Best Movie Ever: Mortal Kombat

Love of Mortal Kombat needs to start with the peerless casting of Christopher Lambert as Raiden. The god of lightning is one of the series' most enduring characters, and casting the Highlander in the part was a stroke of genius. Instead of going all ultra-Asian on the character, Lambert treats Raiden like you would think a god would treat interacting with humans. He's a little aloof and more than a little weird. It perfectly encapsulates the mix of seriousness and absurdity that makes Mortal Kombat the best movie ever.

This bit doesn't actually show up on screen, but when we think about a Best Movie Ever, we like to explore all of the possibilities. At the beginning of the flick, Johnny Cage is shooting a movie. The director of that movie is played by actor Sandy Helberg. But do you know who was originally supposed to do the cameo? Steven F'ing Spielberg. Yes indeed, the ultra-famous director was a huge fan of the Mortal Kombat games and agreed to do the spot, but scheduling conflicts forced him to pull out.

One of the best things about the Mortal Kombat movie is that it fleshed out the characters way beyond their videogame incarnations. Johnny Cage was probably the best example. In the vidcon, all we knew is that he was a Hollywood actor who liked to jab dudes in the ballsack. As incarnated by Linden Ashby, the movie Cage became a full-fledged character, with a mission to prove himself. His goofy demeanor helped define the fighter's future appearances. Originally Jean-Claude Van Damme was cast for the part, which would have been weird, but even weirder was the fact that Tom Cruise was also in the running!

The thing about Mortal Kombat is that the kind of martial artists who can pull off the crazy moves you need onscreen are probably not the best actors. So the producers decided to make a very, very smart move and hire some voice talent to dub a few characters. That voice talent? The legendary Frank Welker. Most famous for the voice of Megatron, Welker is one of the business's few real golden throats, capable of giving speech to just about anything. In the movie, he does Reptile, Shang Tsung and even the growls and groans of Goro.