Old Film Reviews

[Dawn]

The Kansas City Star

December 9, 1991
Edition: METROPOLITAN
Section: STYLE
Page: D8


Index Terms:
Movie review



Column: MOVIE REVIEW

`Showdown' offers hackneyed violence Lame action flick trots out Dolph Lundgren to sweat, flex and kill.
Author: WARD W. TRIPLETT III; Arts and Entertainment Writer










Article Text:

How it rates 1 star "Showdown in Little Tokyo," an action film, contains profanity, violence and nudity and is rated R. Running time is 1 hour 15 minutes.

At least the title says it all. "Showdown in Little Tokyo" does indeed come to a showdown between a very good good guy and very bad bad guy, and it does take place in the Asian community of San Francisco.

At least star Dolph Lundgren is a credible action hero. Sure, he says lines like he's reading the lower end of an eye chart. But he's diplomatic in his methods of dispatching stuntmen. He doesn't just punch or kick. He also shoots and stabs. And when there's a quiet moment between scenes of awesome carnage, he sweats, flexes and poses.

Keeping those factors in mind, you get what you pay for in "Showdown. " The 75-minute film, which will no doubt have a much longer life on video than on the big screen, is nothing more than an excuse for mindless violence that shows off Lundgren's physique and possibly authentic martial-arts skills.

There are a lot of explosions and some exotic murders, like a beheading. There are three showdowns between Lundgren's good-guy cop and the drug-dealing gang that he and a single partner are trying to bring in all by their lonesomes. There are no extended conversations, romances or explanations to get in the way.

To illustrate how routine this film is, even for the tired action genre: Lundgren rescues a woman from the gang lord and announces that, because she is a witness against the villain, he must take her someplace safe. Does he: Take her into police custody? Take her to a relative or friend's place and appoint a 24-hour police guard? Or take her with him to his isolated house at the end of a dark, lonely road with no one else around for miles?

If you don't know, then maybe you should see this film.

The acting is consistently awful, although Brandon Lee, as Lundgren's yuppie Asian partner, does have a few good deadpan lines. After Lundgren uses those little ninja throwing stars to wipe out four of the 50 baddies surrounding them, Lee's line is: "It's like one of those video games. You just defeated the first wave. "





Copyright 1991, 1996 The Kansas City Star Co.

[Dawn]

St. Louis Post-Dispatch

April 25, 1989
Edition: 5*
Section: EVERYDAY
Page: 9D

Index Terms:
motion picture movie

FILM REVIEW
Violence, Bad Acting Add Up To Atrocious
''RED SCORPION''
Rating: R, violence. Running time: 1:40.
Author: By Joe Pollack
Of the Post-Dispatch Staff


Article Text:

SYLVESTER STALLONE. Jean Claude Van Damme. Arnold Schwarzenegger. Dolph Lundgren. These are the Four Horseman, not of Notre Dame, or even of the Apocalypse - but of Apocalyptic movies, which bring death and destruction and pestilence to the movie screen.

''Red Scorpion'' is the latest, with Lundgren offering a performance that makes the other three men look like members of the Royal Shakespeare Company.

It's an awful movie, filled with violence. The body count is in the thousands, most of them shot up with large-caliber bullets. Lundgren, who doesn't even change expression until 1 hour and 15 minutes of the movie is gone - when he smiles - even shoots one man's arm off at the elbow to keep him from throwing a hand grenade.

But there's an interesting twist - our hero is a Russian special forces hero, sort of a blond Rambo with red epaulets. He's sent to Africa to infiltrate a black guerrilla army that is fighting to toss the Russians and the Cubans out of their country. As a double agent, he will capture the black leaders and turn them over to the Russians and the Cubans.

To achieve this goal, he pretends he's drunk and is jailed by the Russian version of the military police, and installed in a cell with an American journalist (M. Emmet Walsh) and one of the black leaders (Ruben Nthodi). His sympathy, and his pose, are about as deep as the River Des Peres in August, but he leads the two men in an escape, killing a bunch of Russian soldiers on the way out of jail.

The violence just builds from there; the only peaceful people in the film are a tribe of Bushmen, one of whom rescues Lundgren from one of his many moments of near-death. But the Russians spray poison gas on the Bushmen, and Lundgren suddenly defects, leading the black forces against the invaders.

Interestingly, ''Red Scorpion'' has drawn some heat from anti-apartheid groups because the producers collaborated with the South African government and used troops, equipment and extras from the army. This is in violation of a United Nations resolution that calls for a cultural boycott of South Africa.

Joe Zito directs, with all possible special effects, and enough explosions and fireworks for a lifetime of VP Fairs.

(At the Chesterfield, Galleria, Halls Ferry, Kenrick, Northwest Square, Ronnie's, St. Charles, Union Station.)

Copyright 1989 St. Louis Post-Dispatch