Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li poster & wallpaper

Kristin Kreuk, Chris Klein, Neal McDonough

Based on the popular video game franchise, female fighter Chun Li embarks on a quest for justice.

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30% liked it

200,306 ratings

Critics

4% liked it

52 critics

PG-13, 1 hr. 36 min.

Directed by: Andrzej Bartkowiak

Release Date: February 27, 2009

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DVD Release Date: June 30, 2009

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Stats: 7,172 reviews

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Flixster Reviews (7,172)

  • stuartb1234
    October 6, 2009
    stuartb1234
    Pretty poor film but has a few nice touches and enough cheese to make you smile
  • armybratgeo
    August 25, 2009
    armybratgeo
    Well I didn't want to see this to begin with and my Mom is the one who wanted to check this out. And I am still nt sure if I liked it or not. The cast as great, love Neal McDonough,he really convinces e as the bad guy. Chris Klein shouldn't be allowed to act, lol. The story howev...( read more)er lacked everything,I just couldn't get into it. The fighting scenes were ok and overall it was ok to watch...once. Check it out and make up your own mind!!!
  • Beefy
    July 5, 2009
    Beefy
    Not the cinematic abortion that the 1994 version was, this one actually had a few nice touches and stylistic flourishes. Still fairly silly, but if you turn off your brain I guarantee you've seen worse.
  • jmanard52
    July 1, 2009
    jmanard52
    I gave it two stars because the girls looked good. One star for each otherwise. I just laughed my way thru this one!!
  • PvtCaboose91
    June 29, 2009
    PvtCaboose91
    "His name's Bison. I've tracked him through eleven major cities on four continents and never come close, not once. This guy walks through the raindrops. Anybody that's against him is either dead, or on their way."


    Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li is not o

    ...( read more)nly a compelling early contender for the worst film of 2009, but it's also a contender for the worst film of all time! This second attempt at a screen adaptation of the revered Capcom video game series is unbelievably awful in every aspect. Generic action sequences, atrocious acting, cringe-inducing dialogue and lacklustre filmmaking are all combined, resulting in an hour and a half of pure cinematic torture. The first time the Street Fighter video game empire was adapted for the big screen, it concerned (a cartoonishly costumed) Jean-Claude Van Damme and Kylie Minogue trying to rescue the world from the evil clutches of (an infirmed) Raul Julia...and the film tanked! Now in 2009, fifteen years later, we've been given Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li - a production armed with a few clumsy television actors, Chris Klein, and a member of the Black Eyed Peas. This is not progress! With Andrzej Bartkowiak at the helm (who also directed the awful film adaptation of Doom), this feature is incredibly inept, and even that's putting it lightly. Most disheartening is that this dreck is unable to deliver the barest of bare-knuckle guilty pleasures promised by the genre. So what's left? Absolutely nothing.


    At least 20th Century Fox were aware of the dud they had on their hands - they didn't screen the movie for the critics, and apparently most of the theatres showing this reel of used toilet paper only screened it once or twice a day. Why does this movie even exist, anyway? The Street Fighter video game series peaked in the '90s, which justifies the Van Damme movie. This latest rendition, however, is unjustifiable.


    The plot concerns Chun-Li (Kreuk) who travels to Bangkok after receiving an enigmatic scroll (oddly enough, this scroll literally looks like a piece of paper that has been shoddily glued onto a piece of cheap cardboard). The streets of Bangkok are ruled by a crime syndicate called Shadaloo, headed by criminal mastermind Bison (McDonough) and his right hand man Balrog (Duncan). It seems Chun-Li battles this crime syndicate to save the city and because they kidnapped her father when she was a kid. Meanwhile, Interpol Agent Charlie Nash (Klein) is equally passionate to stop Bison and take down Shadaloo.


    The story does not make much sense. Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li simply limps along from one poorly-staged set-piece to the next, climaxing with a whimper rather than a bang. It lacks both coherence and flow. This 2009 picture is distinctly different to the catastrophic 1994 movie failure, exchanging the cartoon atmosphere for a grittier tone that concentrates on revenge scenarios rather than a world domination plot. Justin Marks' script is surprisingly straight-faced...far too serious for its own good. It's also just really badly written. When a character seeks information on Shadaloo, they simply use the internet. No secret is safe from the internet, after all. When Chun-Li needs to know about a secret shipment, she finds a random guy on the wharf and breaks his arm to extract the relevant information. With the help of a guy named Gen, Chun-Li is trained to become a supreme master of kung-fu. This transformation from naïve fighter to highly skilled warrior takes all of five minutes, and mostly involves marbles being pelted at her.


    Here's the big problem: both Street Fighter films have next to nothing to do with the actual video game. The basic concept behind Street Fighter is gloriously simple: two fighters face off in the ring, attacking each other with a variety of kicks, punches and special moves until one is beaten into submission. A serviceable film adaptation could be derived from the same formula (maybe a tournament movie like Bloodsport?), but both attempts so far work from a needlessly complicated and ridiculously silly story (in this case a meandering crime syndicate tale which takes forever to unfold). The Legend of Chun-Li is much further removed from the video game than the Van Damme vehicle preceding it. This is only a Street Fighter movie by name, and because a few classic characters have cameos. Chun-Li at one stage fights Vega (one of the video game's coolest characters), but he gets a minute or two of screen-time and just seems like a poor imitation of Wolverine with his giant metal claws.


    At its core, Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li is a martial arts demonstration reel, but it's an extremely unimpressive one. For a big studio release, the technical accomplishments are extremely subpar. The strictly ordinary choreography during the fight sequences is captured with scarcely a modicum of skill - some clumsy cinematography which is amplified by the choppy editing. It's impossible to lighten up and embrace the violence when it's just a blur occasionally punctuated by a famous Street Fighter finishing move. These are just silly wire-work sequences during which no-one ever seems to get hurt, and one is unable to get any sense of a character's brute force or skill. The gun battles are just routine, PG-13 filler. In fact, so is the entire movie as it lamely lurches from conflict to conflict in a programmed manner. Some of the gun battles do look mildly cool, but these are unfortunately few and far between. The Legend of Chun-Li cannot be considered a movie - it's a God forsaken tragedy! It reels in some of the most pathetic actors in the industry who are aching for their existence to be acknowledged, and gives them a vastly stupid script to regurgitate.


    The acting is atrocious right across the board. Chris Klein delivers one of the most laughably awful screen performances of the decade, making Van Damme seem Oscar-worthy in comparison. His portrayal of Nash is beyond awful - not only can he not act, but he was probably drunk during filming. The performer (calling him an actor would be a questionable compliment) assumes a strange mix of Clint Eastwood and metrosexual paedophile as he desperately tries to come across as a tough guy. It's frankly hilarious to observe his cheese, especially in the presence of the other actors who seriously look as if they're holding back giggles. His character also favours a pistol over hand-to-hand fighting, so why is he even included in the film?! Throughout this cinematic abomination, I was actually missing the acting skills of Jean-Claude Van Damme...
    And as for the rest of the cast... Neal McDonough might've fared better had he not used such a goofy Irish accent (Bison is a quintessential Irish surname, after all). One-time Oscar nominee Michael Clarke Duncan is reduced to playing the character Balrog, while a host of other actors (Robin Shou, Josie Ho and the attractive Moon Bloodgood) are unfathomably woeful as the one-dimensional stock characters. Kristin Kreuk is hot, but it seems she was deceased throughout the filming period as she boasts just one expression and one tone of voice. She also does a thoroughly awful job of faking martial arts moves before her stunt double steps in.


    Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li is tiresome, brain-dead and ill-considered. It'd be impossible for anyone to have a legitimately enjoyable time watching this awful motion picture which delivers nothing apart from an inconsistent crime plot. Unfortunately, the makers behind this Street Fighter movie are unable to put together a martial arts scene that's worth a damn. Not even morbidly curious film-goers should give this one a shot unless they also have masochistic tendencies.
  • hannamaye1
    November 21, 2009
    hannamaye1
    unexciting, and no intelligence at all in the making...

    what's with ken, he seemed like a mushroom to me!
    they couldn't make 'fighting for the right thing' appealing...
  • melissak28
    November 15, 2009
    melissak28
    Idon't care what the people said about the movie. I really like it!!!!
  • david6604
    November 9, 2009
    david6604
    not much shown but has ti be better than the original with kylie!
  • jediklonoa
    November 6, 2009
    jediklonoa
    Kristen Kruek Tries To Revive The Street Fighter Movie Franchise, And Fails. Dont Get Me Wrong, The First Street Fighter Movie Was Less Than Perfect But At Least JCVD & Raul Julia Didnt Take Themselves Seriously. Chun-Li Who Is A Concert Pianist As Opposed To An Interpol Agent, T...( read more)ries To Find The Evil M. Bison Who Kidnapped Her Father Some Years Ago. Most Of The Acting Is Stale And Robotic, And The Fight Scenes Are Terribly Choreographed. If You Love The Game, Stay Away, If You've Never Played The Games, You Might Like It.
  • husky10000years
    November 6, 2009
    husky10000years
    It's a little surprising that the filmmakers opted for Chun-Li instead of the signature character of Ryu. Kristin Kreuk may be a looker and her personal grounding in gymnastics and martial arts do help, but she's ultimately let down by a weak plot and some ve...( read more)ry weak supporting characters. As if the villains were good enough, being nothing but bland and uninteresting. Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li is a straight forward movie without much depth in its story and it's relatively lower production budget translates to many of the jazzy special prowess in the game being considerably toned down. Perhaps director Andrzej Bartkowiak's intention was to have it more rooted to reality, but therein lies the danger see, because this movie has tremendous parallels with that of another super-powered movie called Elektra. Both have recognizable female actresses in the lead role and they share a plot involving secret organizations, mystical healing, an experienced teacher to learn the ropes from and plenty of hokey martial arts. Even the training sequence looks super summarized, uninspiring and filled with unremarkable, clichéd dialogue. This movie has an origin story and depending on which camp you're on, you may or may not agree with some of the tweaks made here to accommodate the film version of things. Despite being called "Street Fighter", the fights here are nothing too fantastic or memorable and looks comfortably in place with many B-grade action movies out there, with the occasional lapsing into the crutch of having the fight scenes edited in double quick time.

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Critic Reviews

March 2, 2009
Liam Lacey, Globe and Mail

Watching the movie, you can't help wishing you had some buttons to press. full review

February 28, 2009
Pete Hammond, Hollywood.com

When Chris Klein yells "Bomb! Everybody Out!", he just as well could have been talking about this movie too. full review

February 27, 2009
Nick Schager, Cinematical

What little plot exists here is of the embarrassingly shallow sort. full review

View more Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li reviews at RottenTomatoes.com

Comments

  • ekaniki
    August 7, 2009
    ekaniki
    horrible movie:(
  • meahaseng
    March 8, 2009
    meahaseng
    best giler!
    but heroin de xdela nmpk sgt as the main character in dis film..
    tp apa2 pun korg kne watch dis muve..best..best..best
  • AsianNorthOfThailandGeneration
    March 7, 2009
    AsianNorthOfThailandGeneration
    glitters you rock


    Glitter Graphics

    Sunday Glitters


    " You know i'm was loved about ladies like this . You know i'm recently been to rite thier at the nicer theatre watched it this filmed .Hey you know it's so funny fought with 'em actions on the filmed.Have you watch it?
  • cyrilquirino
    March 5, 2009
    cyrilquirino
    this is one of a thousand movies to reckon with
  • AsianNorthOfThailandGeneration
    February 26, 2009
    AsianNorthOfThailandGeneration
    glitters you rock


    " You know i'm wishing would like to been rite thier watch it at the nicer theatre.Coz i'm wishing would like to know about it.How much it funny fought?& How much it excitings with 'em actions on the filmed.Have you watch it?
  • fpersada
    February 26, 2009
    fpersada
    i dunno, i hope this one is better than the previously. and i am a big fan of street figter games
  • thedoctor2k7
    November 10, 2008
    thedoctor2k7
    plz plz plz give us the triler
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Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li Trivia

Street Fighter: The Legend of Chu... Trivia

  • In "Street Fighter: The Legend Of Chun-Li", when Gen (Robin Shou) is performing Tai Chi in the big sand box, what symbol is made in the sand when he's done ?   Answer »
  • Who played Gen in "Street Fighter: The Legend Of Chun-Li" ?   Answer »
  • What nickname is Chun-Li known by in "Street Fighter: The Legend Of Chun-Li" ?   Answer »
  • In "Street Fighter: The Legend Of Chun-Li", what is the white rose ?   Answer »
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