THIS WEEK: videogames turned film
Silent Hill
Original release: April 2006
When Rose DaSilva (Radha Mitchell, becomes plagued withnightmares about a town called Silent Hill that has a dirty history involving some cultists, unsolved murders, and a colossal fire, mother Sharon (Jodelle Ferland) thinks it the best idea to take her daughter to the town to uncover the truth only to be stranded upon arrival. When Sharon disappears and grotesque monsters begin to appear, Rose makes her way through the hellish town in order to save her daughter – even if it means losing her soul.
As far as horror movies and/or videogame adaptations go there have been plenty worse. A cast full of relatively unknown actors and plenty of scenes that can definitely cause you to shudder makes Silent Hill worth the rental.
As a whole, the Silent Hill series didn’t become great until the second game. If a sequel to this movie is made, I certainly hope they follow game developer Konami’s footsteps by ditching the cult and focusing on what works – the freaky, psychologically horrifying town and its hideous denizens.
Rating: 3.5 out of 5
Street Fighter
Original release: December 1994
When tyrannical dictator M. Bison (Raul Julia) takes Allied Forces relief workers and U.N. soldiers hostage with a three-day ultimatum and a ransom demand for $20 billion, it’s up to Colonel Guile (Jean-Claude Van Damme) and his team to save the day with the help of Chun-Li (Ming-Na), Cammy (Kylie Minogue), Ryu (Byron Mann), Ken (Damian Chapa), and some other Street Fighter 2: The New Warriors characters.
I, as well as many others, find this movie terrible and corny. Anyone can tell that the film exists because somebody thought it would make money by bringing all the game’s fans to theatres. It’s full of poor one-liners and small homages to the game, but overall it’s just another awful fluffed-up fighting movie. Though if you’re willing to stomach the absurdity and inanity of it all it is wonderfully entertaining, because it is that bad. If you’re renting movies for a bad movie night (which is a fantastic evening for any group with a sense of humor), Street Fighter will not disappoint.
Rating: 2 out of 5.
Movies based on videogames are typically not the best, whether considered as adaptations or not. Most often, fans whine and complain about how terrible they are and how if they followed the style and direction of the games, they’d be much better. Honestly, though, making the transition from game to movie has never been easy, or very good. Go with the medium you prefer, of course. There’s entertainment abound either way.
