{"id":15169,"date":"2026-10-16T19:45:30","date_gmt":"2026-10-16T23:45:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/?p=15169"},"modified":"2026-10-16T19:45:35","modified_gmt":"2026-10-16T23:45:35","slug":"street-fighter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/2026\/10\/16\/street-fighter\/","title":{"rendered":"Street Fighter"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Street Fighter<\/strong> (2026)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Paramount\/Action\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 119 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated PG-13 (violence\/action, bloody images, strong language, sexual references, partial nudity)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Kitao Sakurai\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: T.J. Fixman and Kitao Sakurai\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Leo Birenberg and Zach Robinson\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Ken Seng\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: October 16, 2026 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Noah Centineo, Andrew Koji, Callina Liang, Joe \u201cRoman\u00a0 Reigns\u201d Anoa\u2019i, David Dastmalchian, Cody Rhodes, Andrew Schulz, Eric Andre, Vidyut Jammwal, Curtis \u201c50 Cent\u201d Jackson, Jason Momoa, Don Lee, Orville Peck, Olivier Richters, Hirooki Goto, Mel Jamson, Rayna Vallandingham, Alexander Volkanovski, Kyle Mooney.<\/p>\n

Rating<\/strong>: ** \u00bd<\/p>\n

\u00a0The following review of Street Fighter<\/strong> is written from the POV of somebody who\u2019s never played any of the Street Fighter video games. I\u2019ve only seen the 1994 movie starring JCVD and 2009\u2019s Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li. I don\u2019t have a lot to go on; I\u2019m simply taking it at face value.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Street Fighter<\/strong> is the latest film adaptation of a popular video game following right on the hot heels of the massively successful Resident Evil. Like RE, it\u2019s a total reboot of the franchise. It\u2019s incredibly dumb, narratively incoherent and an assault on the senses. Yet it\u2019s also strangely fun. Go figure.<\/p>\n

\u00a0I\u2019m shocked to see myself writing these words. I usually hate video game adaptations. Most of them are garbage. To be fair, I did enjoy the recent Mortal Kombat films and the new Resident Evil. Could it be I\u2019m growing more tolerant in my old age? Maybe I\u2019ve reached the point where I\u2019m more likely to enjoy something as gleefully idiotic as Street Fighter<\/strong> more than a pretentious piece of s*** like Digger. No, I will never tire of making digs at Digger.<\/p>\n

\u00a0The plot (God help me!) centers on a huge martial arts tournament being held in the fictitious country of Shadaloo by the evil dictator Bison (Dastmalchian, Late Night with the Devil). His nefarious plan involves reuniting estranged brothers Ken Masters (Centineo, The Recruit) and Ryu (Koji, Bullet Train). An anime prologue, set in 1987, informs us that Ryu gained dangerous powers after winning the first World Warrior tournament. He also awakens a deity that murders the brothers\u2019 adoptive father. This is what causes the rift between them. This power is also the reason Bison wants them there. He intends to steal it for himself.<\/p>\n

\u00a0In 1993, Ryu lives a life off the grid as a vagrant soup vendor while Ken has become an MTV-famous martial artist who makes a living hawking products and taking part in ridiculous promo events (e.g. fighting a polar bear). Ken, along with several other familiar characters, is recruited by Chun-Li (Liang, Presence) on behalf of Bison. Ryu shows up at his place and tries to talk him out of fighting, but Ken is determined to prove himself to…. well, himself.<\/p>\n

To understand my thoughts on Street Fighter<\/strong>, it\u2019s important that I acknowledge something. It\u2019s not the kind of movie that holds up to reviews. The critics are going to hate it. That\u2019s pretty much a given. But here\u2019s the thing that works in its favor. It doesn\u2019t matter what any critic says; the fans will still turn out. They don\u2019t give a hoot what we have to say. It\u2019s NOT for the critics; it\u2019s for audiences. It\u2019s important to draw that distinction before I proceed.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Directed by Kitao Sakurai (Bad Trip), Street Fighter<\/strong> is a mess. I don\u2019t know how else to put it. The story is all over the place with way too many characters. It\u2019s like Sakurai was trying to cram in as much as possible in a two-hour time frame. This results in several characters going underdeveloped. This won\u2019t be a problem for the fans, but what about non-fans like me? I don\u2019t know who these people are or what special abilities they possess. We need some context if we\u2019re expected to care about or even understand what\u2019s going on. I got the gist of it, but I had to do some research after I got home.<\/p>\n

\u00a0The acting, does it even matter? The actors are playing video game characters. They\u2019re supposed to be broad, outrageous and cartoonish. At that, the cast succeeds. Only Liang turns in something close to a real performance. Dastmalchian hams it up as the wild-eyed villain. To the movie\u2019s credit, he\u2019s not visibly ailing like Raul Julia in the 1994 version. Momoa (Supergirl), one of the film\u2019s producers, shows up in a gloried cameo as green-skinned Blanka. He\u2019s becoming a parody of himself.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Now here\u2019s what\u2019s good about Street Fighter<\/strong>. It\u2019s actually my favorite thing. It leans into its early 90s setting beautifully with its artificial film grain, colorful aesthetic and vintage soundtrack which, full disclosure, is out of whack. Why is Ryu singing the 4 Non Blondes song \u201cWhat\u2019s Up?\u201d in 1987 when it came out in \u201993? And what is \u201cWho Let the Dogs Out?\u201d even doing here? I guess Sakurai figured young audience members wouldn\u2019t notice. They might not.<\/p>\n

\u00a0The fight choreography is broad and well-coordinated. I wish there was more of it. Some of the matches take place off-camera. That\u2019s not good in a movie called Street Fighter<\/strong>. Still, there\u2019s plenty of action and flashy special effects (decent CGI). I\u2019m not crazy about the open-ended ending. They better do a sequel if they don\u2019t want rioting in the multiplexes.<\/p>\n

\u00a0In the end, Street Fighter<\/strong> is for the fans, young and old. They\u2019ll know what\u2019s going on. To non-fans, it\u2019ll be entertaining enough, but you\u2019ll owe your brain an apology afterwards. Best to keep it idling in neutral throughout.\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Street Fighter (2026)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Paramount\/Action\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 119 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated PG-13 (violence\/action, bloody images, strong language, sexual references, partial nudity)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Kitao Sakurai\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: T.J. Fixman and Kitao Sakurai\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Leo Birenberg and Zach Robinson\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Ken Seng\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: October 16, 2026 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Noah Centineo, Andrew Koji, Callina Liang, Joe \u201cRoman\u00a0 Reigns\u201d Anoa\u2019i, David Dastmalchian, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":15170,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[41],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15169","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-now-playing"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/Street-Fighter-POSTER.jpg?fit=620%2C918&ssl=1","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15169","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15169"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15169\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15174,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15169\/revisions\/15174"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15170"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15169"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15169"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15169"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}