Showdown in Manila (2016) Reviews

• Worse than inexplicably bad

  peter072017-02-28

  I saw this movie via my satellite TV's movie package, and it was such a waste of 90 minutes of my life. The movie drew me with its cast of former action stars Don "The Dragon" Wilson, Cynthia Rothrock and Oliver Gruner plus Tia Carrere but gosh, the (lack of) acting, plot, flow and everything else made it one of the worst movies ever. Please do yourself a huge favor and avoid this turkey.

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• This really is the poor mans Expendables.....

  FlashCallahan2016-05-15

  And if you think that sounds bad, wait until you try and make sense of the 'plot'. The main star of the film is someone you've probably never heard of, and he gets shot by Matthias Hues and Shang Tsung from Mortal Kombat. Then we flash forward however long it is, and now he's working with Casper Van Dien as private investigators. To cut a long story short, Tia Carrere is married to Mark Dacascos, they are on holiday, for some reason Matthias Hues and Shang kill him, so she goes to them so they can capture them. The film is totally incoherent, and unfortunately, an uneventful mess. It's clear from the beginning that this was someone's dream project, and after the success of The Expendables, why not get the best of the straight to Video action stars of the early 1990's? Well they do, but only in the final third, when Dacascos (who directed this) decides to turn the final act into a rip off of the rescue mission in Predator. It's all lethargically done, the action is below par, and despite having all these martial artists involved, the action sequences are really poorly done, and the CGI explosions are laughable. What should have been a big slice of nostalgia, turns into nothing but a chore to get through. And it's really only worth watching to see just how out favourite C-list action stars of yesteryear have changed. And for at least three of them, the years have not been kind. You'll be desperate to see Wayne's World after this....

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• crap movie made by a Russian fake bodybuilder Arnold-wannabe

  mangkaynor2016-05-14

  Man the actors in this movie must've really been hurting for money. The plot seems like it was copied and chopped from much better movies. The lead actor tries way too hard to copy Arnold's speech-pattern and mannerisms. I'd like to know why Dacascos had anything to do with this movie, frankly it stinks and most of the actors seem to know it. Avoid at all costs. Tia Carera looks like an old worn out porn actress showing off some droopy cleavage. Don Wilson hops around like a lame rabbit. The local filipinas are portrayed mostly as hookers and bar girls as is the norm in these cheap productions. Tagawa looks like he's semi-conscious in most of the scenes he's in. Casper tries to act but given that the material is garbage its a wasted effort. The ending is just a whole bag of stupid. Where does this Russian guy get the money to fund these movies? I suspect he's a crony capitalist or has connections with the old Russian govt.

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• Sort of a watered down version of "The Expendables"...

  paul_haakonsen2018-07-08

  Right, well the reason for why I picked up this movie was because it had Mark Dacascos in it. Boy was I surprised to find out that he had less than five minutes of screen time in the entire movie. Well, this 2016 action movie definitely bears traces of wanting to pick up or cash in on the success of "The Expendables", by trying to put together an all who-was-sort-of-semi-big-in-the-late-eighties-action-stars. But these were not the blockbuster stars of the late eighties action movies, but the ones from the lower rated and smaller budgets. This includes Don "The Dragon" Wilson, Cynthia Rothrock and Olivier Gruner. But honestly, it was actually a blast to have these former semi-big action stars come together in a movie such as this. As for the lead cast of Alexander Nevsky and Casper Van Dien, well I was familiar with Casper Van Dien of course. But Alexander Nevsky I have never heard about, and he fared well enough, despite only having one expression for most of the scenes that he did. But a movie such as this runs on action and adrenaline, so the inability to put on a thesbian performance was sort of alright here. There is a good amount of action throughout the movie, which is also what keeps the movie afloat. As for the storyline and plot, well it was entertaining, but it was on the simpler side, so don't expect to be mentally challenged. It was also nice to see Tia Carrere in the movie as well as Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa. An entertaining enough movie for what it turned out to be. Worth watching once if you enjoy a good old action movie.

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• Look away. You don't want to see this.

  nogodnomasters2018-01-07

  Nick (Alexander Nevsky) is an ex-cop who got his unit killed through his own bad judgment. Nick delivers his few lines as if he is Arnold and not that well. He teams up as a private detective with Charlie (Casper Van Dien) a former LA cop and self described sex addict. They are being paid by the wife of a dead FBI agent (Tia Carrere) to capture the killers. They also happen to be the same guys who killed Nick's team. The film is straight forward without any twists. Charlie being a sex addict provides for some minor humor, but the joke only works a few times before it gets old. Alexander Nevsky simply can't act, but then again how many tough guys can? It was like watching a Steven Seagal movie without Steven Seagal. Guide: No swearing or sex. Possible distant nipple slip, otherwise no nudity. Girls bras/panties.

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