Movie Review: 'Mortal Kombat'

For a plot that essentially consists of a trio of hard-bodied good guys beating the stuffing out of a supernaturally evil army of bad guys, Mortal Kombat, a contentedly empty-headed extended advertisement for the joy of joypads (filmed in cheesily ornate cinema de Hong Kong style), is notably free of blood and gore. 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. The guys in the recording studio who made the ooofff! augghhhh! sounds are the ones who really had all the fun. C+