Robert Patrick is best known for his chilling portrayal of the relentless T-1000 in Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991). His role as Arnold Schwarzenegger’s opponent cemented him as one of Hollywood’s most memorable villains, especially given the scary nature of the character he portrayed.
Following his career-defining role, Patrick took an unfortunate detour into the realm of video game adaptations with Double Dragon (1994). Instead of delivering another iconic performance, Patrick found himself trapped in a cheesy mess of bad action, effects, and script.
Robert Patrick’s work in Double Dragon is perhaps the only spot in his career
Released in 1994, Double Dragon was an attempt to bring the popular 1987 arcade game to life, but instead, we now remember it as one of the worst video game adaptations ever made. The game had a simple premise. Two brothers, Billy and Jimmy Lee, fight street gangs to rescue a kidnapped girl. But the movie couldn’t even pull this off.
Be brutally honest and tell me…
Was this really a good movie or is nostalgia blinding you? 🤯 pic.twitter.com/NGgZZdOeiZ
— 𝑴𝒊𝒎𝒊 🫠💙 (@MillennialMimi) October 17, 2024
Patrick had already proven himself as a master of playing villains, but Double Dragon completely wasted his talents. Patrick’s role in Double Dragon couldn’t have been further from the menacing T-1000. Instead of the T-1000, Patrick’s Koga Shuko was a campy, over-the-top character with bleached-blond hair and absurd costumes.
His performance came off as unintentionally comedic, which was the last thing the movie needed. After we saw him as the menacing presence that he was on Terminator 2, it’s hard to believe that the same actor who terrorized John Connor could be reduced to such a cartoonish role.
The movie had issues upon issues
One of Double Dragon’s biggest problems was its casting. Scott Wolf, best known for Party of Five, was cast as Billy Lee despite having no martial arts experience. His co-star, Mark Dacascos, at least had a legitimate background in martial arts, but the contrast between the two was painfully obvious.
Dude on the left has zero martial arts background as far as I could find and looks like he was giving it 60%.
That’s a promo picture and he looks like they caught him after he just walked out of the bathroom.
It was a corny movie full of 90s crap, but worth watching with… pic.twitter.com/CxqVHTInrQ
— n050up4u (@n050up4u1) October 17, 2024
It’s a has a certain charm to it once you look past the fact that it’s supposed to be based off Double Dragon.
— Average_Gamr3167 (@AvrageGamr3167) October 17, 2024
Wolf’s lack of fighting ability meant that most of the action scenes had to be edited around him. We can clearly see that the movie relied on stunt doubles and quick cuts. Despite a cast with some recognizable names, none of them were able to salvage the film from disaster.
With a budget of just $7.8 million, Double Dragon didn’t have much to work with, but even by mid-90s standards, the visual effects were embarrassing. Action sequences should have been the movie’s highlight but even that was ruined for us by poor choreography and uninspired direction.
If Super Mario Bros. (1993) set the bar low for video game adaptations, Double Dragon found a way to go even lower. But now we’re in 2025 and video game adaptations have made a comeback after the recent successes of projects like Fallout, Arcane, and The Last of Us. Let’s see where it goes from here.
This post belongs to FandomWire and first appeared on FandomWire
