'Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li' review

Kristin Kreuk (Credit: Patrick Brown/20th Century Fox)

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Ever watched your nephew make a video game character kick bad-guy butt and wondered, “What are the life experiences that make this crime fighter tick?” Here’s your answer: Jump-kick whiz Chun-Li (Neutrogena spokeswoman Kristin Kreuk) was once a concert pianist who took time off from tickling the ivories to try to save her kidnapped father from evil businessman Bison (Neal McDonough).

The buzz: Common sense says there's no reason to make a follow-up to a bad movie 15 years later. Take that, common sense! On the plus side, improving upon 1994’s ultra-lame, Jean-Claude Van Damme-starring “Street Fighter” is much easier than explaining the existence of another movie based on this 20-year-old video game franchise.
 
The verdict:  Kreuk narrates like even she's bored with this, ahem, “Legend,” which is just a parade of clichés and performances ranging from terrible to really terrible (based on McDonough's come-and-go Irish accent). It’s deadly serious and never exciting, with one of the worst motivational mantras in the history of motivational mantras: “Sometimes you have to stand up when standing isn’t easy.” The few fight sequences are competent enough, but this is still the answer to a question nobody asked.

Did you know? Add this to the list of hilariously awful movie entrances: Interpol agent Charlie Nash (Chris Klein, sneering constantly), sent to investigate organized crime or something, gets out of his rap music-blasting car in slo-mo, checks out his new partner’s (Moon Bloodgood) impressive figure and moans, “I looooooooove this job.” Slick, dude.

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