30th Anniversary of Mortal Kombat

 

                  

            There was a point that I was going to hold off on this 30th Anniversary classic, Mortal Kombat till the most recent Mortal Kombat film arrives in October (false alarm coming out next year). But I've been recently reminded about the films 30-year release and I decided upon myself to sit down and watch the film that surprisingly still holds up. Directed by infamous B-Movie director Paul W.S. Anderson long before he impregnated Mila Jovovich and proceeded to make mediocre, sometimes lame movies in which his wife would star in. Strangely enough Mortal Kombat is hands down one of Paul W.S. Anderson's best movie and granted I haven't seen Event Horizon yet but out of all the movies he's done, this is single handedly one of his finest movies, moreover that pretty much say's a lot because if you take away his most recent movies from 2010 till now they are not acceptable to be call movies. 

            Lord Raiden (Christopher Lambert) handpicks three martial artists -- military soldier Sonya (Bridgette Wilson), Shaolin Monk Liu Kang (Robin Shou) and a washed-up movie star Johnny Cage (Linden Ashby). With the guidance of Raiden, these three Martial Artists must fight to survive on an Island hosted by Sorcerer Shang Tsung (Cary Hiroyuki Tagawa). With Earth left in the balance only one will remain victorious.

             I've said before I always loved Mortal Kombat, there's no denying that for good reasons it has one of the simplest yet great storylines in all fighting games, and like Star Wars, Mortal Kombat its storyline is the basis of good vs evil, unlike Street Fighter and Tekken that has a story? Behind it? Some of it makes little sense but with Mortal Kombat you have a mad Tyrant wanting to invade the realm of Earth and the only way to invade the realm is to win ten straight victories at a tournament, I mean that's literally one of the most simplest of ideas that gets me drawn to the game other than yeah it's the most bloodiest video game of all time. One of my earliest memories of Mortal Kombat was at a friend’s house and he was playing the original game and all I remember is Scorpion removing his mask and a Skull appears to burn the opponent down and I already thought that was scary at first as well as Raiden being a scary looking guy with the lightning never though he was a force for good, and at the time I wasn't all that interested in playing games because I was going outside and playing until I got my first PlayStation 2 and thought "oh I can play Mortal Kombat now and so thus began my continuation of playing Mortal Kombat till the day I die.  Somewhere between 1997 to 2000 on Dish Network, Mortal Kombat was on Cable TV and loved watching the movie from start to finish and especially loving Sub-Zero and Scorpion intro and though that was the coolest thing especially Reptile's fight with Liu Kang, furthermore though his look was the best one out of all the Reptile versions especially when he's in a human form. Going back and rewatching the film again I do stand tall as one of the best representations of the very first Mortal Kombat game mainly because you just have the seven original characters in the movie together as well as a few characters from Mortal Kombat 2. Granted you don't get a whole lot of your favorite characters, I still think a lot of the fights are the real scene stealers of the entire movie especially when you see Goro in action, and though Goro looks very stop motion, he strangely looks great on screen and either way I love the way he turns out. If you take away the visual effects and some of the cheesy dialogue it still holds up, almost the same as Street Fighter the movie, but Mortal Kombat is great from start to finish especially when the killer soundtrack of the movie takes it to a whole new level. I still say that the original Mortal Kombat still stands the test of time despite its cheesy cliches it still holds up with the fights to the killer soundtrack as well as the iconic song from The Immortals with Mortal Kombat (Technio-Syndrome), for which is the greatest song ever. There's so many great things to talk about Mortal Kombat especially when you have Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa playing Shang Tsung whose hands down the best Shang Tsung especially when he returns to voice the character in Mortal Kombat 11 and the same goes to Bridgette Wilson who also returns as Sonya in MK 11 as well as Linden Ashby and Christopher Lambert, though Lambert makes a great Raiden in this movie but now when we finally understand he's Asian we have to make adjustments, hell we've been confused on what nationality Scorpion and Sub-Zero were because there were always portrayed as the same white guy until we get to the most recent games where they explain both characters are from Japan and China. Sadly, enough, this is Paul W. S. Anderson's best and only good movie he's ever made and there's no doubt because his movies after Mortal Kombat are just okay to complete utter garbage and I don't know what the best way would be to describe his filmography, other than this is really his only good movie out there. No question I would highly recommend watching Mortal Kombat, it has everything from great fights to killer soundtrack moreover once you see how great this movie is and then when you get to its sequel you slowly realize how bad the next one is, but I can imagine it's not all bad considering some funny moments though still is just blah. And sure, this movie isn't perfect but it's still fun and entertaining to watch especially when you don't have anything exciting to do, as well as want to take a trip down memory lane and realize how fun 90's films were. 

     

Airplane II: The Sequel

 

                       

             Well, we've recently talked about Airplane. I figured, well now we jumped, down this rabbit hole I figured we might as well talk about the sequel to Airplane, that is titled Airplane II: The Sequel. And you know there comes a time when you feel the need to do a sequel to a highly successful disaster spoof comedy, you, probably should just say no in terms of those situations although this is Hollywood and the spend their money like crazy in my opinion on Hookers and cocaine. Also, this movie is technically a Christmas movie and since all stores are already putting up their Halloween decorations we might as well talk about Christmas films, right?

              Like the movie’s predecessor. Ted Striker (Robert Hays) agrees to return to the cockpit to man the controls of Mayflower One, America's first commercial spacecraft. But, as soon as Mayflower One lifts off, an electrical malfunction sends the ship veering off course. A shaken Striker struggles to guide the shuttle through a treacherous asteroid belt, tames its failing computer and stops a disgruntled Sonny Bono from detonating a deadly bomb on board.

              To be truthfully honest this movie reminds me a lot of Major League II, where the film is the same as its predecessor but the jokes are just so flat that you feel so bored and sometimes disgusted at the jokes you chuckled at, granted the joke is this movie are more funny than Major League II, but then again chuckling at some of these jokes just make me want to take a shower. And this was one of these movies like Major League II where I remember watching on TV and though that this was amazing and funny but then watching the film now, I begin to realize that this hasn't aged well, not even close. The trio of ZAZ were in talks to do a sequel although, I'm assuming through a ton of talks with producers they were just tired of suggestions from the studio execs that they decided to just focus on their TV show of what would be The Police Squad with Leslie Neilson. With the trio not returning to directing the first film Paramount decided to turn to a first-time director in Ken Finkleman who later written Grease 2 and basically, I guess Paramount was running out of options and were trying in the best of their ability to get this film out and running for the Christmas season. In all fairness I like to say that the film isn't all bad like, compared to Major League II, is this good? But then when you continue to watch the movie you begin to see yourself bored out of your mind and continue to have this face of disgust on your face that again you'd like to say sure it's funny but it's just not moreover you just want to fix the movie but then you can't fix this movie at all in your mind. For which in all honesty what made the first Airplane movie great was because the film was based on Zero Hour! and the fact that majority of the plot and dialogue are in the movie but that's what makes the movie great and memorable. Airplane 2, you're basically rehashing the same jokes and telling the same story and that's just lazing writing, and really, it's not all Finkleman's fault because he had to write the script with limited time but could at least give some effort in making the jokes funny at least. And that's what makes the Naked Gun films so, entertaining that there's so many cop movies out there you can make ton of jokes, but with Airplane, you only need just one movie and call it good. I think that if your bored or have a lot of house cleaning to do at your house then you can watch this movie while you work mainly just to get things done while there's sound in the air so, really that would be the safe bet in terms of wanting to watch this movie on Hulu, although you don't need to watch this movie sitting down, all the way through because that's when you'd feel bored and in needs to take a shower. 

    

Zero Hour!

 

                     

           Well believe it ladies and gentlemen, for I finally have found the movie that was inspired by the 1980 comedy classic Airplane! Staring Dana Andrews, to me, is most famous for playing Detective Mark McPherson, in the 1944 film noir classic Laura. Sterling Hayden most notably starred in The Killing a year before Zero Hour! was released. And surprisingly a Wisconsin Badgers, halfback legend Elroy "Crazylegs" Hirsch, who I didn't know was a famous football player that would later be in the NFL with such teams as the Los Angeles Rams.

           Basically, it is the same premise as Airplane! Although Ted Striker (Dana Andrews) has a wife (Linda Darnell) and a kid. So, Ted Striker has a good reason to help his own son when a food poisoning outbreak occurs and well, you know the whole story so, I'll just leave it at that.

            When the trio of ZAZ said that they used a good portion and dialog of the film, well watching it for the first time I was surprised at how much they used from this movie, and it was shocking yet funny at the same time. From a movie stand point the film is not the greatest movie I've seen, but it's really fascinating in terms of the story structure as and the characters though granted as the trio of ZAZ states, Zero Hour! is really the serious version to Airplane! and it is this movie takes itself seriously while Airplane! alone takes it on the goofy stage for which is the most incredible hilarious to ever be develop by human hands. The film itself there's not a whole lot to say other than well, it's in okay movie and I can understand why I've never heard of this movie before and surprisingly how either Hulu or Turner Classic Movies was able to put this film out for cable TV or streaming, but in all fairness the film is a real fascinating aspect to watch as well as you can see where the trio was able to go with in terms of jokes and what they were trying to create in terms of what the jokes they were able to create furthermore when you look at the Naked Gun films they did, you know you can find every cop movie out there and that's basically what they were trying to do hell, there's a million cop movies and TV shows that you can mesh together and create the Naked Gun films and yet while creating Airplane you can look at this film and see oh this is how they were able to come up with some jokes that you can laugh at over and over again, not just combining every disaster movie into Airplane!. Again the film isn't good, it's mostly decent, but if you love the film Airplane!, for sure I would highly recommend watching this movie on your local Hulu, just because you never know how much material landed on Airplane!, and watching this movie for the first time I was shocked but laughing at the same time with some of the scenes in the movie and then remembering what jokes reminded me of this scene it's just crazy even to seen on screen and in all honesty it was fascinating to see but more importantly without this movie we wouldn't get Airplane!, so in all fairness Zero Hour! was made for a purpose and that purpose was for three men to come up and write one of the best comedies of all time. So, if you're fan of the Airplane! movie and granted I'm talking about the only one not it's sequel, then you should sit down and watch Zero Hour! for understanding and reasons why this movie exists, but more importantly you only have to watch it once don't make it a habit, don't feel the need to watch it all the time. 

 

Cape Fear

 

           On the quest of finding the best cinema I haven't touched or never got around to watching. I finally decided to watch a movie that was the original predecessor to Martin Scorsese's Cape Fear. Now I've not seen Scorsese's Cape Fear, but after watching this original version to Cape Fear, I suddenly feel hesitant in wanting to watch Scorsese's version, for a gillion reasons I can honestly tell that De Niro is literally chewing the scenery throughout the entire movie despite not seeing it. But for great reasons, Robert Mitchum's Cady has nothing compared to De Niro's Cady just not even close. The 1962 version of Cape Fear I will most certainly say to everyone who has Amazon Prime, I would highly recommend watching the 62 version to Cape Fear.

           After eight-year prison sentence for rape, Max Cady (Robert Mitchum) targets Sam Bowden (Gregory Peck), one of the lawyers who sent him away. When Max finds Sam and his family, he begins a terrifying stalking spree, intending to ruin Sam's life. Desperate to protect his wife and daughter, Sam tries to send Max back to jail. But when his attempts fail, Sam realizes that he must take matters into his own hands if he wants to get rid of his life of Max for good. 

           Night of the Hunter for sure readied me for Robert Mitchum being a villain, but again this movie shows that I'm glad he's passed because I would be terrified of him once I bump into him and then I make a break for it and run for my life shouting "No Robert don't touch my Pee Pee", I mean sure when it comes to any time of horror film or film noir yeah, you have to play that cold hearted character, but something about Robert Mitchum's performance that gives chills down your spine moreover he was way ahead of any of these actors that played infamous movies villains like Anthony Perkins, Robert Englund and even some of these other iconic movie antagonists that you see in other horror movies. Though what makes Mitchum great to watch on screen is that he's normally scary in the sense that he doesn't really need any props or anything to be scary, it's his presence on screen is what makes him so terrifying on screen. In fact, Gregory Peck and director J. Lee Thompson wanted Mitchum to play the role of Cady, but Mitchum refused at first until he relented after Thompson and Peck delivered him flowers and bourbon furthermore reply's "Okay, I've drunk your bourbon. I'm drunk. I'll do it", for which really that's a one good lesson I'm going to use when I want an actor in my movie, I'm going to deliver them flowers and some good whiskey, and if it's Jessica Chastain or Charlize Theron I'm going to give them flowers and maybe tequila depends on what they're choice of booze would be mainly because I want them to chew the scenery and I figured tequila would be the best choice maybe. J. Lee Thompson gets a lot of credit for making Cape Fear one of the most scary and terrifying movies I've seen since Promising Young Woman. Thompson in fact claimed to be a fan of Alfred Hitchcock, and he envisioned the movie black and white, for good reasons he wanted to have every Hitchcockian element into the movie such as unusual lighting angles, eerie musical score, closeups, and subtitle hints to violence rather than graphic depictions of violence, Mitchum's character has in mind for the family. And it works perfectly especially in scenes where Cady is hooking up with this woman and she starts to get terrified of him and then we have these hints of violence that even I was taken back, especially the way it was shot and you don't see anything and as dark as this may sound I loved the way it turned out. The fact that this movie didn't do so well in the box office and later destroyed Gregory Peck's studio company is just insane in terms of people going to the movies it's almost reminiscing to people now than people in the sixties it’s just way to crazy for people to watch all of Hitchcock's films but a movie inspired by Hitchcock nobody goes to see this is just crazy maybe because of the dark elements but come on, that's what Gregory Peck is there for. Hands down this is defiantly in my top list of greatest horror movies as well as list of greatest movies ever made, I mean Robert Mitchum playing a perfect bad guy, you just can't get any better than this but more importantly you have the best of both actors in Gregory Peck and Robert Mitchum facing off with one another you can't get a better use of great actors since Heat. So, if you have an Amazon Prime account furthermore, hopefully is still there I would highly recommend to stop what you’re doing and sit down and watch this great movie hell even have the kids watch the movie so they can get a clear idea about being terrified of stalkers, hell if kids can get into Sabrina Carpenter moreover be like her, then watching Cape Fear with the kids is a great lesson to learn in life. 

             

August Recommendation: Airplane

 

             After watching movie that's so bad that you literally need to take a shower as well as pound five little bottles of fireball (figuratively). I knew firsthand that I had to find a good movie to watch, for me to get back into the game of recommending some movies for all of you to sit down and enjoy. Granted there's no wrong in watching some entertaining bad B-Movies, but the Amazing Bulk was such a mess that just hurts a ton of brain cells. Thankfully I became one of the greatest comedic trios of all time since Mel Brooks. Airplane! (Worthy of a Monthly Recommendation) was one of those movies I remembered watching as a kid, though watched a ton of the sequel but do remembered watching the first movie to the point I remembered the crowd going nuts about a pilot and all of a sudden a half-naked woman comes in for a second and my mom was like "GO TO YOUR ROOM", and in all fairness this movie got me into liking girls growing up in a strange sense.

             This spoof comedy takes shots at the slew of disaster movies that were released in the 70's. When passengers and crew of a jet are incapacitated due to food poisoning, a rogue pilot (Robert Hays) with a drinking problem (figuratively) must cooperate with his ex-girlfriend (Julie Hagerty) turned stewardess to bring a plane to safe landing.

              Shockingly enough although it makes sense, this is in fact Jim Abrahams, Jerry and David Zucker’s directorial debut together for which I at the time didn't know about that, but it makes sense because from this movie to like the Naked Gun films those are there sole movies together. Around 1971, the trio was developing their comic routine, and they would usually record late night television and reviewed the tapes later primarily to pull the commercials. Basically, Abrahams, in a sense of describing or comparing it as "seine fishing", during one of the tapings they unintentionally recorded the 1957 film Zero Hour! and like most comedic writers would find that one source of inspiration this was most certainly fate reaching out to extend its hand towards ZAZ. The group completed their first film script in 1975 titled The Late Show. Having failed to sell their script to major studios, ZAZ met with John Landis who encouraged them to write a film based on their theatre sketches, for which later became The Kentucky Fried Movie, furthermore David Zucker in his own words "it was the first time we had ever been on a movie set. We learned a lot. We learned that if you learned that you wanted a movie to come out the way you wanted it to, you had to direct. So, on the next movie Airplane! we insist on directing". Even though the trio was borrowing a lot of source material as well as dialog from Zero Hour! They needed to negotiate the rights to create a remake of the film to ensure they remain within the allowance for a parody within the copyright of the law. So, before they were able to make the film for Paramount, they had to obtain rights from Warner Bros. and Paramount for about 2,500 dollars at the time. Going back and watching this film, it does have that breath of fresh air sense where you can sit down and have a great time with a lot of goofy and serious comedic humor that's still funny even to its 45th Anniversary. Like the original Naked Gun films what carry's this movie through as well as still being fresh is the seriousness as well as blending comedy, and there's always that sense of being very serious but laughing at the same time especially in scenes where Lloyd Bridges is being serious about picking the wrong time to quick smoking or drinking or Robert Hayes telling his stories and you just have to laugh about his drinking problem and just splashing it on his face it just great humor from start to finish and the best part about it is, as always the fact that it's under a 90 minute movie, but more importantly it works it explains what it is and has a first, second and third act in a quick pace and just finishes it in the best way possible. Robert Hays, Julie Hagerty and Leslie Nielson are excellent in this film, no doubt about it and in fact this was Nielson's first collaboration with the trio of ZAZ who later in 82 began the development of Frank Drebin and the Police Squad TV series. But a lot of credit also goes with the supporting cast in the film with Peter Graves, Lloyd Bridges along with Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Stephan Stucker and even Robert Stack who through the course of my childhood, has always been that narrator for Unsolved Mysteries like between the Unsolved Mysteries and Airplane! those are the only movies I've seen of his, and even when watching this movie for the first time I began thinking to myself is this "his voice is familiar". Peter Graves and Jabbar are great and they play off of each other and both of them have the best moments, but the other supporting actor that deserves a lot of praise is Stephan Stucker who plays the actual goof in the movie Johnny Stucker, who knows what the film is and does a fantastic job at playing either the crazy or goofy person through the course of the movie and you know everyone is serious with their acting as well as comedy but he's the only one who plays the goof ball throughout the movie and yet it's still entertaining at the same time. In all summer movie seasons, you always must have that one good comedy through the course of the year and comedies now is just hard to find but whenever you sit down and watch a classic like Airplane! it  has that breath of fresh air that keeps you entertained year after year. Again like the Naked Gun this film is best that you watch once a year so, the jokes can keep fresh and something to laugh at and for the month of August, you always have to have a great comedy to be entertained as well as something to laugh at, because let's be honest you never get to see these kinds of spoofs, especially when they try to copy this format or fail miserably furthermore when you have pathetic comedic actors now that are just lame and not even close of being funny. So, if you’re bored and need some laughter in your life Airplane! is the best movie to watch in that time of need especially if you’re tired and want to watch some classic comedies, but also the film is on Hulu and hopefully will stay on Hulu forever. 

      

                 

The Amazing Bulk

 

              This is probably one of these things that I had to see to believe, although I found this movie by accident. Apparently the guys from MST3K, Mike Nelson, Kevin Murphy and Bill Corbett who've now formed their next movie bashing internet show, Rifftrax and a year ago They made fun of this green screen movie The Amazing Bulk and I just watched some of these on YouTube, until I decided to look it up on the internet and realized holy crap this film is on Tubi? Well, then I had to see this movie and honestly this is one of those things that gives you a chuckle because it's absurd, but then you realize that it's seventy minutes of the same thing.

               Basically, the movie is a parody of Edward Norton's The Incredible Hulk only this feels like a cheaply made and trying to be funny.

               I've always said when you make that passionate movie and just fail or your ego gets the better of you and yet it's unintentionally funny because of the films flaws and we always get that from every Stallone movie in the 90's or Van Damme hell even the Batman TV series in the late sixties. Like all of those elements of which I just mentions were all funny or unintentionally funny, but with this movie, sure you get a few laughs and have a great time looking at how embarrassing they look in the movie, but then through the course of the movie it just feels so dirty and annoying that you want to take a shower. Majority of this film was shot entirely on a green screen with basically one camera in frame with tons and tons of stock footage that you would find on any website, and according to a source, the director of the movie many of the backgrounds on free stock footage website, which you can always use if your trying to make a school project movie, unfortunately a lot of these stock footages have unnecessary cartoons, for which when you watch the film there some absurd cartoon in the background which had nothing to do with the movie. When I first watched the movie granted, I laughed at how ridiculous the movie was but then I had to turn the movie off mainly because it started to hurt my brain as well as having a hard time figuring out if this movie was funny or not. In the end I did finish the movie and wanted to know more, luckily, I found a Rifftrax interview with the director of the movie as well as the actor and they claimed that this was supposed to be a joke, which explains so much how funny it was but then the joke gets extremely old. The Amazing Bulk is not as fascinating as The Room and not as iconic as the Batman TV series though that's obvious when I say that. I'd say check the movie out on Tubi but then you're going to have to shower after thirty minutes in. Though more importantly sure if you love weird B-Movies or loved Sin City then give this movie a watch but you'll probably regret it in the end after thirty minutes but like I said long before if you have Tubi the streaming subscription is free but then after watching the movie you'll need to delete this movie out of your movie and TV list. Even after watching this film, it was claimed from a source that the film was made for 14,000 dollars for which I refuse to believe and I will chose not to believe even till the day I die I mean sure unknown actors I can get by shooting this movie for six days sure, but fourteen grand I just cannot believe that, which fits this movie as absurd. 

   

                   

The Naked Gun

 

                   Well believe it friends, the impossible has happened. Although it all started with me and my dad having a Naked Gun Trilogy watch on Hulu, and with all the fun time we were having my dad wanted to go and see how the newest version of The Naked Gun movie holds up. Now I was a little skeptical since Seth MacFarlane was producing the film and well let’s just say, the last film I saw of his was 8 million ways to die in the West and I left about ten minutes into the movie all because of how miserable the movie made me feel. Though I'll have to admit I never expected the outcome that would lead to the film’s success.

                    Lieutenant Frank Drebin Jr. (Liam Neeson) becomes a police officer like his legendary father and must save the police squad from shutting down by solving the case. 

                    I think we can all agree that before the latest Naked Gun, the Spoof movie genre was completely dead, majority of that thanks goes to Hollywood for making spoof sequels to Scary Movie like Epic Movie, Superhero Movie hell, I'm just going throw in 8 million ways to die in the West because MacFarlane needs to answer for that monstrosity. And even I was not all interested, for a gillion reasons none of them are funny to begin with basically being unrepetitive children trying to gain support from Jim Abrahams and the Zucker Bros, David and Jerry Zucker. With this movie sure they nailed the best joke in the trailer were everyone is paying tribute to the original cast and O.J.'s son is like "Nope", which is funny considering now the man is dead as well as being guilty to killing his wife so on and so on. But when you go into the movie the biggest hope you can wish for is that they at least stay true to what the Naked Gun films are and why everyone loves them which is the dry humor as well as the serious tone to make great comedy, and surprisingly enough they really do stay true to the original Naked Gun films for which I was hoping but knew that MacFarlane was going to f**k it up somehow, but literally was hands off and let director Akiva Schaffer do his thing and, I loved the way it turned out and me and my Dad we're sitting in the theaters just chuckling all the way through the final frame of the movie. And I'm not joking when I say the comedy is actually great, hell Liam Neeson does a fantastic job creating his own version as Frank Drebin moreover him and Danny Huston are great together in terms of playing off one another moreover being great pros of comedy it's almost as if they've done it all of their lives and the trick is trying to be serious and funny but not showing the sense of humor but trying to be serious if that makes any sense. But more importantly everyone in the cast, including Pamela Anderson and CCH Pounder do a great job of backing these great actors up. I never imagine I would be impressed especially when Seth MacFarlane is producing these films but, hands down The Naked Gun was most certain one of the best summer films of 2025 furthermore the writers and directors did a fantastic job staying true to the Naked Gun films but keeping the jokes fresh and new, for which I always believe is the most important thing when your tackling a remake like this or sequel. So, I'm going to end this review short because I don't want to spoil anything, but I would highly recommend spending your money on The Naked Gun, and I would highly recommend your kids watching this great movie or if you’re a bit concerned just give them money to watch the crappy superhero movies, because if I want to have a great father and son bonding I would defiantly have my own kid watch The Naked Gun.

       

30th Anniversary of Street Fighter: The Movie

 

                  

             I will admit their times in my movie watching experiences, I usually don't make the greatest of choices, Vacation is a good example along with films like Charles Bronson's The Mechanic and Kingpin. And for sure those were not the greatest of choices to watch in terms of movies to experience, but then there comes a movie I grew up watching on cable TV or Dish Network TV, and suddenly you feel in urge to take on the world. I'm talking about Street Fighter: The Movie, based on the popular video game series, most notably Street Fighter II. Street Fighter was in fact my first ever Jean Claude Van Damme movie I watched out of his filmography but more importantly is Raul Julia's final film before his death in 1994 right before the film came out in December of 94. With all the silly elements that the film contains, I will argue and say that this is a billion times better than Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun Li.

             Gen. Bison (Raul Julia), the evil dictator of Shadaloo, captures a busload of relief warriors and holds them for ransom. Col. Guile (Jean Claude Van Damme) leads an international strike force to invade Shadaloo and rescue the hostages. Along the way, Guile recruits Chun Li (Ming-Na Wen), a reporter and martial arts expert, as well as Ryu and Ken, an All-American Boxer and a Sumo Wrestler.

              I've said many times of being a Mortal Kombat fan, though I was actually being a short term Street Fighter fan ever since I saw the Street Fighter II arcade back when arcades were a thing (man I miss the 90's) in fact one of my earlier memories was being excited to go over to my Grandpa's house because we would usually get burgers at the local bar but also had a Street Fighter II arcade and although I wasn't good at the game, there were times when I would usually just play around the joysticks and buttons while the replay mode was playing. Though more importantly if you were a kid growing up in the 90's, G.I. Joe's were the toys to have as well as Street Fighter and I had actions figures of Guile and Bison. While I never seen the movie in the theaters my memory of the film was more of watching the film on Cable TV or Dish on Demand when I was a teenager, and this was before Star Wars Special Edition became my whole favorite and Street Fighter was another one of those trends that became a phase. Following the success of Street Fighter II and the many updates, Capcom wanted to get a live action film in progress and so, with the help of Universal Pictures, they were able to get the movie in progress along with Capcom making the approvals. Steven E. de Souza, writer of your favorite action films 48hrs and the beloved Christmas movie Die Hard, was also a fan of the game, wrote countless drafts of the story as well as putting his name in the ring of helming the director’s chair. Although the film was financed with an estimate of 35 million dollars, the executives as well as Capcom had to get an action star that can sell the movie and Jean Claude Van Damme according to Capcom always envisioned to play Guile, but Van Damme apparently was asking for big bucks and majority of the money went to Van Damme and the remaining cast went to unknowns. Though in the positive note you at least get some uprising stars like Ming-Na Wen (Disney Legend and Fennec Shand) as well as Kylie Minogue, well to all the Gen Z’s, she was a gorgeous pop star with the infamous song "Can't get you out of my head". The positive thing in what gives the movie credit is that Raul Julia who plays M. Bison really wanted to play the character for good reasons he was facing his final years on earth and his own kids were fans of game so, watching his kids play the game really helped him get into character, for which yes the film is silly but this film also gives sympathy considering that Julia in his final days just wanted to be more with his own family and this was the best way to do it by playing one of the characters in Capcom's successful fighting game. Thirty years since the film’s release and it always puzzles me on the film getting the lowest rating in terms of critics’ expectations, granted nobody cares about what the critics think, more importantly they have very lack of what makes a great movie as well as their very high expectations. Although critics have not played the game which would explain why, but if you look at the game as well as the film, it literally doesn't have much of a plot and de Souza had to work out a story that would be suitable as well as put up with a limited budget that would work for the film and audiences who've never heard of the game before. Rewatching the film again, I got to say that this was a breath of fresh air to watch and more importantly fun to watch from beginning to end, furthermore this was one of those films that whenever you have a bad day or trying to vent or don't want to do anything, Street Fighter: The Movie is most certain the film to watch on those days and defiantly a great example of actors like Raul Julia that even when your facing for seeable death, you spend your final days with your family and kids by playing a role that your kids and love and cherish for the rest of their lives. Now as a video game series by itself I would rank the Street Fighter series second to Mortal Kombat mainly because I love playing some of the Nostalgia games such as the re-release of the 30th Anniversary of Street Fighter on Playstation 4, furthermore some of the games now don't have that magic that the original games have which makes the games feel unnecessary to play especially when there's at least four out of the many characters I still don't know how their special moves work, ugh so frustrating. Anyway, if you’re looking for that movie that can give you a unintentional laugh as well as a movie to have a good time watching, then Street Fighter: The Movie is a movie worth watching from beginning to end. Sadly though you'll have to buy the movie considering the film was on Peacock a couple of weeks ago and you'll have to buy or rent the movie, but I promise you all if you love a good comedic action movie than this will fill you with great cliche's as well as great laughter from beginning to the final frame.

 

Escape from New York

 

              When it comes to John Carpenter, I've always been a fan of such great films like the very first Halloween movie, They Live and most recently, close to a year ago, The Thing. Now full disclosure there were other films I remembered watching most notably Christine, didn't realized he directed that movie until I saw his name on the credits and look I'd say I like cars but I'm not going to fall in love with one especially when I have to get the damn thing fixed all the time as well as changing the oil once every 5,000 miles. The other film was The Fog, and it was entertaining for the first minute until I stopped watching The Fog. Which leads us to the latest John Carpenter movie, I sat down and watched and to be truthfully honest I have mixed emotions about the movie especially Kurt Russell's acting.

              In 1997, a major war between the United States and the Soviet Union is concluding, and the entire island of Manhattan has been converted into a giant maximum-security prison. When Air Force One is hijacked and crashes into the island, the president of the United States (Donald Pleasence) is taken hostage by a group of inmates. Snake Plissken (Kurt Russell), a former Special Forces soldier turned criminal, is recruited to retrieve the president in exchange for his own freedom. 

              Originally Carpenter wrote Escape from New York prior to the aftermath of the Watergate Scandal which led to Nixon's resignation. Moreover, he wrote the screenplay during a time when New York City was tearing itself apart with crooked cops running wild especially in 1977 came around. Although Carpenter wanted to pitch this movie to major studios, a good portion of them didn't want to finance the movie mainly because of the film being way too violent, too scary and just too weird. Now granted the writing development is fascinating as well as understanding Studio execs weren't intrigued in wanting to finance the film. All that a side the major problem I had with the film is understanding what Kurt Russell was saying, I mean I don't know if it was the TV I was watching because I had this problem because it's almost the same as watching Oppenheimer the first time, but there were times where I felt that Kurt was speaking softly that I couldn't understand what he was saying and wished that Lee Van Cleef would say "what? Speak up I can't hear you!" and it just got to the annoying point where I was close to turning it off but didn't and just turned up the volume until I can hear him or felt he was either talking gibberish when he gets loud either way I'm not quite sure I could be wrong, just the bottom line is Kurt through the course of the film was talking way to softly almost like a whisper and it just took me into a negative space in wanting to recommend this film to anyone who loves John Carpenter. Granted it was nice to see actors like Isaac Hayes, before he became crazy like Tom Cruise and found space ships in Scientology, and even Donald Pleasence in a real movie for a change, because if you look at the man's filmography he's in a ton of bad to sh*tty movies, and I personally think that Carpenter felt bad for him and just casted him to play the President in the movie. Being a fan of both St. Louis Cardinals and St. Louis Blues I will admit in hearing that some of the scenes like the gladiatorial arena was filmed in the St. Louis Union Station for which I've been there, couple of times furthermore a good portion of the film was shot between the city of St. Louis and East St. Louis Illinois, so maybe in near future if I go up to St. Louis for a baseball game or hockey game I might find some of these locations. Although I have mixed emotions about the film, a lot of that has to do with Kurt Russell's acting but I do love the fact that we're almost close in seeing a New York City being turned into a massive garbage dump for criminals and the way Democrats are treating the city, I have no intentions in visiting the city. Although the film is on Amazon Prime, I really don't feel comfortable in wanting to recommend this film unless you’re a big fan of John Carpenter's films than go nuts, but just keep in mind that Kurt Russell's whispering acting severely scared me for life and I'm not sure if I want to re-watch the film nor have the interest in wanting to watch Escape from L.A..