(Spoiler alert: it’s mostly Raúl Julia)
4 years ago, Michael Saba reviewed the 1994 live-action film adaptation of Street Fighter. While he called it a “bad film”, he countered his point by saying “it’s also one of the greatest movies you’ll ever see” and explored its very messy production:
Just like an actually good movie, a good bad movie can give us a new perspective on why we like film in the first place. And there’s one bad movie that will always have a special place in my heart: the 1994 live-action Street Fighter.
[…] It’s not overstating things to say that he [Julia] single-handedly redeems the entire movie and then some.
Last month for Halloween, I watched The Addams Family (1991) with my partner. Despite seeing parts of Addams Family Values and various other iterations and memes, this was my first time seeing the movie all the way through and the (co-)star of the show was Raúl Julia. It was his acting that I loved and that’s what powered through some of the worst parts of Street Fighter for me. The multi-award winning thespian gave his last great theatrical performance before his passing in 1994 and I think the film was a fitting end if there ever had to be one so early.
Street Fighter related: a Polygon essay on what went wrong with the film