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Review of Mortal Kombat (1995) · The Recess Bell

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  A controversial video game forever changes a generation of kids. Mortal Kombat hit the
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  arcades on October eighth, nineteen ninety two, lengthy lines of gamers waiting for
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  their turn with the machine, while parents and politicians were outraged with the games
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  of violence. Cold blooded murder is making Mortal Kombat the most popular video game
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  in history. Kids relish their victory and their bloody choice. Should they pull
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  out their opponent's heart or simply rip his head off just to see a spinal
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  cord dangle in a pool of blood? How do you feel about cutting his
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  head off? One After a ten million dollar advertising campaign, Mortal Kombat,
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  debuting at home video today, is expected to sell two million copies at fifty
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  dollars a pop, a horrifying possibility for parents who can't believe the game makers
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  are fantasizing about decapitation. I immediately fell in love with the franchise. What
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  kid would in love seeing colorful characters engage in deadly hand to hand combat.
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  The moment I saw sub zero rips if someone's spine out, I knew this
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  was going to be something me and my buddies would be talking about at the
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  lunch table. Sub Zero went lungless victory a reality. I became obsessed with
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  learning everything I could about Mortal Kombat. This was before the internet was really
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  a thing, so you could learn pretty much everything by reading gaming magazines or
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  movie magazines. Whatever you were into, there was a magazine for it.
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  Flash forward a few years later and a few Mortal Kombat games later, and
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  my family decides to rent the movie Dumb and Dumber from Blockbuster Samsonight. I
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  was way off and we were starting with an as though. Before the movie
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  starts, though, my brain explodes in each of us. There burns the
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  fury of a warrior in every generation. A few chosen to prove it.
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  One of you three will decide the outcome of the tournament. Three Strangers,
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  we'll travel to the mystical realm of outworld to defend our people against Shang Sung.
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  You we and his forces of darkness. What am I seeing? Scorpion
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  sub zero? What the fuck? Oh my god? They are making a
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  Mortal Combat movie and it's coming out in a few months. My brother and
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  I rewound that VHS I don't know, maybe one hundred times, and we
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  rewatched that trailer over and over and over and over as the days grew closer,
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  my anticipation for the film grew and grew. I would watch specials on
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  TV about the making of the movie. Mortal Kombat is one of the most
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  popular and exciting entertainment properties in history. Creating a motion picture was not only
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  logical, it was inevitable. And the reason that I got involved in Mortal
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  Kombat, aside from the phenomenon of it, was because the underlying story is
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  wonderful. I got my hands on some Mortal Kombat action figures and create scenes
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  with them. I was my own little director. Prepare yourself for combat,
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  Mortal Combat Action figures, Fight for right in your own Tournament of Champions,
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  Blue Kang, Johnny K. Brayden, sup Zero, Reptile in the Dragon
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  MK one, Kino on the combat cycle Mortal Kombat. It's not just a
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  game anymore, Mortal Combat action figures. The combat cycle comes with Kno,
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  Dragon MK one comes with Reptile. Then the day finally arrived, he has
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  begun. My dad took us to the theater and we were transported into the
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  world of that video game that we played for the last three years. Was
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  it a perfect movie? No. One of the main stays of Mortal Kombat
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  is the violence, and this movie didn't have the gore and extreme violence that
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  we were accustomed to with the Mortal Kombat franchise, So, you know,
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  that was a little disappointing, But the movie was fun. You felt like
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  the people that made the movie had fun while making the movie. The chemistry
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  of the cast, you know, the main three characters of Sonia, Luke
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  Kang, and Johnny Cage, they felt like a family, didn't feel forced,
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  it felt organic. The fight choreography is tremendous. I love martial arts
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  films, Bruce Lae, Jackie Chan, all that stuff top notch, high
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  quality in my mind, and Mortal Kombat I think introduced that genre. I
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  know it did for me. I never saw a Jackie Chan movie. He
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  wasn't really a mainstay in America yet really for a couple of years until Rush
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  Hour came out. I think that's when majority of the people in the United
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  States really knew who the hell Jackie Chan was. So this was sort of
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  an introduction to not only video game movies for a lot of people, but
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  it was definitely an introduction to martial arts and the kung fu film if you
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  will. Speaking of Bruce Lee, this movie definitely was influenced by Entering the
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  Dragon. I think the whole franchise as a whole, you know, not
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  just the movie, was influenced by Enter the Dragon. Also, I feel
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  there's definitely an influence from the movie Big Trouble in Little China. And if
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  you're gonna be influenced by any two movies, those are two phenomenal films to
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  certainly take inspiration from. Video game movies were not really successful until Mortal Kombat
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  came out in nineteen ninety five. You had Street Fighter, you had Super
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  Mario Brothers coming out, you know, in the year's previous, and those
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  did not do well at the box office nor with the credit. And I'm
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  going to kick that son of a bitch Bison's ass so hard that the next
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  Bison want to be. Mortal Kombat is sort of a mixed bag with critics,
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  got some mixed reviews from Ciskel and Ebert, but it was a successful
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  film was number one at the box office for a number of weeks. Its
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  soundtrack was the number one movie soundtrack for a number of weeks, and I
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  think for years and years it was the gold standard. When it came to
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  video game movies. The basic plot of Mortal Kombat, the movie from nineteen
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  ninety five involves a tournament, a Mortal Kombat tournament, and if the bad
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  guys win this tournament, then the evil forces will be able to invade Earth.
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  Pretty simple concept. Could sort of just turn your brain off when watching
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  this movie. Good guys need to win the tournament. If the bad guys
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  win the tournament, bad things will happen to Earth. As I mentioned,
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  we are introduced to three heroes. Sonya Blade played by Bridget Wilson, who
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  is actually married to tennis star Pete Sampers and I am in love with Bridget
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  Wilson. I used to look up pictures of her on the Internet during the
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  early days of the Internet. She of course played all Veronica von so Hot,
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  want to Touch the Heinie oh In Billy Madison Dad Verona yvaugh is one
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  piece of age, believe it or not. Cameron Diaz was initially supposed to
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  be playing the role of Sonya Blade, but she hurt her wrist prior to
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  the movie starting its filming, So that's so interesting. What if Johnny Cage,
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  I think was the real standout of this film. I remember my dad
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  really liking this character. I remember my dad really liking this movie, which
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  was shocking because my dad would tell us if he didn't like a movie.
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  He had no problems telling, you know, a seven or eight year old
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  kid what he's watching is crap. And I remember him leaving this theater and
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  really enjoying the movie. Those were five hundred dollars sunglasses. Asshole. Johnny
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  Cage, as I mentioned, was played by Lyndon Ashby, who I think
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  should have been a bigger star than he was. I know he did a
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  few films here and there. He was on the show teen Wolf on MTV,
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  but I don't know. I felt like he could have been a big
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  star. He gives me vibes of Bruce Campbell. You know, he could
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  do the comedic elements, he could do the action elements. I really liked
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  the dude, and these aged tremendously. I've been watching a bunch of interviews
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  with him recently, and he looks like a million bucks to this day.
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  I think people should cast us Kayen movies. I don't know why he didn't
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  take off. Where do you get these guys? And the true hero of
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  the movie is lu Kang played by Robin Shu, who I thought did a
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  tremendous job with the character of lu Kang. He brought sincerity, he brought
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  badassery. I think another guy that should have been more famous than he was.
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  He did a few things like Beverly Hill's Ninja with Chris Farley, but
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  again his career sort of stalled, which is a shame. I think all
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  three of the major leads in this movie should have gone on to bigger things.
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  None of them really did achieve too much success in Hollywood. I think
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  the biggest star in the movie is the gentleman who plays Raiden. Is it
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  Christopher Limbert or Lambert? He's the Highlander If you ever seen the movie The
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  Highlander, which is another phenomenal movie, one of my favorites from the eighties.
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  He plays Raidan Lord Rayden. I don't think so, and he's sort
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  of the guy who's guiding all of Earth's forces, all the good guys to
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  combat the outworld forces in this combat that is mortal and their main villain.
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  The main adversary is, of course Shang Sung. Your brother's soul, he's
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  mine, and Shang Sung has a group of characters that are on his side.
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  So you know, you have sub Zero and Scorpion, who I know.
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  You know, if you follow any of the Mortal Kombat lore, you
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  know a lot of it isn't what it is in the movie. They took
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  some liberties with some of the characters, and that's fine. You know,
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  you have to adapt these things into a feature film. Some things in video
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  games don't work in the movies. So as the tournament goes on, Shangsung's
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  forces are defeated one after the other. There's a great, great fight sequence
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  between Scorpion and Johnny Cage. I think that is the personal best fight in
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  the entire movie. Get over here. Johnny Cage also has another great fight
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  against Goro, and Goro is a character that I always thought was the scariest,
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  the most intimidating character in the Mortal Kombat franchise, which is why in
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  the most recent Mortal Kombat movie, which I'm gonna get to eventually, what
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  they did with that character I thought was a damn shame. What they did
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  with the entire movie as a damn shame. I honestly the despised the twenty
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  twenty one Mortal Kombat film. I also, of course despised the follow up
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  to this movie, Mortal Kombat Annihilation, to very very bad films, both
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  for different reasons, and again that's something I definitely want to get into.
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  I want to, you know, do a lot of classic movie reviews on
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  this show. I think, you know, reviewing modern stuff is fun,
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  but also going back, delving back into the past is something that I'd certainly
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  like to do, not just with movies, but with everything video games and
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  comic books and wrestling. I love listening to old music, so why not
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  you know, review some classic movies. But focusing back on the original nineteen
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  ninety five movie, Goro was treated with such respect in the video game.
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  I thought he was the hardest character to beat in that original Mortal Kombat you
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  know, video game, And I thought in this movie they carried that same
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  presence, that same aura that we had with Goro in that original game.
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  They brought it over into the movie and it's an awesome animatronic. If this
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  was done a few years later, I think it would have been a fully
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  CGI character and it would have aged horribly. If you look at you know,
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  ninety CGI, a lot of it's a very bad looking at it.
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  In a twenty twenty four, you know, looking at it in a modern
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  lens. You know, except for Jurassic Park and Starship Troopers, majority of
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  CGI from the nineties is actual trash, but this animatronic is not. I
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  know, there was a lot of difficulty on the set working this animatronic,
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  working the puppets, and you know, a lot of the time the character
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  would end up freezing up. And it's a very expensive, you know,
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  animatronic puppet, whatever you want to call it, This Goro character. I
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  know, Broad director Paul W. S Anderson, I know it brought him
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  a lot of misery, sort of like you know the Jaws, the Shark
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  and Jaws, or even the t Rex and Jurassic Park. These large animatronics,
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  they are difficult. I understand why people use CGI today because it's easier,
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  but you lose that charm and that great fight between you know, Goro
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  and Johnny Cage I think would have looked horrible with CGI, but it looked
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  tremendous with the puppets. As we get to the climax, Lu Kang meets
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  up with Shang Sung and they got some beef that goes way back because Shang
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  Sung killed Lu Kang's brother and I don't know how that happened. How did
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  they meet up. They don't really get into that. The movie's quick.
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  It is perfect. It was perfect for somebody. I was seven years old
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  when the movie came out. It was perfect. First seven year old.
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  It was just, you know, one scene after another, not really too
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  much backstory, you know, looking back at it now, I just recently
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  did rewatch it. I wish it was a bit longer. I wish there
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  was some more explanation of certain characters' motivations. But again, it felt like
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  a music video. Is just like quick, fast movements and one thing,
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  as I mentioned, after another, and finally, you know, Lu Kang
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  meets up with Shang Song. They have their final confrontation, and Shang Song
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  is bested and the Earth's heroes conquer the evil forces of the outworld. But
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  before we leave the theater, before the characters can truly celebrate, we are
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  teased with the introduction of Shao Khan, the bad guy from Mortal Kombat Too,
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  and he looks bad as Oh my god, weak pathetic fools. I've
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  come from the souls. I don't think so they're gonna make another one.
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  The movie was a success. They gotta make another one. It's gonna be
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  amazing. All the characters are gonna return, all the actors are gonna return.
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  Shao Khan's gonna be Oh my god, it's the worst movie ever.
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  So I'll leave it on that. Maybe, you know what, screw it.
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  Next week, we'll do a little Mortal Kombat Annihilation. I'll tell my
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  story of seeing that one in theaters. I saw that one with my grandma
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  and my brother in theaters, and me and my brother actually got into a
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  fight right after the movie. And uh yeah, we'll get into that,
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  and then I think we'll also discuss We'll do a two parter next week.
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  We'll discuss twenty twenty one's Mortal Kombat and uh, you know the nineteen ninety
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  seven masterpiece that is Mortal Kombat Annihilation. But as I mentioned, Mortal Kombat
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  from nineteen ninety five was the gold standard for video game movies for quite some
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  time. It was one that I constantly rented from Blockbuster and just would rewatch
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  over and over again. Me and my friends would rent it all the time.
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  And I remember me and my buddy row Hit recreating the scenes, you
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  know, having pretend fights in our backyards. And just a fun time to
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  be a kid. Mortal Kombat from nineteen ninety five, Just a fun movie
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  that's gonna do it for this additional film reel. Thank you all for listening.