Product Description

This action-packed film features great f/x directors commentary deleted scenes and more. Studio: Uni Dist Corp. (mca) Release Date: 01/06/2004 Starring: Jean-claude Van Damme Run time: 102 minutes Rating: Pg13

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #19807 in DVD
• Brand: Universal
• Released on: 1998-05-27
• Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
• Aspect ratio: 2.35:1
• Formats: Closed-captioned, Collector's Edition, Color, Dolby, DVD, Letterboxed, Widescreen, NTSC
• Original language: English, French
• Subtitled in: English, Spanish, French
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 102 minutes

Amazon.com
Despite remaining the subject of intense debate by fans of the Capcom video game on which it’s based, the Jean-Claude Van Damme punch-em-up Street Fighter returns to DVD with an array of supplemental features, many of which may seem very familiar to anyone who’s owned previous DVD releases of this title. The film itself, directed by screenwriter Steven (Die Hard) de Souza, remains an amusing camp exercise, buoyed largely by the presence of Raul Julia in his final film role as mad dictator General Bison, who holds a trio of soldiers for ransom. Coming to the rescue is a bleached-blond Van Damme and a team of fighters, including Chun-Li (Ming-Na), Sagat (Wes Studi), Cammy (Kylie Minogue) and other characters from the Street Fighter rogues’ gallery. De Souza’s decision to weave humor into the storyline hobbles the impact of the fight scenes, which are largely relegated to the final third of the film, and budgetary restraints render some characters--most notably Robert Mammone’s Blanka--as laughable caricatures. The result is probably appalling for Street Fighter die-hards, though most audiences seem to regard it as a camp hoot. That status may account for this Extreme Edition, although the tie-in factor with the 2009 theatrical release Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li should be taken into consideration as well. Those who own the 1999 Collector’s Edition DVD of this title will already have most of the extras featured here, including commentary by de Souza, a making-of featurette, outtakes, deleted scenes, storyboard and video game sequences (the latter featuring likenesses of Van Damme and Julia) and a barrage of promotional images. The only features that are new to the Extreme Edition are the sharp anamorphic transfer, which is a vast improvement over the previous release, and a trio of trailers for the Street Fighter IV game and Street Fighter IV feature-length anime. --Paul Gaita

Customer Reviews

Obviously flawed but nostalgic fun
Okay, I don't think anyone can reasonably argue that this movie is good; at least, not in any conventional sense. The acting, except for perhaps Raul Julia, is sub-par at best, the story is ridiculous, and even the fight scenes aren't very well-executed (pretty bad for a film with the title Street Fighter, huh).

So why am I giving this 5 stars? Well, for starters, I was all of 8 years old when the film came out, and deeply in love with video games, especially Street Fighter II, which this film is (loosely) based on. I also liked Jean-Claude Van Damme for some bizarre reason-Bloodsport, Hard Target, Timecop-to me, he could do no wrong. Which made this film a perfect storm of sorts. Being older and wiser, I can easily spot the many flaws in this film, but the over-the-top, cheesy dialogue, stunts, and story are what keep me loving this movie. I don't think it's good anymore, like when I did when I was eight, but now I realize it's in that rare so-terrible-it's-actually-highly-entertaining category. Just don't expect much and watch it more for laughs than a serious story (it's based on a video game for crying out loud) and you'll get a kick out of it.

I mean, how could you not love a movie that has one of the characters, watching a surveillance camera revealing a bomb-laden truck about to crash into the building he's in, exclaim, "Quick! Somebody change the channel!"

Oh boy...
Where do I even begin with this disaster? Back in the early 90's just about everybody knew what Street Fighter was, and it's no surprise that it was made into a movie. This movie had high expectations, and what a total bomb it turned out to be. Now, if we are talking money-wise here, this movie was a complete success. However, I don't know why because it seems like just about everything that could have gone wrong... did. The biggest flaw of the movie (other than the movie itself) is without a doubt the characters. Nothing against Van Damme, I actually like a lot of his movies, but not for even one second did he convince anybody that he was an American soldier. Charlie and Blanka are not the same person (the movie decided to combine them together, making him "Carlos Blanka"). After eleven years, I'm still trying to figure out what they were thinking on that one. E. Honda is supposed to be Japanese and not Hawaiian. Balrog joins Honda and Chun Li as part of a news team. Still reading? It gets funnier. Dhalsim was turned into a scientist. Ryu and Ken are hustlers (whatever happened to honor?) Zangief provided comic relief during the movie (who can ever forget "Quick! Change the channel!" and "You got paid?") And whatever you have heard, Captain Sawada is not Fei Long. The one role they got right was Bison. Julia was perfect for this role. Unfortunately, we all lost a very good actor as he died shortly after this film was made.

The fighting scenes are a complete joke. The Honda/Zangief fight was basically them grappling each other and then falling through the floor. Bison's attacks are supposed to be quick, not flying at 2 MPH and having Guile just stand there waiting for Bison to hit him. I really wish I could have included some good points in this movie, but I simply can't. However, for this price, I actually would recommend that you check it out, because if you're like me, you'll have a couple of good laughs during this movie. Not because it was funny, but because at how unbelievably bad it truly was.

"I'm the Repo Man, and you're out of business!"
"You can't make a movie out of a video game." That's what they told writer/director Steven de Souza when he took on this daunting project. They were probably right, but he wrote the script anyway...and he only had one night to do it. Perhaps he should have asked for two nights. Nevertheless, here we have the infamous live-action version of Street Fighter on DVD in a lavish Widescreen Collector's Edition, packed with a plethora of bonus features, including: trailers; TV promos; behind the scenes footage; storyboards; deleted scenes; video game footage; movie poster art; Chun-Li's news footage; video game character art; `The Making of Street Fighter' featurette; and even a running commentary by the aforementioned writer/director, Steven de Souza. Never has a motion picture so universally despised received such an extraordinary DVD treatment!

Street Fighter may not be as awful as some people think, but it certainly isn't very good. The plot is meandering and hard to follow, and the characters' motivations are not always clear. It's too often silly and only occasionally exciting, but it's not consistently funny enough to be considered a comedy, and not dramatic enough to be considered an action movie. The film's worst flaw is that it doesn't stay true to its source material. General M. Bison is a drug lord turned power mad dictator who is holding sixty-three "Allied Nations" relief workers in a "hostage pit" in his secret underground base in Shadaloo, Southeast Asia. The smartly-dressed megalomaniac demands that a staggering ransom of twenty billion dollars be deposited into his Swiss bank account within three days or the hapless hostages will die. Though he lacks the Psycho Power of his video game counterpart, the impudent General plans to use the ransom money to build Bisonopolis (complete with a food court) and, of course, take over the world. Chun-Li Zang is a reporter for GNT World News and her news crew consists of Balrog, the boxer, and Edmond Honda, the Hawaiian sumo wrestler. Colonel William F. Guile (the main character here) is the blue-camouflaged A.N. military commander who has an American flag tattooed on his shoulder even though he's Belgian. Cammy works for Guile, not for Bison. Ken and Ryo--the stars of the video game--are portrayed as thieving con men who sell ping-pong ball guns to bad guys...like Bison's skinny one-eyed arms supplier, Sagat. Zangief, the Russian, is depicted as a complete moron. And Dhalsim is not an Indian monk and Yoga master, but a scientist who is forced, by Bison, to turn Guile's friend, Charlie Blanka, into a mindless, orange-haired Hulk-like killing machine by injecting colorful liquids into him and making him watch horrific videos (like this one) in an "incubation chamber." Dr. Dhalsim has a full head of thick black hair until near the end of the picture, when he suddenly and inexplicably shows up completely bald.

The movie does have its moments though. Raúl Juliá is terrifically entertaining as General Bison, even if he is too gaunt to be believable as the powerful fighter from the arcade game. There are some clever lines like: "For you, the day Bison graced your village was the most important day of your life. For me, it was Tuesday." And Guile's speech to the A.N. troops just before they mount an amphibious attack on Bison's lair is pretty inspiring, despite the fact that Jean-Claude Van Damme seems to have a lot of trouble speaking the English language. There's also a very impressive explosion near the end of the film. Still, proper representations of the Street Fighter characters can only be found in animated form (see Street Fighter II: The Animated Movie and Street Fighter II V: The Collection).