Mortal Kombat

Mortal Kombat was one of the most popular, and controversial video games of the 90s, so naturally, in 1995, New Line Cinema released a live- action film adaptation. When the film was being advertised, several people were either excited for it, or skeptical due to Street Fighter being a total stinker, and since the film was rated PG-13, which meant the violence and gore from the game had to be toned down to appeal to the then-young MK fan base. Thankfully, all expectations were surpassed as Mortal Kombat actually turned out to be, believe it or not, a good video game movie. Upon its release,…

So, after years of lethal "Mortal Kombat" competition "Outworld" is poised to complete it's tenth victory over "Earthrealm" entitling it to take it over. It falls to defender "Rayden" (Christopher Lambert) to recruit three warriors who might just be able to thwart the ambitions of his nemesis - the sorcerer "Shang Tsung" (Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa). The three he selects would not have been the obvious choice. "Liu Kang" (Robin Shou) and "Sonya Blade" (Bridgette Sampras) are driven by the need for vengeance of their own whilst the outwardly shallow "Johnny Cage" (Linden Ashby) is an actor just out…

I had not seen this in at least 10 years and with the new Arrow Video release I bought and gave it a watch and while nothing amazing with some stilted acting and dialogue (beyond the lines from the game), but it is a lot of fun and enough cheesiness to make it re-watchable. Overall really enjoyable. **3.25/5**

Adapting video games to movies has always been a rough ride, but the 90s gave us a relic that shaped a whole generation. However, taking off the nostalgia goggles exposes a lot of flaws. Revisiting this first attempt to bring arcade fighting to the big screen shows that simply staying true to the game's premise isn't enough to make a solid film. Once you strip away the childhood affection, you're left with technical and narrative holes that time hasn't forgiven. The movie suffers from a major identity crisis from start to finish. Director Paul W.S. Anderson can't seem to pick a lane,…