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Mortal Kombat
New Line Cinema

Mortal Kombat reviews
Critic Score
Metascore: 58 Metascore out of 100
User Score  
8.7 out of 10
based on 12 reviews
Read critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
based on 7 votes
Read user comments
Rate this movie

MPAA RATING: PG-13 for non-stop martial arts action and some violence

Starring Christopher Lambert, Robin Shou, Linden Ashby, Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa, Bridgette Wilson, Talisa Soto, Trevor Goddard, and Chris Casamassa

Summoned to a mysterious island, three martial arts warriors engage in the ultimate battle of good vs. evil. (New Line Cinema)


GENRE(S): Action  |  Adventure  |  Fantasy  
WRITTEN BY: Kevin Droney
Ed Boon (video games)
John Tobias (video games)
 
DIRECTED BY: Paul W.S. Anderson  
RELEASE DATE: DVD: March 26, 1997 
Video: May 21, 1996 
Theatrical: August 18, 1995 
RUNNING TIME: 101 minutes, Color 
ORIGIN: USA 

What The Critics Said

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

90
Los Angeles Times Kevin Thomas
A martial arts action-adventure with wondrous special effects and witty production design, it effectively combines supernatural terror, a mythical slay-the-dragon, save-the-princess odyssey and even a spiritual quest for self-knowledge. [21 Aug 1995 Pg. F3]
75
Christian Science Monitor Peter Rainer
It is one continuous fight sequence from opening scene to final credits, but lacks the blood, profanity, and gore that would have merited a more adult rating.
Read Full Review
70
The New York Times Stephen Holden
The movie's extensive martial arts sequences, in which combatants bounce off each other doing triple handsprings, suggest a slightly more earthbound version of the aerial ballets in Hong Kong action-adventure films.
Read Full Review
70
Variety Leonard Klady
But where others have sunk in the mire of imitation, director Paul Anderson and writer Kevin Droney effect a viable balance between exquisitely choreographed action and ironic visual and verbal counterpoint.
Read Full Review
63
TV Guide Staff(not credited)
Expect lots of earsplitting music, garish visuals and badly staged martial arts action.
Read Full Review
60
Washington Post Richard Harrington
A mix of martial-arts and special-effects magic, the film serves its nonstop confrontations either straight up or with a twist (as when they involve Kombatants with special powers, like Sub-Zero, Reptile and Scorpion).
Read Full Review
60
Empire Kim Newman
The filmmakers try to solve the problem of turning an experience which merely consists of a series of fights into a story by... ignoring it, presenting a film which merely consists of a series of fights.
Read Full Review
58
Entertainment Weekly Lisa Schwarzbaum
And although director Paul Anderson treats the story with appropriate deadpan respect, there are enough sparks of humor (particularly generated by Linden Ashby as a shallow martial-arts actor who worries that he's a fake, with good reason) to amuse the adults accompanying the 10-year-old boys in the audience.
Read Full Review
50
The New Yorker Bruce Diones
But soon the movie falls flat under an uninspired good-versus-evil plot and pathetically simpleminded dialogue.
Read Full Review
50
Austin Chronicle Marc Savlov
It is, in essence, the video game transferred part and parcel to the screen, and very well at that.
Read Full Review
50
San Francisco Chronicle Laura Evenson
Mortal Kombat the movie has everything a teenage boy could want: snakes that jut out of a villain's palms, acrobatic kung- fu fighting and a couple of battling babes. Everything, that is, but an interesting plot, decent dialogue and compelling acting
Read Full Review
50
USA Today Susan Wloszczyna
Just like the popular (and more graphically violent) video game it's spun from, kung-fooy and kartoony Kombat shoves plot and personality aside to focus on action cloaked in mystic mumbo-jumbo and gloomy mock-gothic graphics. [21 Aug 1995 Pg. 03.D]

What Our Users Said

Vote Now!The average user rating for this movie is 8.7 (out of 10) based on 7 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Gabbo E. gave it a10:
Mortal Kombat is the greatest movie based on a video game ever made, everything about it was great, it followed the game really well, it was well casted, the special effects were pretty decent for it's time, the fight sequences were excellent and the soundtrack was superb, this movie is definately one of my favorite movies of all-time.

Danieru gave it a10:
Pure fun. And also the best film based on game. I think it really deserves its 10.

josak gave it a7:
Cool movie. If you liked the games at all, your going to enjoy this.

Phail3d gave it a9:
Alhtough the plot went a little too complicated and seperated from the main idea in it's latter parts, I still found Mortal Kombat fun to watch. Because the plot follows one of the original video games kind of well, I have the strange feeling that people who have played the video game(s) get more out of the movie; hence the better rating by users.

Fred Bob gave it a7:
This movie has it's good spots, but the acting could be a little better. It does a great job capturing the intensity and creativity of the Mortal Kombat world.

McGee gave it a10:
One of my top 10 movies of all time. And, the first Movie Based on the Video Game, that captures everything the Game was ment to be.

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