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.