MORTAL KOMBAT!
This week Justin and Mitchell take another look at the 1995 film adaptation of the arcade klassic, "Mortal Kombat". This movie was suggested to us by one of our wonderful Patreon supporters. If you'd like to check out the show, just search for the "Next Level Nerd Movie Podcast" wherever podcasts are sold and if you want to gain access to exclusive NLN content, please consider donating a dollar or more at patreon.com/nextlevelnerd.
Movie: Mortal Kombat
Released: August 18th, 1995
Production Company: New Line Cinema & Threshold Entertainment
MPAA: PG-13 which is understandable considering the audience, but an R rating would have been more on par with the overall tone of the games
Runtime: 1:41
General Info:
Critical Response:
Rotten Tomatoes:
Tomato Meter: 38%
Audience Score: 57%
Meta Critic:
58/100
Cinema Score:
A-
Financials:
-Budget: $18 Million
-Box Office:#1 at the box office during its opening weekend and held the top spot for 3 weeks. Grossed $70 million domestically, and earned $122 million worldwide.
Tagline(s):
-Choose Your Destiny...
-FIGHT!
-Nothing In This World Has Prepared You For This
-Kombat Begins
-Flawless Victory
-Test Your Might
Written by:
-Ed Boon & John Tobais are credited for the use of their game characters.
-Kevin Droney
-Also adapted the video game series Wing Commander to a Freddie Prinze Jr. movie.
-Highlander - TV Series
-Jake and the Fatman – TV Series
Directed by:
-Paul W.S. Anderson – this was only his second movie
-Event Horizon
-Resident Evil Movies
-AVP: Alien vs. Predator
-Pompeii
-Currently working on an adaptation of the Monster Hunter games which is due out this year
Music:
The soundtrack includes some real bangers such as that glorious theme song done by The Immortals, 3 songs from Stabbing Westward, Fear Factory, KMFDM’s Juke-Joint Jezebel (which I was totally into during this time), Napalm Death, Buckethead, and other nu-metal and electronic music of the mid-nineties. It also includes an original score from George S. Clinton (not the P-funk guy). He scored movies like the Austin Powers trilogy, Beverly Hills Ninja, Wild Things, and the Santa Clause sequel films. The soundtrack went platinum in less than two weeks.
The Cast:
o Christopher Lambert as Raiden
-Highlander
o Robin Shou as Liu Kang
-Beverly Hills Ninja opposite of Chris Farley
-The Sequel – MK Annihilation
o Linden Ashby as Johnny Cage
-Teen Wolf – TV Series
-Small part in Iron Man 3
-Melrose Place
-Kevin Costner’s Wyatt Earp’s brother Morgan Earp
-8 Seconds
o Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa as Shang Tsung – He’s excellent in this. Such amazing exaggerated delivery.
-Krull in the awful Tim Burton reboot of Planet of the Apes
-Amazon’s The Man in the High Castle – TV Series
-Netflix’s Lost In Space – TV Series
-Star Wars Rebels and the good Nickelodeon TMNT series
-Elektra
-Was an extra in Big Trouble In Little China
o Bridgette Wilson - Miss Teen USA 1990 as Sonya Blade
-THAT VERONICA VAUGHN… from Billy Madison
-Whitney/Meredith in Last Action Hero
-Higher Learning
-A few Saved by the Bell episodes as “Ginger”
o Talisa Soto as Kitana – Former model appearing on the covers of Glamour, Vogue, and the coveted Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Edition
-Revived this role in the awful sequel
-Spy Hard
-Don Juan DeMarco
-License to Kill 007
o Voice work from
-Frank Welker as Shao Kahn and Reptile
-Ed Boon, series co-creator does the voice of Scorpion
-Kevin Michael Richardson as Goro
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