Street Fighter (2026) brings the gaming franchise back to the big screen, following the moderate success of the Mortal Kombat films, albeit with one that’s relatively plot-free.
In Thailand, 1987, M. Bison (Dexter: Resurrection‘s David Dastmalchian hamming it up nicely) is holding the World Warrior Tournament II, but when they get to this, not every fight is shown. For example, Guile (Cody Rhodes) never gets to punch anyone, but it’s his spiky blonde hair that’s being used as a porcorn tin for the overpriced ‘merch’. Surely, Blanka’s wild hair would’ve been a better option, since he actually gets to throw his fists?
Quite why he’d be in any way benevolent I don’t know, given that he’s such a nasty sort, that he even thinks nothing of killing his own staff, if they disagree or don’t live up to his standards.
For the majority of the running time, the film devotes space to silly rivalries between Ken Masters (Noah Centineo – Warfare) and Ryu (Andrew Koji – Black Doves), also frequently throwing in Chun-Li (Callina Liang – Presence), who wants to kill Bison because he killed her Dad, so it’s ultimately a revenge tale… However, bear in mind that they want to string this out for a sequel.
As an aside, Ms Liang ate a ton of eggs and other bulky food to gain two inches on her thighs, which even gets a mention in the script from Cammy (Mel Jarnson – also Nitara in 2021’s Mortal Kombat), clearly adding in a frisson of not-exactly-unrequited friction between the, but since it’s a 12A certificate, none of that will be taken any further.
On the downside, it’s too long at two hours, and some of the jokes are a bit silly and don’t really work too well, but this is still a damn sight more fun than either Mortal Kombat movie.
But on the plus side, it’s a mostly enjoyable film, with some one-liners that gave a laugh being when Zangief (Olivier Richters – Borderlands) picks up Ken and Ryu to throw them around, leading to Dan Hibiki (Andrew Schulz) to shout the biblical line, “Let my people go!”
Plus, M. Bison declares to one character, “For you, this is the day you die. For me, it’s Tuesday.”
There’s also a lot of great music from the mid-’90s – around the time the 1994 Street Fighter movie was made (which I still haven’t seen) – including Soundgarden’s Black Hole Sun, albeit part of it, since it’s just a shame the whole tune wasn’t included, but it did sync with the film’s action for a short time.
Others include Elastica’s Connection, 4 Non Blondes’ What’s Up, and Peaches’ Boys Wanna Be Her.
Additionally, there’s just over 60 minutes opening up to the digital IMAX ratio of 1.90:1, which is brilliantly well-framed for the duration it’s used – and often for animation as it mixes that in with the rest of the film, so this has clearly been made by people with people with love the franchise.
So, if you like action, you won’t feel short-changed from Street Fighter, and when it comes to that, it does feel a bit too violent for a 12A, so I’m surprised it wasn’t a 15.
I would certainly go a sequel to this, especially since the plot lends itself to that, but thanks to bad word-of-mouth that spread early on, this is sadly looking like a box-office bomb. It cost a hefty $82m for the production budget alone, and after a week, has only taken $57m. It would nead to clear at least $200m, including promotion, to see a profit.
NOTE: There is a mid-credit scene, as per the video below.
Street Fighter is in cinemas now, and is available to pre-order on 4K Blu-ray, Blu-ray and DVD.
Detailed specs:
Cert: 
Running time: 120 minutes
Release date: October 9th 2026
Studio: Paramount Pictures
Aspect Ratio: 2.39:1, 1.90:1 (IMAX version: 67 minutes of content)
Cinema: Odeon Trafford Centre
Rating: 7/10
Director: Kitao Sakurai
Producers: Cale Boyter, Stefan Makhoul, Jason Momoa, Takayuki Nakayama, Mary Parent
Writers: Kitao Sakurai, TJ Fixman
Music: Leo Birenberg, Zach Robinson
Cast:
Chun-Li: Callina Liang
Ken Masters: Noah Centineo
Ryu: Andrew Koji
M. Bison: David Dastmalchian
Dan Hibiki: Andrew Schulz
Akuma: Joe ‘Roman Reigns’ Anoai
Guile: Cody Rhodes
Blanka: Jason Momoa
Don Sauvage: Eric André
Balrog: Curtis ’50 Cent’ Jackson
Gouken: Don Lee
Cammy: Mel Jarnson
Vega: Orville Peck
E. Honda: Hirooki Goto
Dhalsim: Vidyut Jammwal
Zangief: Olivier Richters
Marvin: Kyle Mooney
Juli: Rayna Vallandingham
Joe: Alex Volkanovski
Striker: Antonio Alvarez
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.