! Yee Haw! Do you remember 1994's Double Dragon? This movie exists.
I had this on VHS, I watched it multiple times, at least 20 and I am not proud.
I also do not remember a lot of it.
I remember that time the water caught on fire, sparkly clothes, the T-1000 being a cartoon character, and Alyssa Milano’s really weird pants.
Mark Dacascos and Scott Wolf play Billy and Jimmy in a post-apocalyptic California.
The brothers hold one half of an ancient medallion and the other half belongs to Robert Patrick’s criminal mastermind Koga.
Whoever can unite the medallions will hold absolute power… rhinestone tunics.
Absolute power is rhinestone tunics.
Little rule I live by, never trust a dude in a tunic.
There’s not really anything here worth watching.
Unless you’re into early 90’s movies that were probably made for kids by adults who had no idea what kids like, and have never played a video game.
If you don’t fall into that demographic, then seriously just forget that I brought this movie up.
You really shouldn't have dug that out of the dumpster.
The next year saw a huge advancement in video game movies.
The first Mortal Kombat movie is what most people think of when you say video game movie.
I’ve explained it before, but I think Mortal Kombat is the most middle of the road good movie there can be.
It’s not really bad, but it's not really great.
It's just good.
Like meh, but a really nice Meh.
Robin Shou and Linden Ashby are very good in their roles, and every actor playing Reptile, Subzero, and Scorpion are excellent martial artists.
But the brightest spot in the movie is Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa.
There’s a reason that they brought him back for the latest Mortal Kombat game.
Your brother's soul is mine.
There are a lot of fights in this movie: Liu Kang vs a character that isn’t from the game, Goro vs a character who wasn’t in the game, Liu Kang vs a bunch of people who weren’t in the game, Liu Kang, Sonya Blade, and Johnny Cage vs a bunch of people who weren’t in the game.
But seriously the Johnny Cage vs Scorpion and Liu Kang vs Reptile fights are genuinely fun to watch.
There are a few flaws here and there but for the most part they’re solid.
That's my purse! I don't know you! I wish that Subzero and Scorpion were actually given characters since their story in the games is one of the best parts of the franchise But, Mortal Kombat isn’t trying to be completely accurate and that’s fine.
Mortal Kombat is a good time and worth watching once every few years.
And this line is genuinely incredible.
Those were $500 sunglasses asshole.
Ah chills.
Literal chills.
The first movie built up the trust of the fans and there was no way that they could screw up the sequel.
And it went just like this.
Ah f***! I can't believe you've done this! I don’t even want to talk about Mortal Kombat: Annihilation.
Everything that needed to be said has been said: unfinished green screen and computer generated effects, horrible acting, and some random tattoo that has nothing to do with the game.
Mortal Kombat: Annihilation did everything that the first film did but worse.
Mother? You're alive? Too bad you.
.
.
will die.
Three main actors read the script and left town.
Weak, pathetic fools.
I've come for your souls.
I don't think so.
Fu** this shit, I'm out.
Nope! How bad does a script have to be for Christopher Lambert to turn it down? At least we got James Remar out of that.
Hell, even Billy Madison’s third grade teacher got out of there.
Mortal Kombat creators Ed Boon and John Tobias helped right this shit.
I award you no points.
And may god have mercy on your soul.
The final franchise I’m talking about in this video about depressing artistic expressions has maybe seen the most adaptations over every forms of media.
Street Fighter is the fighting game that started it all.
Street fighter 2 specifically, don’t play the first one.
Every gamer knows the two lead protagonists of Street Fighter.
Ryu and Ken have a distinct look that no other fighting game protagonist has, they along with Chun Li are Street Fighter.
So, of course, if you’re going to make a movie you push them to the side, cast JCVD as Guile, and make him the main character.
I remember seeing this movie when I was probably seven years old and being so confused.
I didn’t understand why events were happening and characters that I new doing things that didn’t fit their personalities.
I thought that I was stupid.
Do I not understand Street Fighter? But fu** that! It was the studio that didn't understand Street Fighter.
So, let’s talk about their turd of a movie.
Street Fighter stars JCVD, Ming Na Wen, Raul Julia, and Kylie Minogue I guess.
Ryu and Ken are played by Byron Mann and wait who played Ken? Who is Damian Chapa? He was in Under Siege before this? How is Steven Seagal making two appearances in this video? In Street Fighter M.
Bison kidnaps a bunch of soldiers and holds them for ransom because that’s what you do when you’re a mystical warlord, you ask for money.
The American hero Guile, who sounds a lot like the muscles from Brussels, finds out that one of the hostages is his friend Carlos Blanka.
Because this movie had to shoe-horn in as many characters as possible.
Guile springs into action with a group of Allied Nation soldiers, Cammy, Chun Li (but she's a reporter now) And her camera crew: Balrog and E.
Honda.
And somehow T-Hawk also fits in there.
I don't.
.
.
I lost track of that guy.
Together they must free the hostages and take down Bison and his own group of fighters.
This *sight* this is uh.
.
.
This is a shit show.
And I know a majority of people will say “Hey, give the movie a break.
.
.
sure, it isn't very good.
But it's cheese in all the right ways.
” But I say no.
Fu** your cheese! Few movies have been so bad that they're good, and Street Fighter is not one of them.
This shit is disgraceful.
Who decided that Balrog.
.
.
was a camera man but also the best boxer in the world? Who made Dhalsim a scientist forced to work for Bison? And have you seen the Hadouken and Shoryuken in this? That's it.
You just saw it.
Are you okay? I don't feel so good.
One out of five.
And that one is just for Raul Julia and this line.
For you.
.
.
The day Bison graced your village was the most important day of your life.
But for me.
.
.
It was Tuesday.
You thought we were done there? Nope.
One more to go and it may be the worst of them all.
Hey.
Yeah? You wanna eat this? No Well it's in there if you change your mind.
Now where the first movie is full of totally bizarre choices, it at least took chances.
Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li is like Tekken 2: Kazuya's Revenge in that it feels like it's Street Fighter in name only.
Except there is no awesome final fight to save this movie.
To show you what I mean, here's a reminder of what Bison looks like in the Van Damme movie.
.
.
And now here's Bison in The Legend of Chun-Li.
God, poor Neal McDonough.
You play one suit wearing villain in Walking Tall and that becomes your gimmick.
At least you were Dum Dum Dugan for a movie.
Robin Shou also makes an appearance as Gen.
What are you doing here? I have almost no recollection of what this story is about and I fear reading it online would just take years off of my life.
Chris Klein as Charlie Nash is already killing me.
I love this job.
Another absolutely spot on casting came from Vega.
The gorgeously handsome, blonde Spaniard who will slice you into bits and wears a mask to protect his face.
.
.
So of course, you go with Taboo from Black Eyed Peas.
I mean that's as perfect as you're gonna get.
Let's just go ahead and see how his fight scene goes.
*gag* No no, don't you start doing that.
No you're going to make *gag*.
Okay well, how does the Hadouken stack up against the 94 movie? What the fu** is this? This came out the same year as Avatar.
I've seen better effects in the gag-reel from Shrek.
Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer and Iron Man were out two years previous to this.
Who thought this was okay? The director of Doom thought this was okay.
I mean, he also directed Romeo Must Die and Cradle 2 the Grave, but he also directed Doom! To sum everything up there have been a lot of live action adaptations of most of your favorite fighting games.
And two of them have been decent or good.
And one of them, at least to a majority, is so bad it's awesome.
Hopefully, the next Mortal Kombat movie will be good, but I've got plenty of videos discussing my thoughts on that.
In the mean time, there are a lot of other adaptations that are definitely worth a watch.
Tekken: Blood Vengeance, Mortal Kombat Legacy, Street Fighter II: The Animated Movie, Street Fighter: Alpha, Street Fighter II: V, Street Fighter: Assassin's Fist, Okay well most of them are Street Fighter.
But what do you think? What is your favorite fighting game movie and what is your favorite fighting game series? I'm a Tekken guy myself.
Tell me your thoughts in the comment section down below.
Don't forget to like, share, and subscribe.
And have a good day!.
