Double Feature Friday: Street Fighter and Mortal Kombat

Over on the Cavalcade of Awesome, I looked at 14 vintage ads for video games based on movies. So this week on Held Over, I'm looking at video game movies.

Today is Double Feature Friday so I'm looking at two movie adaptations for two very popular fighting games.

This is an ad for Street Fighter from 1994. It starred Jean Claude Van Damme as Guile and Raul Julia (in his final peformance) as Major Bison.  Also starring was Ming-Na as Chun-Li and Kylie Minogue as Cammy.  The movie is notoriously over the top and bad, but fun to watch.  Despite the notorious awfulness of this movie, it actually earned triple the cost to make it.  Van Damme tried for years to make a sequel but when the property changed over to 20th Century Fox, they rebooted the franchise with The Legend of Chun-Li in 2009.  Which is also notoriously bad and considered a worse movie than the original.

Street Fighter was written and directed by Steven E. de Souza.  Mr de Souza wrote the screenplays for Die Hard, Die Hard 2, Commando, Running Man as well as episodes of the TV shows Knight Rider, The Six Million Dollar Man and Bionic Woman.  That sounds awesome, which makes you wonder how this guy could have written this horrible Street Fighter movie.  Well, Mr de Souza also wrote Jumping Jack Flash with Whoopi Goldberg, Beverly Hills Cop III, Hudson Hawk, The Flintstones and Judge Dredd.  So that's how.

Here's an ad for the Mortal Kombat movie adaptation from 1995. Jean Claude Van Damme was actually offered the role of Johnny Cage in this movie, but turned it down to play Guile in Street Fighter. Linden Ashby would replace Van Damme. Also in the movie were Christopher Lambert, Bridgett Wilson and Robin Shou who played Liu Kang. Robin Shou would reprise his role in the Mortal Kombat sequel, Annihilation. Shou would then jump franchises and play a character in the Street Fighter reboot, The Legend of Chun-Li in 2009.

Other video game movies:
- Joysticks (1983)
- War Games (1983)
- Cloak and Dagger (1984)
- The Wizard (1989)
- Super Mario Bros (1993)

See the Street Fighter trailer:


See the Mortal Kombat Trailer:

Super Mario Bros - May 28, 1993

Over on the Cavalcade of Awesome, I looked at 14 vintage ads for video games based on movies. So this week on Held Over, I'm looking at video game movies.

Here's an ad for the atrocious movie adaptation of the video game Super Mario Brothers. It starred Bob Hoskins and John Leguizamo in roles that should have ended their Hollywood careers.

Other video game movies:
- Joysticks (1983)
- War Games (1983)
- Cloak and Dagger (1984)
- The Wizard (1989)

See the Super Mario Bros trailer:

The Wizard - Dec 16, 1989

Over on the Cavalcade of Awesome, I looked at 14 vintage ads for video games based on movies. So this week on Held Over, I'm looking at video game movies.

Here's an ad for the poster child of movies about video games, The Wizard. It features several popular Nintendo Games as well as the Nintendo Power Glove.

Other video game movies
- Joysticks (1983)
- War Games (1983)
- Cloak and Dagger (1984)

Watch The Wizard trailer:

Cloak and Dagger - Aug 10, 1984

Over on the Cavalcade of Awesome, I looked at 14 vintage ads for video games based on movies. So this week on Held Over, I'm looking at video game movies.

Here's an ad for 1984's Cloak and Dagger. Dabney Coleman plays the dual role of Henry Thomas' father and the imaginary super spy Jack Flack. Jack Flack is from the boy's favorite video game, Cloak and Dagger.

The video game that is central to this movie was based on an actual game. The game itself was in development before the movie and was named Agent X. When production started for the movie the game's gameplay was tweaked and the name was changed to Cloak & Dagger.  Screenshots for the video game in the movie came from the arcade version.  However, in the movie, the Cloak & Dagger game is a cartridge from the Atari 5200.  An Atari 5200 version of the game was planned but never released due to the home video game industry collapse in 1984, right after this movie was released.

Other video game movies:
- Joysticks (1983)
- War Games (1983)

Watch the Cloak and Dagger trailer:

War Games - Jun 3, 1983

Over on the Cavalcade of Awesome, I looked at 14 vintage ads for video games based on movies. So this week on Held Over, I'm looking at video game movies.

Here's an ad for the classic 1983 movie, War Games, starring Matthew Broderick and Ally Sheedy. In the movie Broderick's character, David Lightman, is a video gamer. You see him playing the game Galaga several times (it's even in the trailer below).

Other video game movies:
- Joysticks (1983)


See the War Games trailer:

A Nightmare on Elm Street - June 1985

Finishing my look at famous serial killer movies this week.

Here's an ad for the VHS release of the original Nightmare on Elm Street in Summer 1985.

Other famous serial killer movies:
- Silence of the Lambs (1991)
- Psycho (1960)
- Halloween (1979)

Watch the Nightmare on Elm Street trailer:

Friday the 13th - May 9, 1980

I'm looking at famous serial killer movies this week as I celebrate the 20th anniversary of Silence of the Lambs.

Here is an ad for the first Friday the 13th. Jason Vorhees debuted as a child in this movie.  However, the killer as we know him later didn't actually come about until Part 2 (sack over head Jason) or Part 3 (hockey mask Jason).

Other serial killer movies:
- Silence of the Lambs (1991)
- Psycho (1960)
- Halloween (1979)

Watch the original Friday the 13th trailer:

Halloween - Oct 25, 1979

This week is the 20th anniversary of Silence of the Lambs so I'm looking at ads for other famous serial killers.

Here is an ad for Halloween from October 1979. Halloween debuted the serial killer Michael Myers.

Other serial killer movies:
- Silence of the Lambs (1991)
- Psycho (1960)

Watch the Halloween trailer:

Psycho - Aug 25, 1960

This week is Silence of the Lambs' 20th anniversary.  To celebrate I'm looking at ads for classic serial killer movies.

Here's an ad for Hitchcock's 1960 masterpiece, Psycho, which featured the debut of serial killer Norman Bates.

Other serial killer movies
- Silence of the Lambs (1991)

Here's the Psycho trailer:

Silence of the Lambs - Feb 1, 1991

This week is the 20th anniversary of Silence of the Lambs. To celebrate Lambs' 20th anniversary I'll be looking at classic movie serial killers this week. Come back to see ads for more famous murders. All this week.

Silence opened on Feb 14, 1991. Yes, it opened on Valentine's Day. Today's ad is for a sneak preview of Silence of the Lambs about 2 weeks before it opened.  Come back tomorrow for another classic serial killer movie ad.

Here's the trailer:

Batman - Aug 12, 1966

Out final entry this week for vintage 50s and 60s ads.

Here's an ad that features the original Batman movie starring Adam West and Burt Ward.  This ad also features a bunch of other movies showing at local drive-ins.

Under Batman you can see the ad for the musical film Herman's Hermits Hold On! Which is very similar to The Beatles' movies.

In the upper right is Our Man Flint starring James Coburn.  Coburn plays Derek Flint, a very similar super spy to James Bond. There were several entries in the Derek Flint movie franchise.

In the middle-right you can see Tarzan and the Valley of Gold. This movie was an interesting animal. It featured a Bond-like, tropical suited, globetrotting Tarzan. Tarzan is asked by an old friend to rescue a kidnapped boy who supposedly knows the location of the Mexican lost city of gold (El Dorado, I guess). The novelization for this movie by Fritz Leiber was officially the 25th book in the series and the first authorized Tarzan novel by someone other than Burroughs. Leiber was personally selected by the Burroughs estate.

The final movie in the lower right is a Japanese monster movie called Frankenstein Conquers the World. It was released by Toho (Godzilla) in Japan as Frankenstein vs The Subterranean Monster Baragon.  The official English title is Frankenstein vs Baragon. The famous Japanese zaniness is in full effect as the story involves a human heart kept in a Japanese lab that is exposed to radiation during Hiroshima. The heart somehow grows LIMBS AND AN ENTIRE F**KING BODY and escapes. The monster is later captured but escapes again and starts to battle another mutated creature and their battle pretty much destroys Tokyo. It's EPIC, as you would expect nothing less from Toho.

Other 50s - 60s ads
- White Witch Doctor (1953)
- The Barefoot Contessa (1954)
- Seven Brides for Seven Brothers (1954)
- The Mississippi Gambler (1953)

I found trailers for most of the movies.

Here's the 1966 Batman movie trailer:


Not a trailer, but action scenes cut together for Coburn's Bond-like spy thriller Our Man Flint:


Trailer for Tarzan and the Valley of Gold:


Here's some footage from the Japanese monster flick, Frankenstein Conquers the World:

The Mississippi Gambler - Feb 6, 1953

Looking at vintage ads from the 50s and 60s this week.

Here's an ad for Mississipi Gambler starring Tyrone Power and Piper Laurie.  I love the tag line, "His game is fancy women...and his fate is lady luck!"  What the hell does that mean?

Other 50s - 60s ads
- White Witch Doctor (1953)
- The Barefoot Contessa (1954)
- Seven Brides for Seven Brothers (1954)

Seven Brides for Seven Brothers - Aug 13, 1954

Looking at 50s and 60s movie ads this week.

Here's the ad for Seven Brides for Seven Brothers from 1954.  One of my wife's favorties, I watched it a few years ago.  Not that good.  Howard Keel is the eldest of seven brothers.  He meets Milly in town who, surprisingly, is also the eldest of 7, and convinces her (somehow) to marry him that very day.  And also have her 6 sisters marry his 6 brothers.

The main character played by Howard Keel is kind of an insufferable douche bag.  I don't know why Jane Powell married the SOB.  Especially since she hates him at first.  And then she agrees to marry off her 6 sisters.  WTF?!  Just an odd movie.

Other 50s - 60s ads
- White Witch Doctor (1953)
- The Barefoot Contessa (1954)

Here's the trailer for Seven Brides:

The Barefoot Contessa - Nov 12, 1954

Continuing our look at ads from the 50s and 60s.

This is The Barefoot Contessa starring Humphrey Bogart and Ava Gardner. My wife is a huge fan of Food Network star, Ina Garten, whose restaurant and TV show are named after this movie.

Independently wealthy Kirk Edwards hires washed up director Harry Dawes to write/direct a new film. In a Madrid nightclub they find the beautiful but troubled Maria Vargas as their leading lady. And Maria begins to romance her way through several rich men.

Other vintage ads:
- White Witch Doctor (1953)

Here's the classic trailer for Barefoot Contessa.

White Witch Doctor - July 24, 1953

This week will be some old-school ads from the 50s and 60s.  They really had some cool ads back then.

Here's an ad for White Witch Doctor from 1953. Susan Hayward is a nurse in Africa to bring the doctor she works with fresh medical supplies. She must hire Robert Mitchum, a fortune hunter, to carry her upriver. Along the way they battle gorillas, snakes and vicious natives. And of course, they fall in love.

Breakin' - May 4, 1984

Finishing up hip hop movie week.

Here's probably the ambassador of hip hop movies, Breakin'. This is also one of my favorite movies. I saw this in the theater for my 10th birthday (notice it came out just days before that birthday). This movie and it's sequel really got me into breakdancing.

Other hip hop movies:

- Krush Groove (1985)
- Disorderlies (1987)
- Rappin' (1985)
- Beat Street (1984)

Here's the trailer:



And because it's so awesome, here's the footage of Jean Claude Van Damme during a beach scene in Breakin'. You can't miss him. He's in the black unitard.

Beat Street - Jun 8, 1984

Hip Hop movie week continues...

This is a nice ad for Beat Street from 1984. It's a more serious take for the hip hop genre.  It stars one of the worst 80s actresses of all time; Rae Dawn Chong.

Other hip hop movies:

- Krush Groove (1984)
- Disorderlies (1987)
- Rappin' (1985)

Check out the trailer for Beat Street here:



As a bonus, here's the phenomenal 5 minute long breakin' battle between the New York City Breakerz and the Rock Steady Crew.

Rappin' - May 9, 1985

We're looking at hip hop movies this week.

Here's an ad for Rappin' starring Mario Van Peebles, Eric La Salle, Kadeem Hardison and Ice-T. The ad is actually from my 11th birthday, May 9, 1985.  Unlike our previous two entries, Krush Groove and Disorderlies, this movie is not good.  Not even in the "so good it's bad" category.  It's awful, actually.  Peebles' character name is John Hood and, in the movie, they actually call him Rappin' Hood.  They seriously call him that, you guys.

Other hip hop movies:

- Krush Groove (1985)
- Disorderlies (1987)

Here's the horrible, horrible trailer for Rappin':

Disorderlies - Aug 21, 1987

Looking at hip hop movies this week.

Here's an ad for Disorderlies. It starred the rap group The Fat Boys (who were also in yesterday's Krush Groove) as bumbling orderlies at an old folks' home who are hired to care for an elderly billionaire. It's fairly amusing. Very much in the vein of the 3 Stooges.

Other hip hop movies:
- Krush Groove (1985)

Here's the trailer from video detective: