Street Fighter
Currently only in theaters
Runtime: 1 Hour and 59 Minutes
Rated PG-13
"I'm positive that a fireball came out of Ryu."
Once brothers in battle, now worlds apart, Ryu and Ken Masters are estranged friends who trained under the same master. After winning the first World Warrior Tournament, Ryu vanished from the public eye, dedicating himself to keeping a mysterious darkness from entering the world. Meanwhile, Ken has traded his fighting roots for fame and fortune, becoming a celebrity fighter and reality television star.
When a mysterious woman named Chun-Li recruits them to compete in the second World Warrior Tournament, the former friends find themselves drawn back into the ring. But as the competition heats up, they soon discover that there's far more at stake than a championship title, and this tournament is hiding something far more sinister than either could have imagined.
Themes:
Video games, martial arts, brotherhood, merchandising, anger, the 90s, family, power, jealousy, darkness, recklessness, fighting tournaments, guilt, loss, shame, betrayal, redemption, pride, sacrifice, loyalty, revenge, honor, glory, dominance, and regret.
Language:
A*s - 8 B*tch - 6 B*stard - 1 D*mn - 8 D*ck - 3 Fword - 2 Hell - 8 Sh*t - 10 Religious Exclamation - 8
There was a lot of noise in this movie which made it hard to count words. Typically a PG-13 rated movie can only have one f-word, but this one had two and possibly a third, but it was hard to hear sometimes.
Stuff to be aware of: (Some of this is considered spoiler territory, but I try to keep things ambiguous)
Alcohol and Drugs - There is smoking and drinking in several scenes.
There is a photo of teens smoking.
Many characters drink in a club/bar scene.
Several characters drink alcohol in different scenes.
Gross - There are multiple people with blood on them and open, bleeding cuts.
A woman is branded on the palm of her hand. The bloody burn on her hand is shown.
LGBTQ - None
Two guys sitting on a bed have a “friendship moment.” One is not wearing a shirt as he tells the other guy he loves him. The other guy makes a joke about how if they are having these moments he needs to put a shirt on.
Scary - There is a demon like character that is hazy and has red eyes. He can reach inside people and make them stop living.
Sexual - Multiple men without their shirts on and women in clothes that reveal partial butt cheeks are seen multiple times.
A man mentions that a woman is “smoking hot.”
A man tells a woman that he enters a time of celibacy when training.
There is a string of jokes in one scene about people “sucking” on each other.
A man tells someone to “turn off skin-a-max.”
There is a scene with a woman practicing in a tank tip and panties. A majority of her butt cheeks are seen.
A woman removes her robe to get in the shower. The audience sees her back and shoulders. She turns around in the shower but fog and scene change keep the audience from viewing any nudity.
A man in a sauna briefly looses his towel. His bare buttocks is seen twice briefly and when he turns towards the camera he covers his private area with both his hands.
Several scenes include scantily clad women dancing.
One character wears a one piece looking bathing suit during the entire movie, part of her butt cheeks hang out of the outfit.
A woman’s thighs are discussed.
A villain rolls his eyes up in his head when inflicting pain on other characters, implying he gets pleasure from it.
When referring to other characters a man says that they, “brought me some fresh meat to beat.” He then pauses and says, “I didn’t mean that sexually.”
Violence/Gore - There is some blood during animated and live action scenes. Some characters split blood our of their mouths after fighting.
In one scene shirtless men are strapped to a machine with something hooked to their mouths. They look like they are in pain and possibly have been tortured.
A man crushes another man’s head off screen. Blood splatters on his face as you hear a crunching sound.
A woman is branded on the palm of her hand. The bloody burn on her hand is shown.
A man is electrocuted and his skeleton is seen, but it’s done in a cartoonish way.
A man explodes into dust.
Religion - one character is refered to as a demon.
Other - a character flips another one off.
Overall:
Seeing It With Your Family
When it comes to violence and gore, Street Fighter is about on par with most modern Marvel superhero movies. However, the language and sexual jokes push things a step beyond what audiences typically encounter in those films. Make no mistake, this movie was not made with family audiences in mind. Instead, it seems specifically tailored to adults like me who grew up in the ’90s, the humor and innuendo feel like humor in high school locker rooms. While the familiar characters and over-the-top action may appeal to longtime fans, parents should be aware that this isn't necessarily a movie to share with the whole family.
What I Thought
This movie is about as sharp as a bowling ball, but it's still a blast watching it knock things down.
The story doesn't always make sense; the actual fighting tournament is practically nonexistent; the ending seems more interested in setting up a sequel that may or may not happen, and several characters barely get any screen time. On top of that, there are moments when just one or two additional lines of dialogue could have cleared up some major confusion. However, if you grew up loving the games or simply enjoy crazy, unrealistic fights mixed with a healthy dose of '90s nostalgia, there's plenty of fun to be had here.
I'm told that some elements of the plot are pulled from Street Fighter II, the comics, and the animated movies. I played the games some as a kid, but I never dove into all the additional material. So, perhaps some of my complaints would make more sense to someone more familiar with the larger Street Fighter universe.
With that said, here are my biggest complaints:
The story is silly and doesn't always make sense. Sometimes things just happen because the plot needs them to happen, whether they make sense or not.
The motivations of our three main characters (Ryu, Ken, and Chun-Li) aren't always clearly explained. Some of their decisions are downright baffling, and a little more character development could have gone a long way.
Where is the actual fighting tournament? A huge part of the story revolves around a fighting tournament, yet we barely get to see any of it! Instead, we're simply told that certain characters defeated others. This is a movie based on a video game about a fighting tournament! You've introduced all these cool characters, so why wouldn't you let us watch them fight? It's a baffling decision and a major missed opportunity.
Several awesome characters are criminally underutilized. The movie introduces familiar faces that fans will be excited to see, only to give them very little to do.
M. Bison is gross and weird. That's it. That's the complaint.
Now, after reading all that, you might assume I hated this movie. I didn't. Not even close.
From the moment I saw the trailers, I knew this was going to be an over-the-top, ridiculous experience. And that's exactly what I got! The movie embraces its weird sense of humor, clearly has a love for the source material, and delivers some genuinely amazing, wildly exaggerated fight sequences.
At times, it feels like watching the video game battles brought to life, complete with the outrageous moves and larger-than-life personalities that made the games so memorable. I thought the fight choreography and cinematography were particularly well done, and the animated backstory sequences were incredibly cool. Those moments really helped capture the spirit of Street Fighter.
Is this the greatest video game movie adaptation ever made? Nope.
Is it going to win any awards? Nope.
Is it ridiculously stupid fun? Absolutely!
Sometimes you don't need a complicated story, deep character development, or a movie that makes perfect sense. Sometimes you just want to sit back, enjoy a blast of nostalgia, watch people perform impossible fighting moves, and cheer when someone gets knocked across the screen. If that's what you're looking for, Street Fighter might be exactly the kind of ridiculous fun you need.