This Hollywood movie, based upon the immensely popular computer game, is one of the more successful attempts at cashing in on a popular culture. "Mortal Kombat" features several of the characters from the computer game and they translate well onto the big screen. The approach in the making of this movie, is to make the violence as comic strip as possible. In addition, both the setting and the martial arts action are given a fantasy look. Some of the scenes tend to feature some crazy s*** regarding the above. You instantly realise that such things could never happen like that in real life. I have no idea how skilled the cast were in the field of self defence but the choreography comes thick and fast. The script clearly wasn't going to include much in the way of character depth and why should it? Apart from the numourous fight scenes, I like the slight references to the masterpiece, "Enter the Dragon." The said tournament taking place on an island that has no official existence, the leading hero trying to be Bruce Lee etc. The acting isn't the best I have ever seen but the one who plays Johnny Cage is quite a laugh. One of the Carradine brothers makes a cameo appearance but is completely wasted. A hugely entertaining martial arts fest and one to remember.

Based on the hit video game for the Sega Genesis, Mortal Kombat involves three great fighters, Lui Kang, a monk, Sonya Blade, a gun-wielding cop, and Johnny Cage, an actor, that are guided by fate to a tournament. At the beginning of the movie, on a Chinese junk ship, they meet Lord Raiden, the God of Lightning and Thunder and the Protector of the realm of earth. They cast off to an island where the tournament is to be held. The souls controlled by Shang Tsung, a wizard from Outworld, fly around. The winner will ensure that the men and women of earth do not share a similar fate. And each fighter has his or her own self-interest in winning. Watch the movie to see who wins!

I'm not going to try and convince you that 1995's "Mortal Kombat" is a spectacular film. Heck, I'm not even going to try to convince you that it's particularly good. Inspired by the brutal arcade games, the film is little more than a broad piece of "fluff"... a shallow bit of entertainment filled to burst with only the most common of cliché and trope, with an emphasis on effects over substance and action over drama. It's cheese, plain and simple. And yet, director Paul W.S. Anderson's film has gone on to become something of an icon for children of the 90's. A pop-culture phenomena that is still widely beloved. Even its brilliantly goofy techno theme-song is still a standard at many a nightclub and house- party. It's elevated itself beyond its boundaries and is now often regarded as a classic of its decade, fondly recollected by those of us who used to obsessively rent the VHS at Video King every weekend. Oh, it's cheese. But it's delicious, nostalgic and entertaining 90's cheese.A group of Earth's greatest warriors- including the vengeful Liu Kang (Robin Shou), special forces agent Sonya Blade (Bridgette Wilson) and washed-up action-star Johnny Cage (Linden Ashby) are united by Thunder God Raiden (Christopher Lambert) to take part in a legendary tournament known as "Mortal Kombat." The goal is to pit fighters from various realms and dimensions against one another to find the greatest warriors in the known universe. However, should a world lose ten consecutive tournaments, they will be at the mercy of the victor- in this case, the dreaded "Outworld" has won nine against Earth, and the treacherous sorcerer Shang Tsung (Cary- Hiroyuki Tagawa) is eyeing his tenth victory so that he may conquer the Earth for his emperor. And so, our heroes must try and save the planet with the help of Outworld princess Kitana (Talisa Soto), who seeks retribution for the death of her parents at the emperor's hands.Yes, the plot sounds very silly, and indeed it is, often being summarized as a fantasy riff on the classic Bruce Lee film "Enter the Dragon." But it's not the main focus here. Merely a backdrop to help deliver what the film excels at, which is the development of highly likable characters and wonderfully thrilling action sequences, with at the time mind- bending special effects. You'll find yourself very much willing to forgive the somewhat shoddy story development for these very reasons.The fantastic casting of our lead actors and the witty dialog helps us care and root for our heroes. Shou is fantastic as our "chosen one" hero Liu Kang, a man haunted by the death of his brother at the hands of the dreaded Shang Tsung. He's got a dark streak as a result, but also a very humanizing and identifiable sense of wit, and will occasionally snap back with a clever comeback or joke to remind us that he's not just a blank-slate, but has a likable personality despite his turmoil. Wilson is quite good as Sonya, who similarly has a chip on her shoulder thanks to the death of her partner. She's sort-of the most serious of our group, and while the role may come off as flatter than the others as a result, she plays an invaluable role thanks to evening everyone out. Ashby is a wonderful addition, and is the closest we have to a traditional comic relief. Formerly a famed actor, Johnny is now a bit of a diva, but Ashby wisely plays him as being just self-aware enough to know that he needs to grow up to become a better person. But he never quite lets go, leading to some golden moments of comedy. But Lambert and Tagawa steal the show in their roles as Raiden and Shang Tsung. Lambert seems to be having the most fun he's ever had, and he uniquely interprets the all-power Thunder God as having a bit of a sarcastic sense of humor, which I found very welcoming. He's just detached enough from mortality to not quite be able to fit in with the other heroes, leading to some nice "culture clash" moments of humor. And Tagawa just chews the scenery in the perfect way as our fiendishly entertaining villain. He knows he's crafting a character that you'll love to hate, and he plays the role to perfection, with a childish glee.The action is the other big highlight here, and even more than twenty years later, I think it generally holds up. This was one of those first big, sweeping martial-arts hits in the United States, and we hadn't seen anything quite like it at the time. The concept of a tournament featuring fighters from different worlds and dimensions allows for some splendid and entertaining mash- ups, so no two fights are quite the same, and there's good variety. There's also a really nice natural progression over the course of the film, so the stakes really ramp up with each passing action beat. Director Paul W.S. Anderson has a really keen eye for scope and composition, and knows how to perfectly frame a shot and cut together sequences to make for some great gasps and winces from his audience. And he knows just the right moments to supply enough levity for us to catch our breath before hitting us again with an even more intense martial arts battle. It's splendidly directed and structured and there's never a dull moment.In the end, "Mortal Kombat" may not be a great film. But it is great entertainment. It's a fun and wild relic of its time, and I know that for this fan, it'll always be a movie I pop on now and again for nostalgic kicks. I give it a very strong 8 out of 10 for this reason. Pop on the nostalgia goggles and get ready to have a fast, fun time.

Debuting in 1992 by Midway Games, Mortal Kombat made a highly admirable appearance in the spotlight following its release. This video game franchise made for one of the most influential entries in the fighting game genre as well as video game industry as a whole. While the series garnered massive popularity among gamers everywhere, it also sparked a fair amount of controversy when it let gamers in on a surprise introduction of graphic violence at a time when video game content was limited to child-friendly territory, eventually contributing to the launch of the ESRB rating system. Nonetheless, the franchise continues to be highly successful both commercially and critically. But like many popular game franchise from the 80s and 90s such as 'Super Mario Bros' and 'Street Fighter', Hollywood was overly eager to grant audiences a cinematic adaptation of the games. This is where director Paul W. S. Anderson comes in the picture to translate our favorite MK heroes (and villains) to the silver screen, but with underwhelming results on bringing the spirit of the game to life on-screen; although not as inept as many of the other video game-inspired entries Hollywood has sprung on us. The film follows Liu Kang (played by Robin Shou), a martial arts warrior in search of Shang Tsung (played by Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa), an evil sorcerer responsible for the death of his brother. He joins forces with Hollywood actor Johnny Cage (played by Linden Ashby), special forces agent Sonya Blade (played by Bridgette Wilson), and a mysterious thunder god Raiden (played by Christopher Lambert) in a brutal battle against Shang Tsung and his evil forces that threaten to dominate the Earth.The 90s was the decade when Hollywood faced a long string of depressing attempts to translate video game universes to the cinematic world, as the results often came cheesy, or just plain bad (Take the Super Mario Bros film for an example); though it is safe to the lack of appropriate computer technology was to blame. Among the all video game-based action flicks we were granted with, this action adventure directed Paul W. S. Anderson (who would later go on to adapt the 'Resident Evil' series) stands as the strongest of the bunch. That is not to say that Anderson's directorial effort make for a compelling ride. The film treats us on an adventure following characters fans of the video games should be familiar, and it advances through a rather generic plot that grows a little tedious during the last act. For those who play the games however, are introduced to some familiar meat to the source material including some notable side characters that pop in and out of the plot. Through Anderson manages to capture some glimpses of excitement, they don't quite make up the shortage of thrills and elements from the game that are either lazily shoehorned in or not present at all. And the fighting sequences are in some degree entertaining, but ultimately cheesy especially with the (unsurprisingly) poor CGI. And with the notorious blood and gore from the games fizzled out with a PG-13 rating, don't expect to see characters' heads chopped off or Johnny Cage picking a bad guy in half with his bare hands. Though the characters here are likable in most sense, their charisma is sadly washed away the sub-par performances and redundantly cheesy dialogue which doesn't serve much justice, particularly for fans of the video games.Mortal Kombat is a mediocre action adventure piece that falls a bit underwhelming in translating its popular source material to the screen. Though it is somewhat entertaining for those who seek for a disposable martial arts action set pieces and a surface-level plot, the results of Paul W. S. Anderson's directorial effort render the film mostly forgettable, even for hardcore video game fans.