What exactly is a street fighter? (CREDIT: Paramount Pictures)
Starring: Noah Centineo, Andrew Koji, Callina Liang, Joe “Roman Reigns” Anoa’i, David Dastmalchian, Cody Rhodes, Andrew Schulz, Eric André, Vidyut Jammwal, Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson, Jason Momoa, Don Lee, Orville Peck, Olivier Richters, Hirooki Goto, Mel Jarnson, Rayna Vallandingham, Alexander Volkanovski, Kyle Mooney
Director: Kitao Sakurai
Running Time: 120 Minutes
Rating: PG-13 for Over-the-Top Candy-Coated Action Violence and Some Cheeky Hints of Nudity
Release Date: October 16, 2026 (Theaters)
What’s It About?: It’s 1993, and the best combatants on the globe are converging in Metrolao City for the second World Warrior Tournament. The top attractions are American bad boy Ken (Noah Centineo) and Japanese orphan Ryu (Andrew Koji), who were best friends until the death of their mentor drove them apart. Rounding out the bill are a colorful cast of fighters sporting unforgettable fashions and supernatural abilities. Mostly operating outside the tournament is Chun-Li (Callina Liang), who’s intent on avenging her father’s death at the hands of M. Bison (David Dastmalchian), the dictator who has nefariously organized the tournament. Also, there are animated sequences to explain some of the backstory.
What Made an Impression?: Ham It Up: For a Street Fighter movie to be taken seriously by audiences in 2026, it must take itself profoundly unseriously. So it’s no surprise then that the most memorable performances are the most over-the-top or counterintuitive ones. Ergo, Dastmalchian chews as much scenery as possible, while Eric André is his typical id-driven self as the announcer Don Sauvage. On the other end of the spectrum is Kyle Mooney as a dorky Interpol agent with a huge crush on Chun-Li. But really everyone in the cast is given free reign to be as colorful as they want. And I’ve certainly got to hand it to (a barely recognizable) Centineo for lovingly lampooning the pretty boy persona.
Can’t Stop, Won’t Stop: If you ever forget what decade this movie is set in, that amnesia won’t last but more than a second. That’s because the soundtrack is filled to the brim with the likes of Soundgarden, 4 Non Blondes, and White Zombie. I’m happy to rock out to this era, but it’s also a bit much. It felt like someone merely pushed play on a “Most Xtreme Hits of the 90s” Spotify playlist without actually curating it with an eye to how well it would match up to each scene. Some of the set pieces manage to have some resonance with these tracks, but at a certain point, you can’t help but groan, “Okay, we get it, you wish that Bill Clinton was still president.”
Having Too Much Fun: Director Kitao Sakurai and his co-screenwriter T.J. Fixman bring plenty of self-aware flourishes to ensure that the nostalgia isn’t just empty calories. That’s epitomized by an ESPN-style documentary (complete with what sounded like Chris Berman narration) telling the tale of Ken and Ryu. Everyone involved knows how silly this whole affair is, and that’s absolutely the wisest approach. But at a certain point, their enthusiasm becomes a little unbridled, as the clever playfulness gives way to overwhelming cacophony. It’s still a good time for anyone with any affection for the video games, but it also feels like a missed opportunity for an honest-to-goodness masterpiece that wasn’t that far out of reach.
Street Fighter (2026) is Recommended If You Like: Wrestlers turned actors, Rappers turned actors, Video games turned cultural objects
Grade: 3 out of 5 Hadoukens
