Showdown in Little Tokyo
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Movie Reviews of Showdown in Little Tokyo
Movie Review: Great movie for Dolph Lundgren and Brandon Lee fans
Summary: 5 Stars
This is probably Dolph's best role. This is also one of Brandon's best film roles as well. A fun movie. Dolph Lundgren is a man, and he's not afraid to act like a man! Dolph simply oozes masculinity in this film. He's in great shape, he's confident, he picks up gorgeous women , he eats a traditional Japanese style lunch (even the old Japanese waitress can't help but to flirt with this man!), he has two residences. He is such a man that he even built himself a Japanese style home with those rice paper type walls complete with a hot tub and equipped with Japenese ninja type weapons.
Tia Carrera and most of the other women here simply ooze feminine sexuality in this film!
The very fact that Brandon Lee is in this film adds a lot. This is probably to only film he made where his good natured personlity and sense of humor come across so well. Dolph's Japanese upbringing and Brandon's style contrast perfectly.
They should bring this out in a widescreen version and add some extras. The picture is not bad, but could probably be improved.
Note: the Yakuza here were originally introducted in 'The Punisher', but they perfected their role here. This movie deals with the violent Yakuza and some of the sword scenes are intense.
Also I own both VHS and DVD versions of this movie,and they kept the front cover the same, but they changed the back cover. The original VHS back cover shows a nice shot of Brandon in the coffee shop, and Dolph carrying Tia in his arms. They should not have removed those shots, as they capture the film far better than what they replaced it with.
I have noticed that they are changing the covers on both the front and back of a lot of movies they convert to DVD. They are removing pictures of things like guys carrying women in their arms. If a guys has his shirt off they replace that. And they are also removing any pictures with sexy women and replacing them with shots of just their head. (they did that with Tia Carrera on the inside cover. In this movie she's very sexy but they only show her head in the inside DVD movie cover. And she has this stern expression on her face. In the entire movie she's sexy so that picture is out of place. Politically correct.
Movie Review: "In between cooking cycles you're supposed to baste us!"
Summary: 5 Stars
Scandic ubermensch Dolph Lundgren teams up with genetically-destined martial arts master Brandon Lee to deliver a short, hilarious and action-packed performance as two policemen fighting LA's merciless (and unintentionally campy)yakuza.
As the two are initially paired we see their struggle to mesh their differing socio-historical views of Japanese culture, as Kenner (Dolph) tries to persuade Murata (Lee) of the intrinsic superiority of all things Japanese, from apparel to furniture (and women too, as proven by singer and "seppuku supporter" Miyako (Tia Carere), the inevitable love interest).
The pair confront new yakuza boss Yoshida and his clan as they plan to unleash on America drugs packaged in beer bottles so to allow Americans to enjoy both "our beer and our drugs while watching football" as Yoshida blissfully claims.
You will be entertained in seeing men breaking their own necks (and then, thanks to the magic that is cinema, appear in the subsequent scene very much alive), breasty blondes getting decapitated, bathtub fights, careless yakuza employees losing their fingers, katana swords and the unmistakable "male bonding" process that treats the viewer to dialogue that makes "Brokeback Mountain" seem like a manifest for heterosexuality in comparison. The dialogues are in fact the ace in the hole of this film: poignant, soulful and unforgettable ("Put the finger in the trash", "This time I heard you coming", the review title etc.). In the end the duo unleashes their vendetta on "oyabun" Yoshida, the man also responsible for making sashimi out of Kenner's parents when he was a child.
All in all, an interesting martial arts flick, some good fights, some original deaths and some phrases of sure interest for nostalgics of the American 80s action genre.
Movie Review: Let's not gild the lily, here
Summary: 5 Stars
This movie is AWFUL. The eighties t-shirts. Dolph Lundgren, who couldn't possibly look more Germanic if he tried, speaking Japanese and wearing the worst gi I have ever seen. Brandon Lee (son of Bruce Lee) knowing karate and somehow absolutely nothing else about Japan.
The fight scenes were terribly choreographed. One involved a pressure hose that somehow knocked the muscle-bound Lundgren over (and yes, he does a slow-motion fall/yell when it hits him). There was no cohesion between scenes--meaning you were never quite sure why they were going anywhere, but it was probably for another fight.
The "Druglord," who makes that cut simply because drugs involved, rather than for any criminal acumen, intelligence, or convincing scariness, makes deals with the local gangs (and apparently the Hispanics boycotted this movie, because that was DEFINITELY a white guy pretending to be Hispanic) to distribute his beer/drugs. Between the "local gangs" and the shirts the Yakuza henchmen were wearing, the scenes with the bad guys was some of the most unintentionally funny I've ever seen. The evil second-in-command was uncannily like Oddjob from the Bond movies, minus the deadly hat.
This movie SUCKS, but it sucks so badly and by 2005 is so dated, it's hysterically funny. For the women, Dolph Lundgren spends a good part of the movie without his shirt, wearing a tank-top, or stripped down to (short, tight) boxers. Which is honestly why I spent a Saturday afternoon watching a one-star movie: eye candy, and my God, was it stupidly funny.
Movie Review: LET'S GET READY TO RUMBLE!!
Summary: 5 Stars
Tia Carrere [bare], A blonde stoner decapitated by a samurai sword, strippers covered in sushi. Sure sounds like a [skin] film, don't it? Well it's not. This is proof positive that the standard Lethal Weapon formula (To polar opposite cops trailing drug lords) can be made into more with the drug lords being Japanese, and more kug fu fighting is inserted. SHOWDOWN is very well made, very funny, and very action-packed (although it would only have helped if it were 10 or 15 minutes longer.)All the action scenes are well done, ranging from a brawl in a bathhouse, to a duel in a colorful street fair. At there's twice as much comedy here as antone could expect, mostly curtosy of Brandon Lee ("In between cooking cycles, your'e supposed to baste us."), who if he had not become an action star, would easily have had a future in comedy. Dolph Lundgren is also alotta fun as a vengence-driven samurai detective, and at times, rather inadvertendly cotributes to the abundant humor ("Point this in the direction that things are, pull the trigger, and they'll fall down.") On the level of blending action, comedy, kung fu, and gratuitous nudity, SHOWDOWN works like a charm. And just for grins, one more hilarious quote from the legendary Brandon Lee ("Kenner, just in case we get get killed, I wanted to tell you, you have the biggest ---- I've ever seen on a man.")Movie Review: Cult classic starring Dolph Lungren and Brandon Lee
Summary: 5 Stars
Macho B-movie madness at its sublime best, this crazy action quickie is about as brain dead as you can get: wooden acting, a terrible story and a script that truly sucks. But with all the mindless violence who really cares. Gun battles, martial arts, Samurai sword slashing and gory deaths are the order of the day, not to mention plenty of beautiful ladies treated like playthings and shedding clothes at every opportunity. Despite the women and guns, there is some kind of story: Kenner (Lundgren) is on a mission of vengeance. His parents were killed when he was little by crazy Yakuza thug Yoshida (Tagawa), an ice-cool super-villain now specializing in drug dealing and generally looking mean. Kenner, adept in the Samurai ways, grows to be a law-abiding copper who's now right on his tail. Male bonding ensues when policeman Johnny Murata (Lee, in his US debut), a hip-talking dude with street credentials, is assigned as Kenner's partner in crime, and all hell simply breaks loose. You could say that there's an artistic angle to all this fighting, shooting and banging, but then that would be a lie - Showdown in Little Tokyo is a classic in a completely different sense of the word.