Billy Lee saying "My whole life just flashed before my eyes! Dude... I sleep a lot!" may be the greatest line ever contributed to cinema.

"Star Wars and Raiders of the Lost Ark meets Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" is Uwe Boll levels of delusion.

"Koga Shuko is an American male who believes he's a reincarnated Japanese warlord." So basically Geese Howard?

I will straight up say there is no video-game-to-movie curse. It's just the effects of adaptation coupled with zero respect for source material. Books routinely have terrible movie adaptations, that's because Video Games, Novels, and Television Series are all "long-form storytelling", while feature films, novellas, and short stories are "short-form storytelling". Transferring a long-form to a short-form requires cuts and changes, and it is even more confusing because Video Games have a completely different sense of pacing due to gameplay. When you add on top of those issues the fact that the vast majority of writers and directors given the task of adaptation would sooner wipe their ass with the game disk than try to beat the game, you get video game movies. You know why every likes Raul Julia's performance in Street Fighter? Because he was trying. He wasn't trying for a realistic and human performance, he was trying to be entertaining and fun and just enjoy the role he was given. He was in that movie because his kids asked him to be and he wanted to leave them with something they'd love to remember him before he died. He gave a shit. Not in the "OH THIS WILL MAKE MY CAREER" kind of way, but rather in that he really took a chance to understand what he needed to do to be entertaining in that role. If we had more directors and writers with a personal, emotional attachment like that, we could get both cheesy-good movies and more "serious" approaches to game adaptations too. We're in the age where more and more creatives grew up with this stuff, so hopefully we see that shift, but if you're not invested personally in the source material, you shouldn't be paid to adapt it.

The hilarious thing is that there were so many people working on this that went on to make stellar blockbusters. The first script was written by the writer of Batman TAS, the second by the guys who wrote Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul, and jokes were added in by the guy behind That 70s Show. Based simply on the future of the people behind it, it should have been the God-Emperor of Blockbusters.

Man, 2007 was a lot different than I remember.

I can’t believe the writers of Breaking Bad were a part of this.

All I see is Super Sentai meets Bill and Ted: The Movie.

This isn't a good movie, but there are lines that I love "special delivery: AIR MAIL!!!!"

"Twice the pride, double the fall"

Holy crap the talent they had access to! What a beautiful mess.

4:20 keep in mind that in TV land 'Created by' is meaningless. In many cases it goes to the guy at the studio who came up with a 1 sentence premise that is so vague as to be meaningless and then hired people to make the actual show. For a real life example, one studio exec sent an e-mail saying simply 'make me something to do with the concept of time'. That's a real example that resulted in a major blockbuster TV show. That guy who wrote those words (and only those words) and left everything else to the writers is credited on the show as the 'Creator'.

So this started after a session of the ARCADE VERSION of Double Dragon THREE. Can't get much more 'Mistake Number One' than THAT...

"All crime is..apparently legal?" The Purge: *screeches in protest*

Robert Patrick is great in this movie. The perfect mix of silly and threatening for a kids’ movie. “I just want total domination of one major American city! Is that too much to ask for?!”

I only now realized Jimmy was played by Marc Dacascos lmao. Very underrated actor with sick martial arts skills. His performances in "Brotherhood of the Wolf", "John Wick 3" and as Kung Lao in "Mortal Kombat Legacy" were awesome.

Oh how I've wanted you to cover this masterpiece. I remember seeing this movie in theaters as a kid...I distinctly remember being one of only about 6 people in the entire theater.

I was an actor in a movie recently filmed back in 2018 and the on set director was the director of Double Dragon. Actually got to talk to him about the movie because it's been one of my favorite "so bad it's good" movies to watch with friends. He told me they actually got banned from the original country they filmed in because of a tank scene. Their is a historical monument that a tank drives up its steps. The tank actually destroys a lot of the steps, so badly that the country literally kicked them out and banned them from coming back. The movie changed country filming locations mid movie because of this lol. The movie I was in is called Run with the Hunted. He promised me that if by some crazy ass miracle they made a sequel as a joke that I'd get to be in the movie lol. Anyways there's a fun fact about the movie that I don't think many know about. Keep up the great content Matt!

Hey Matt, not sure if you'll get to read this, but your videos are something I always look forward to especially in these trying times. Thank you for being awesome.

Watching the footage of the cartoon gave me chills.

Many people don’t realize that the Chairman of Iron Chef America is one of the Lee brothers.

12:50 Matt ya almost made it to the finish line without an OSW quote! "If ya wanna get over in 20 years, be shit right now" 😂 phew! love ya mate

can´t wait until you get into the Mila Jovovich vs Zombies movies. xD

Bimmy is my favorite Final Fight character to play in Streets of Rage

I've long considered Double Dragon to be a bit of a hidden gem of a so-bad-it's-good movie. It's a favorite to haul out on a movie night because it's hysterical and not many of my friends have already seen it. I'm kind of a sucker for that 90's cartoonish post-apocalyptic aesthetic tho, you give me some themed gangs, weird pollution, and neon and I'm good.

Please do a what happened on waterworld already. I need to know why universal studios still runs a stage show attraction based on one of their most infamous failures.

I still play that Neo-geo fighter every once in a while, it's super solid. Speaking of double dragon and Neo-geo, rage of the dragons might be worth a "what happened?"

that part about the 200 emergency services calls from the under informed explosion in Cleveland had me laughing hard

2:37 I'm not gonna lie: I was oddly obsessed with the Double Dragon cartoon as a kid and it's what led me to discover the game.

Oh no, it's Alyssa Milano. The all mighty Phoebe has returned. God help us all.

Coincidentally, one of the writers of this film, Michael Davis, would later go on to write and direct his own film, also coincidentally produced by Don Murphy who produced Double Dragon. Shoot 'Em Up, one of the most awesome, and highly underrated action films of the 2000s. The fact that he hasn't done anything noteworthy ever since is criminal.

I think the way they could've made this successful is if they focused on making an action-packed martial arts set-piece movie with less goofy concepts and more tightly choreographed fight scenes. They could've even kept it relatively family friendly going that route, just focus on the right parts of the property. Coming at it from the "it's a video game movie, so we have to make it *like* a video game" angle was a mistake. They should've set out to make a solid marital arts adventure with some comedy and family content first, and use some of the ideas and framework from the games. If they had done that, people would've seen it back then whether or not the brand of the game was strong, since the product would be quality, and they'd learn it was an adaptation of a video game after the fact.

An obscure one but there's a final fantasy 5 movie sequel that was a strange but artsy take on that world set many years after, I always wondered how and why it existed, also how it got a dub too even though ffv wasn't brought to the west for years. Film isn't awful just an anime, but good use of open fields big scenes that feel huge, worth a watch

As someone born in '91, I had never actually played a Double Dragon game before seeing this movie on VHS, which may account for why I actually kinda love it. Like, there were some aspects that even kid me could recognize didn't work, but the movie as a whole was still an enjoyably fun romp that I watched numerous times.

While what I am about to say was only a very minor factor back in the day, it was still a factor for some. Some kids got hyped up back in the day over movies like Street Fighter and Double Dragon regardless of how bad they were as movies. *Just the fact that a movie was being made from a video game was a big deal. It validated and legitimized video games for kids who maybe had parents who were dismissive of video games as a real art form.* Even if the movie sucked, there was still this energy that surrounded movies that were based on video games. From what I remember, actually living in those times as a teenager, the first Mortal Kombat movie was thought of as the first decent video game movie when compared to Street Fighter and the others.

They weren’t loyal to the source material. It was Bimmy Lee.

The same producer of this movie went on to produce the Bayformers movies

Oh wow, I didn’t know the game was inspired on Fist of the North Star. 😯

I remember me loving this movie as a dumb little kid....and even now as a dumb big adult. Still holds a place in my heart.

As a kid my only complaing was how little they actually fight, and how quick the movie ends once they finally become the Double Dragons. But I had a lot of fun watching, and I could quote the entire movie!

Now, imagine watching the movie as your first exposure to Double Dragon and actualy liking it ... I was a weird kid

For what it was when it was, the Double Dragon cartoon was alright. It was a syndicated looking cartoon that always aired at the end of Saturday morning line-up hits. Even as a young teen, I wasn't expecting it to win any awards. I'm surprised there was no mention on the Double Dragon comic book from Marvel! It was published around the same time. (And had "Stan Lee" as Billy and Jimmy's father!)

I really did not expect so many creators of heavily acclaimed things to be involved w/ this travesty.

And to this day, haven't seen the movie to completion, especially for a video, since the lore hasn't really expanded for me to cover, which is a shame.

I've never actually watched this film but I must admit I have a real nostalgic soft spot for that Street Fighter film. Raul Julia was such a good villain!

Reminded me of how my trash my tastes were as a kid with that clip of the Double Dragon cartoon 🤣

7:41 "Koga Shuko is an American male who believes that he's a reincarnated Japanese warlord" Clearly the inspiration for some of Scarlett Johansson roles

I like how Double Dragon V released more than 20 years before Double Dragon IV. Crazy.

Straight up banger Matt. keep it up

Your intro is the best on KZfaq by far

Could you do a What Happened on The Island Of Dr. Moreau

Aww thought you was going to do dragonball evolution : the game of the movie of the anime of the manga 😁

Wha Happun Shenmue 3 absolutely NEEDS to happen!

I aint gonna lie. I f'in loved the character and how they kept recruited dudes to join their little gang and giving them new powers and abilities. T'was dope!

I remember that movie, and remembered *loving it* as a kid. The show too. It was in that same programming block as stuff like Mortal Kombat, I think.

Being one who did a retrospective of the Cartoon...yeah, anything was better than the movie. seriously, Matt, thank you for the work you do day-in-and-day-out

Loving the new intro man looks great

It would be kind of nice to do a What Happened on an animated film and what better animated film to do one on than the infamous Food Fight.

This movie was my childhood! Such a turd but very nostalgic

I think the most entertaining part of the video for me was that Matt didn't even get to the part where Scott Wolf obviously can't fight.

To be a dragon you gotta be strong, humble never braggin'

Mark Dacascos is a legend! Shame he never really took off as big as others, was great to see him in John Wick 3 though :D

Still the best video game movie, thank you for covering it!

I loved the double dragon movie, i even stole the blu ray copy from my old job lol

when i was a kid nobody told me this was a bad movie so i watched it a hundred times and i loved it

I love that Jimmy in the cartoon @2:38 is just straight up Goku with his outfit and hair

I agree; we all make mistakes. It's how we learn and grow. It's when we continue to make the same ones and don't seemingly learn that there's a problem.

Idk why when he said “chill out ima dragon too” I laughed way harder then I should have 😆

This movie is a guilty pleasure of mine, it's painted backgrounds are great. Also, the sets are pretty cool.

You’d think a Double Dragon movie would write itself but boy did they screw up

The infamous scene of the actual Double Dragon arcade game in the background is like a "Self-Product Placement". (5:55) And speaking of product placement, what about a What Happened episode for Mac and Me or UHF.

Hey Matt, what was the last song used for the video? I want to hear a full version of it if possible. Sounds ethereal and awesome.

I watched this movie a million times as a kid. Got a special place in this heart

Just had my own DiCaprio moment when I recognized the Flats in Cleveland (my hometown) in one of the film snippets.

What happened was, they made one of the all time greatest video game films.

I never got to watch this movie back in the day though I did had the chance on the Street Fighter movie in theaters. I did however watched the Double Dragon cartoon when it was aired in the mid or late 90's in my country (I think) and seeing this vid made me realize that the Lee Brothers were cosplaying as Kenshiro from Fist of the Northstar.

Excellent choice on such a forgotten film. I love the series growing up and even as a very impressionable 10 year old the trailers for this movie did no inspire confidence. Even looking back after recently playing the old NES titles I really can't imagine it being made into any kind of a decent movie.

I know it changed a while ago but I have to say I love the intro.

Lol I forgot Alyssa Milano was in this movie. I rented this and Mario Bros so many times from Blockbuster as a kid. I don't care if they sucked, i loved em

Somethings are best left forgotten...

Nice intro matt

I would love to hear about the Phillip CD-i and it's history, along with the Zelda CD-i games that were released on it.

Chemlab's Codeine, Glue And You was filmed on the set of Double Dragon. So, if you're in to industrial, that's something good that came out of all of this.

🤘🤘 this was awesome

El Shaddai! So often I think I'm the only one who remembers that game. I think it's as close as gaming as ever come to creating a beautiful work of art. An underappreciated gem.

The Double Dragon movie may be cheesy but I like it because the T-1000 himself Robert Patrick is in it.

I'm still a fan of Double Dragon and hope that one day DD comes back in a big way. Arc System Works just needs to put the love and care they did into River City Girls into a new DD

Loved this movie back in the days but wasn't old enough to appreciate how fire the lady in this movie was!

"Koga Shuku is an American Male who believes he is a reincarnated Japanese Warlord" ...Sooo, he's a Dollar Store Geese Howard?

Matt, if could you link that kick ass metal cover of the lvl 1 music from DD1, that’d be great ❤️

Man, the Double Dragon Neon soundtrack in the background is still so fucking good!

This content should be on Netflix it's outright fantastic

I loved that Movie as a Kid... Hmmm have to see it again! ^^

Still you gotta admit...that trailer with a techno version of Carmina Burana...pure 90's glee and joy

I find it crazy that this was filmed in my hometown (Cleveland). I wasn’t around at this time, but I’m curious if my family was aware of this movie, especially the explosion stuff.

What is the song at the end? I need to get around to watching this movie someday. It sounds so bad it's awesome.

I'll always remember the line from the mailman who jumps off that silo: "Special delivery: AIRMAAAAAAAAIIIL!!!"

Beautiful.

This movie will forever hold a place in the rose tinted nostalgia chamber of my soul

"Certainly, we could do better than Mario Bros." Gotta admit though, it's impressive they didn't.