Street Fighter

As a scriptwriter, Steven E de Souza made his name with Die Hard and its sequel; on the strength of this directorial debut, the day-job option would seem the better bet. Like many before him, director de Souza falls foul of transferring a necessarily repetitive computer game to the big screen: instead of a fluid narrative, we have a stop-start plot with too many heroes, multiple plot threads, and virtually no suspense or excitement. Having taken 63 hostages, renegade warlord General M Bison (Julia) demands a hefty ransom. Colonel Guile (Van Damme) and more than a dozen multi-ethnic heroes then try to penetrate the defences of Bison's impregnable hi-tech fortress. Julia (in his final role) hams it up shamelessly as the camp commandant, but not even his suave presence and throwaway quips can save this noisy, brainless mess.