Streets of Rage

This is my favorite movie, and I like her fight action scene. But she (Mimi Lesseos) should appeal her fight action much much ... much more !!! I think she demonstrates only 10% of her fight skills.

During the early- to mid-90s, ex-pro wrestler Mimi Lesseos became the only woman to make a serious run for Cynthia Rothrock's crown of top female action hero in North America. While she certainly had the moves and the enthusiasm, what she lacked were good directors and proper funding. "Streets of Rage" here acts a decent representative of her output during this time, because regardless of the strength of the story or the potential of the martial arts scenes, the movie is dragged down by never failing to look like a lower-budget TV show, making Mimi look infinitely inferior to the more popular Cynthia.

The story: ex-military operative-turned-reporter Melody Sails (Lesseos, Pushed to the Limit) investigates the suffering of street children at the hands of an exploitive and mysterious pimp (Oliver Page, bit player in Titanic).

It might be just me, but I appreciate plots that allow for righteous indignation like this one. Years later, Steven Seagal would tackle a similar premise in Out of Reach, but Lesseos' tale is a bit more realistic and, because of that, decently affecting: you really get to hate the villain and want Melody to succeed. There's also a vague women's liberation-type subplot wherein she learns to break away from a manipulative boyfriend, and that's also kind of cool. What isn't cool, though, is how the story too often takes precedence over the action scenes. At one point, I'm pretty sure it goes an entire half-hour without a single real fight taking place, even though the story is definitely not a strong enough drama to stand for so long on its own, especially with no real quality actors to supplement it.

The scenes of hand-to-hand combat are filmed in a very basic, no-frills style with only one or two cameras, doing a good job of displaying both their strengths and weaknesses. Mimi is a better-than-average film fighter, capable of both kicks and throws, and unlike her superior Cynthia Rothrock, she always looks like she's putting all her strength into her moves, making them a bit more realistic. Grappling icon Gokor Chivichyan (Xtreme Fighter) plays the main villain's enforcer but displays his surprising efficiency in jumping kicks instead of his usual MMA. Sadly, the showdown between these two becomes the only well-paced back & forth battle of the film, since the rest of the six encounters are almost exclusively made up of Mimi battling off multiple thugs at once. The choreography is so-so, occasionally allowing for a nifty headscissors takedown or Mimi smacking an assassin in the puss with a broom (at one point, she borrows Rothrock's scorpion kick), but otherwise it's just basic punch-kick. At one point, Lesseos attempts a judo hip throw and visibly struggles with the move. Later, she embarrasses herself with the fakest-looking mounted punches I had ever seen.

As mentioned earlier, the film looks cheap; not necessarily in a boring way, but still pretty pressed for funds (it was one of the first Richard Elfman had ever directed). I don't want to say it ruined the movie for me, but coming from the golden age of home video when trashy action flicks like this had the potential to look like Hollywood productions, I'm at least disappointed that "Streets of Rage" looks about a decade ahead of its time, from an era when less effort is put into movies not destined for theaters. I'm not sure I can recommend this one to anybody, especially with all the better alternatives out there, but at least it's not something you ought to actively avoid. Buy at your own risk, though.

I saw this movie some years ago. In terms of her acting capability, Mimi Lesseos makes Cynthia Rothrock look like Meryl Streep.

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