MOVIE OF THE WEEK (10/15/2026): STREET FIGHTER

"Don't let this cool anime-inspired poster fool you ... Half of us are barely in this movie!" Credit: © 2026 Paramount Pictures. All Rights Reserved.

CAST: Noah Centino | Andrew Koji | Joe "Roman Reigns" Anoa'i | Callina Liang | Eric André | Cody Rhodes | Jason Momoa | David Dastmalchian | Andrew Schulz | Yidut Jammwal | Curtis "50 Cent" Jackson | Don Lee | Mel Jarnson | Orville Peck | Hirooki Goto | Olivier Richters | Kyle Mooney and Rayna Vallandingham

WRITER: Kitao Sakurai & T.J. Fixman (screenplay) | Dalan Musson & Gary Dauberman (story by)

DIRECTOR: Kitao Sakurai

TRAILER:

THE STORY: Inspired by the long-running Capcom video game series of the same name, STREET FIGHTER introduces us to Ryu (Andrew Koji) and Ken Masters (Noah Centino), two young men who were trained by their late sensai Gouken (Don Lee) to be the best in the world. But whereas Ken, who came from affluence, was able to always train with light in his system, Ryu (an orphan) was always too close to giving into the darkness and turning into a monster. 

That monster is of great interest, however, to Gouken's brother Akuma (current WWE World Heavyweight Champion Joe "Roman Reigns" Anoa'i) and M. Bison (David Dastmalchian). Whereas the former – who's name translates to "demon" wants to become the ultimate fighter in the world, the latter wants to become the most power dictator in it and rule it. That's why Bison plans to bring back the World Warrior Tournament as a trap to lure Ryu out of hiding, steal his unique energy and use it to boost the Pyscho Power he already possesses. 

That tournament, however, will be filled with the best fighters in the world, such as boxer Balrog (Curtis "50 Cent" Jackson), Vega (Orville Peck), Zangief (Orville Masters) and Dhalsim (Yidut Jammwal) – and Ken, now a non-respected martial artist turned reality TV mainstay alongside his manager and fellow martial artist Dan Hibicki (Andrew Schulz). And while Bison has his "dolls"– including Cammy (Mel Jarnson) and Juli (Rayna Vallandingham), Chun Li (Caillina Lang) might be up to more than he suspects ... And for good reason.

THE REVIEW: Sometimes, there are movies that given the premise are likely going to be bad no matter who is involved. Then, there are movies that are bad that had the potential to be much better if they had been given better direction, better writing and better acting. 

STREET FIGHTER, the latest attempt to bring the longstanding Capcom video game to the big screen, is not only the latter, but quite possibly the worst of the three to exist.

Under the direction of co-writer/director Kitao Sakurai, includes a lot of things that are straight from the video game: The beating up of a sedan (and subsquent explanation of how silly that is), the Bison Dolls assassins of which Cammy is one, the inclusion of Don Sauvage (for better and worse) and even E. Honda's sauna fight stage (and quick hands).

That, unfortunately, is about where the good elements of the film end, for the 2026 version of STREET FIGHTER is a film that tries to do too much and at the same time does far too little with everything it has at its disposal.

The heavy focus on Ken and Ryu as would-be brothers comes off as extremely tedious, feeling like more of a plot device than anything with substance to it. Imagine going to see a new Batman movie and it starts with his parents being murdered again – there's nothing new to add there, and there's not much to Ken and Ryu here, either. It doesn't feel spirited or inspired; it just feels ... there. 

That would be forgivable, though, if the rest of the characters had more to them than effectively bad cameos or one-note jokes. Whereas Cody Rhodes' Guile literally has nothing to do other than issue one-liners – as does Eric Andre's Don Sauvage ... And Jason Momoa's Blanka ... And Mel Jarnson's Cammy – others aren't given anything of substance to further build their characters. While Yidut Jammwal delivers an excellent portrayal of Dhalsim's physical attributes and Fiddy punches in bunches as Balrog, there's not much more to them other than a few scenes of physicality. The same can be said for Orville Peck's Vega – essentially a waste of screen time –and Olivier Richters as Zangief (save for one piledriver).

The worst performance, however, by far and large goes to Dastmalchian as M. Bison. In addition to his character's backstory essentially being "he's evil!," Dastmalchian portrays him in the cartooniest fashion possible from start to finish, from facial expressions to dialogue and volume. It's so bad it almost seems at times that he is going so over-the-top as to never be asked to portray the character again since he knows he's in a bad movie. The same could be said for Momoa's portrayal of Blanka; in trying to give him humanity, he inadvertently takes away the elements of his character that made him an arcade favorite. 

There are some decent performances in the film, however. WWE champion Roman Reigns, despite the bare bones explanation of his character's background, makes the most of his time as Akuma. (That's more than can be said for his fellow WWE counterpart. Rhodes' Guile doesn't even get to throw out a sonic boom, for goodness sake!) Likewise, Koji and Centino do enough with Ryu and Ken watchable and Liang keeps Chun Li's signature spunk present. 

STREET FIGHTER's biggest crime, however, is what young people call "doing too much" while not doing enough at the same time.

The over the top presentation that works as a video game comes off as chaotic and corny on the big screen. Good performances are offset by terrible, zany ones and the dialogue is paper thin. Unlike the two most recent Mortal Kombat movies, STREET FIGHTER tries to shoehorn in characters and doesn't always succeed when it does. The action sequences are generic save for a few video game moments (and even those don't feel as cool as they should be).

There is a story mode in the game for a reason and STREET FIGHTER lacks one that worth picking up a controller – or a movie ticket – to see. 

RATING (OUT OF FOUR BUCKETS OF POPCORN):