Mortal Kombat (1995)
★★ — Mortal Kombat (1995)
Paul W. S. Anderson was a relative newcomer when New Line Cinema handed him this adaptation of Midway's massively popular arcade fighting game, his only prior feature being the low-budget British thriller Shopping (1994). The mid-1990s were peak territory for video game adaptations in Hollywood, arriving just two years after the disastrous Super Mario Bros. and one year after the equally troubled Street Fighter, so the studio had reasonable cause for anxiety. Shot largely on location in Thailand and Los Angeles on a modest $18 million budget, the film went on to gross over $120 million worldwide, a result that effectively launched Anderson's career as a director of effects-heavy genre pictures (Event Horizon, Resident Evil). Robin Shou, a Hong Kong martial arts actor, landed his first major Hollywood role here as Liu Kang.
Rewatching Mortal Kombat on its 30th anniversary with my girlfriend was equal parts nostalgic joy and full-on secondhand cringe. As a kid, this film was peak cinema, lightning gods, flaming skulls, “Finish him!” etc.. it felt like the coolest thing ever. Now? It’s a gloriously campy, wildly earnest B-movie with all the subtlety of a uppercut from Liu Kang. The story (Earthrealm warriors fighting in a tournament to stop Outworld from invading) is actually solid, ripped straight from the arcade logic, and the synth-heavy soundtrack by Graeme Revell is still 100% iconic. I can’t hear the main theme without mentally yelling “Mortal Kombat!” in a deep voice. But wow, the acting. Christopher Lambert as Raiden delivering lines like “To serve and protect is their duty” with the gravitas of a man reading a parking ticket. Robin Shou (Liu Kang) is the only one who doesn’t look embarrassed. And the effects... oh, the effects. The wire work is hilariously obvious, the CGI is PS1-level blocky, and Scorpion’s “GET OVER HERE!” teleport is just a man in yellow spandex yanked sideways by an invisible rope. It’s all so bad, but in a way that somehow works, there’s a sincerity to the cheese that keeps it from being unwatchable. It’s not a good film by any real metric. But it’s a fun one, a time capsule of mid-90s video game mania, martial arts obsession, and zero self-awareness. As a kid, I believed every second. Now, I laugh at all of it, then immediately want to play the game.
Rating: ★★ | Year: 1995 | Watched: 2025-08-18
Where to watch (UK)
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Physical: Amazon UK
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Related on Movies With Macca
More from Paul W. S. Anderson: Resident Evil: Retribution (2012) · Resident Evil: The Final Chapter (2016) · Resident Evil: Afterlife (2010) · Death Race (2008)
More with Robin Shou: Mortal Kombat: Annihilation (1997)
More from the 1990s: Lessons of Darkness (1992) · Shinjuku Boys (1995) · Blue (1993) · Cemetery Man (1994)
More action: A Better Tomorrow (1986) · The General (1926) · Hand of Death (1976) · Daredevil (2003)
More fantasy: Viy (1967) · Alice in Wonderland (1951) · Mononoke the Movie: The Phantom in the Rain (2024) · Mononoke the Movie: Chapter II - The Ashes of Rage (2025)
