By Bob Garver
The biggest problem with new video game adaptation “Street Fighter” is that it’s bad on purpose.
Not “delightfully over the top” or “destined to become a cult classic,” just bad. As if having a degree of
self-awareness about its unapologetic badness somehow justifies wasting two hours of its audience’s time.
The story follows a pair of former best friends – Ryu (Andrew Koji) and Ken (Noah Centineo) –
as they reunite after a six-year estrangement for a martial arts tournament hosted by military dictator M.
Bison (David Dastmalchian), who is secretly planning to drain all the energy from the winner for evil
purposes. The two are recruited by Chun-Li (Callina Liang), purportedly an employee of Bison, who is
secretly working to bring him down.
Neither the tournament nor the fight against Bison are very compelling, especially with hangdog
Dastmalchian playing Bison. I just can’t imagine too many soldiers wanting to follow this tantrum-prone
sulker into battle. The properly-villainous Raul Julia as Bison from the otherwise-disastrous 1994 “Street
Fighter” wouldn’t allow this guy to serve him snails.
Everything about “Street Fighter” is terrible, from the pathetic acting to the choppy editing to the
bad-taste jokes to the phony action to the unsatisfying conclusion to the poor lighting. That’s right, it’s not
even lit well. And no, the argument of “It’s just supposed to be fun, it’s not supposed to win Oscars” isn’t
going to work on me. Just because I know to keep my expectations low doesn’t mean I can’t recognize
when a movie doesn’t have its act together, which this movie doesn’t.
Grade: D
“Street Fighter” is rated PG-13 for violence/action, bloody images, strong language, sexual references,
partial nudity, and brief smoking. Its running time is 119 minutes.
Contact Bob Garver at rrg251@nyu.edu.

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