YMMV / Double Dragon (1994)

• Complete Monster: Koga Shuko, previously Victor Guisman, is a wealthy businessman who seeks to expand his control over New Angeles. Searching for the Double Dragon medallion to acquire its power, Koga sends his men to raid a village guarding the medallion, uncaring about the villagers' deaths. Converting Abobo into a giant, monstrous mook after he fails him, he blows up Satori Imada, and places a bounty on Billy and Jimmy Lee, seeking their other half of the medallion. Keeping his goons in suspended animation in his laboratory, he has them converted into cybernetic henchmen. Kidnapping Jimmy, he reveals that he murdered his father, and possesses him in order to kill Billy to take the other half of the medallion, threatening to kill Jimmy if he doesn't hand it over.
• Designated Hero: Billy. The movie depicts him as a hot-headed, obnoxious screwup who essentially derails all of Marian's plans and only wins by sheer luck.
• Fashion-Victim Villain: Koga Shuko's get-up makes him look a little too much like Vanilla Ice to make for a menacing villain.
• Gratuitous Special Effects: Marian's little brother, at one point, uses a VR headset solely to work in more CGI effects.
• Ham and Cheese: Robert Patrick knows exactly what kind of film he's in, and doesn't so much chew the scenery as gobble it up.
  Koga Shuko: I JUST WANT TOTAL DOMINATION OF ONE MAJOR AMERICAN CITY! IS THAT TOO MUCH TO ASK FOR?
• Hilarious in Hindsight: Double Dragon started as an homage to Fist of the North Star and Nils Allen Stewart plays Abobo, who in the movie looks more like a mook from that series given his mohawk and overall getup more than his actual game counterpart. The hilarious part comes from the fact that he later played Zeed in the 1995 live-action adaptation of the manga, although ironically looking less like a Fist of the North Star mook than he did in this movie.
• Moral Event Horizon: Shuko blowing up Satori, with the added cruelty of using his medallion to possess her just to make her watch.
• No Problem with Licensed Games: While the film is generally loathed, the Neo Geo fighting game based on it is considered an underrated hidden gem of a fighter in the Neo Geo's library.
• Questionable Casting: The general opinion of the decision to have Scott Wolf play Billy. He's got enough good looks and charm to play a leading role, but unlike Mark Dacascos, he obviously wasn't an accomplished martial artist, and that's kind of a liability when you're playing an accomplished martial artist.
• Retroactive Recognition: Somewhat unusually, this applies to one of the writers rather than any of the actors; co-writer Peter Gould would go on to write many episodes of Breaking Bad, and co-created Better Call Saul.
• So Bad, It's Good: The movie is cheesier than a tray of gas-station nachos, and it can be every bit as enjoyable when you've had a little too much to drink.
• Special Effect Failure: Many of the effects involving Koga are quite hokey and look like last minute additions.
  • Especially when he arrives as a shadow being, then morphs into the ninja wraiths during the climax.
  • Some of the matte paintings depicting New Angeles appear unfinished as well.
• Video Game Movies Suck: The movie is a considered a textbook example of this trope, but some of the characters and plot elements from the movie were adapted into the Double Dragon fighting game for the Neo-Geo. And it had Alyssa Milano going for it, so it wasn't completely bad.

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