Showdown in Little Tokyo (1991)

LOLZ.

Well... an early 90s action movie carrying on the influences of the 80's, including bad lines, bad hair, bad fashion and drugs, booze and shameless sex. Its an action movie with beef-steak, sushi, and swords and guns. Typically fits in the so bad its watchable category, B grade style.

Anyways, Dolph rapid rise to fame began to deteriorate with this one, his last major hurrah being Universal Soldier, which came out on year later, then a Hollywood haitus for 15 years before the B grade sequel Universal Soldier Regeneration which got some above average reviews, and the major release The Expendables. Playing the large, heroic samurai warrior-cop, he teams up with the charismatic and cocky Brandon Lee, to take on a Yakuza gang in "Little Tokyo" led by a sadistic evil leader who has a sordid history with Lundgren. Its a battle of cops and gangbangers dealing drugs. Throw in a very sexy Tia Carrere as the love interest, (though eye candy is all she's good for) and pretty much its amazing how a 80 min movie can get so much done. Its obvious it was chopped and edited badly as WB probably were unhappy with the result, but hey, short and sweet, for some its great that it was a short movie so they would be spared further pain, for others like me, it was short and to the point of what could have been a major disaster.

Mark Lester's directorial star is still Arnie's Commando, the epitome of 80's action, bad one liners, fashion, though it had less sex and nudity, but the violence was still up there. But since this was a mix of guns and martial arts, its obvious Lester has no experience directing martial arts scenes, fluid action lost to poor cinematography and bad camera angles. In contrast, the simple punch and guns firing were typical action quality. The rest is all trademark bad movie.

Accordingly, an older script was more dark and serious, and less comedy. Also there were a few cuts in certain scenes, but it as edited because Warner Bros were unhappy and gave it a limited release. There's also a lot of stuff ups and goofs.... a huge list. Also a typical trademark of bad movie-making. XD


Anyways... cheap thrills and cheap comedy. Its a classic bad movie. But its easy to watch, though whether its enjoyable is in the eye of the beholder.

XD