“Street Fighter” Review: A 6th Grade Love letter to The game
To understand Street Fighter, look no further than its soundtrack. A film set in 1993, that has used Tupac’s “Ambitionz As A Ridah” as its hype music in the trailer and film. A song that came out in 1996 for those who don’t know. This is Street Fighter. The music is of the era but not quite historically accurate. The writing is in the area of a good homage, but not quite on target. It’s a campy, zany film that tries its best to write a love letter to the game on a sixth grade level!
The film starts with an animated look back at the 1987 World Warrior Tournament in which martial artist Ryu (Andrew Koji) defeats Sagat by tapping into his dark side. After his master Gouken (Don Lee) sees this, he quickly tells Ryu’s best friend/brother Ken Masters (Noah Centineo) that he must protect his brother. From there we are in live action and present day 1993. Ken is a has-been doing commercials for Jolt energy drinks and Duracell. He’s the playboy, MTV star of the moment but he is missing something. In part, it’s his best friend, Ryu, who has been missing since the World Warrior Tournament. The other part is he doesn’t believe in himself as an ultimate warrior.
Meanwhile, M. Bison (David Dastmalchian) is on a mission to increase his own power by draining the best warriors in the land of theirs. What better way to do that then to have a World Warrior Tournament to gather them all together? “That’s all I have to say about that” in my best Forrest Gump voice.
Here’s the deal. It’s extremely difficult to put all the characters that people love from Capcom’s game into a live action script. Co-writer/director Kitao Sakurai is my age. As an elder millennial, I know he lived through the era of the game. I assume he remembers going to an arcade and putting your quarters down to play it in the mall. Or playing with friends on Sega. The love for the characters is there. Getting the wardrobe, hair and makeup, and in game nods are on full display. Cinematographer Ken Seng drenches the frame with neon, desaturated video game colors at times and diffused light beams that noticeably shine through windows. The love and desire to get it right is there, but the script is chaotic.
The film starts out strong and then goes in various directions in order to bring characters into the story. How can we get Blanka (Jason Momoa) in the film? Let’s have Ryu have to do this. How do we get E. Honda (Hirooki Goto) in the film? Let’s have Ryu do that. Let’s make other well known characters M. Bison’s henchmen but not explain why they are. Let’s not give them anything to do except serve Lord M. Bison. This is the movie’s achilles heel. In an effort to give fan service, it abandons Hitchcock’s famous quote: “To make a great film you need three things - the script, the script, and the script.”
The performances are a mixed bag. Koji is an anchor as Ryu bringing gravity to his character. Centineo is a solid Ken. Callina Liang is a fresh face as Chun-Li. While David Dastmalchian is always playing a strange character, his take on M. Bison is up for debate and feels like he watched The Dark Knight and the ’94 Street Fighter for inspiration. As much as I’m a fan of Cody Rhodes as a character in the WWE ring, acting in a legit film isn’t for him. He’s supposed to provide comedy but Guile is absolutely cringe. Everyone else is either not in the film long enough to make a remark or they bring their usual bro performance, just another role cough Jason cough Mamoa.
Unfortunately, this script is bloated. It abandons ideas soon after it puts them on the table. If it stuck to a story about two brothers overcoming guilt, shame and working to trust each other again, that probably would have been the right call. Oddly, it takes a bet on itself that there will be a sequel. I don’t know if the public will present enough quarters to continue!
Rating: D+
"Southpaw" Review
With a movie like “Southpaw”, the question is not have you seen the story before, but how is the story going to be told? While the classic redemption story is apparent even from the trailer, the journey to it is gripping and refreshingly real. With stellar performances, “Southpaw” is a standout character study in the ring of boxing films.
The film starts with Billy Hope (Jake Gyllenhaal) on top of the world. He’s the light weight champion of the world, lives in a mansion, and has a beautiful wife, Maureen (Rachel McAdams), and daughter, Leila (Oona Laurence). After his Maureen is tragically murdered (in a breath-taking, dramatic scene) Hope starts to lose control. Running the gamut of grief from anger to depression, by the time he sobers up it’s too late. He’s lost his wife, mansion, and the state has put his daughter in protective services.
With no money, due to fake friends draining him, his excessive spending and his own ignorance, Hope is forced to get a 300 square foot apartment. He enlists the help of Tick Wills (Forest Whitaker) to train him properly to do the only thing he knows how to do, fight. He not only has to fight an opponent in the ring, but he has to fight his own demons and fight to win his daughter’s heart back.
The rich detail that writer Kurt Sutter (Sons of Anarchy) and director Antoine Fuqua (Training Day) go into in combination of the script and visuals show a side of boxing we don’t normally think about. They highlight the “performance” of boxing and use the glitz and glamour to their advantage to remind the viewer that there is a person who steps out of the ring after a fight we pay to be entertained by. Sons of Anarchy fans know Sutter’s writing can be emotional and moody, but thanks to great casting (except Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson) each emotional stepping stone is earned.
Jake Gyllenhaal is immersed in the character of Billy Hope. From his mumbled speech pattern to the way he holds his body, Gyllenhaal is totally believable as an adult fighter who came up through the system. The chemistry between Gyllenhaal and McAdams is what award winning performances are made of. While McAdams role is short-lived in the film, her performance is so strong that her presence remains throughout in a way that the words on the page couldn’t have dreamed of!
Forest Whitaker gives a long overdue, subtle, and genuine performance that he didn’t dial in for as Tick Wills. He’s a trainer with demons that we never know the origins of, but they come through in many of his scenes. I’ve never seen Oona Laurence, but after this film she is definitely a young talent to watch!
“Southpaw” is one of those films that feels out of place in the middle of the summer. A film like this usually plays in the winter months for awards consideration, and it should definitely get that! It’s a character study into love, loss, grief, and how we choose to respond when we’ve fallen.
Rating: A