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I might be focusing on war movies for the time being, but I still like a good B-movie. I'm getting pretty serious about the lists, especially since it's been a while since I posted a "best of x director" list, and I'm still fleshing out my best and worst director's lists. So I have a hell of a lot to work on. Right now, during the war movie ballot, I'm focusing on one war movie and one bad movie a day, and our featured director is currently Mark L. Lester, who started his career by focusing on the drive-in scene. As the times changed, so did he, eventually tackling less B-movie terror and more cheap A-movies, such as our movie for this review: the martial arts yakuza film Showdown in Little Tokyo.
Sergeany Kenner (Dolph Lundgren) is a karate cop with a bloodlust for a local yakuza responsible for killing his family... big whoop. He partners up with Johnny Murata (Brandon Lee) a young and attitudinal cop... big whoo), and together they plan on bringing down the mafia before they gather the gangs together to take over the city... big whoop.
OK, so there's a cool guy vibe throughout the movie thanks to some decent direction and action. Even though Lundgren and Lee aren't exactly the best actors, but there's at least some charisma between them that, while dealing with serious fluctuations between dialogue quality, doesn't feel fake. They're decent enough to work well together. But I feel like Lee's action scenes weren't anywhere near as cool as Lundgren's, so the imbalance there pretty much translates to: "get Lee off the screen. I wanna see Lundgren throw a guy through a wall!"
Our plot here is pretty typical. I must've seen 50 movies with this type of plot, but at least the pace is brisk enough to keep it active, and the trashy city scenery is at least convincing. I can imagine a million guys being entertained at this movie's vision of L.A. yakuza culture, specifically the club scene. Instead of bringing me back to 50 other action movies, the uniqueness brought me to certain scenes in Babylon for its style. So it's not totally irredeemable.
As far as I'm concerned, Showdown in Little Tokyo amounts to slightly more than a typical action movie. Ever. So.. Slightly. I don't really see any reason to watch it for its quality, but as a movie buff I was at least taken in by the historical side due to Brandon Lee's early death. It was also interesting to see an early Tia Carrere. But it's a very predictable buddy cop movie, so there's little to "appreciate" rather than to "tolerate" as not necessarily bad but not original.
= 53
Mark L. Lester's Average Score (4 Good vs. 3 Bad)
Class of 1984: 65
Class of 1999: 58
Firestarter: 56
Showdown in Little Tokyo: 53
Commando: 44
Average: 55.2/5
Mark L. lester is kicked off the bad list and sent to the bottom section of the good list between Tony Randel and Charles Grosvenor.
Showdown in Little Tokyo
(1991) - Directed by Mark L. Lester
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Buddy Cop / Martial Arts / Yakuza Eiga
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"Listen, will you do this right? Clean? Like a cop in the 20th century, not some samurai warrior?"
(1991) - Directed by Mark L. Lester
--------------------------------------------
Buddy Cop / Martial Arts / Yakuza Eiga
-------------------------------------------------
"Listen, will you do this right? Clean? Like a cop in the 20th century, not some samurai warrior?"
I might be focusing on war movies for the time being, but I still like a good B-movie. I'm getting pretty serious about the lists, especially since it's been a while since I posted a "best of x director" list, and I'm still fleshing out my best and worst director's lists. So I have a hell of a lot to work on. Right now, during the war movie ballot, I'm focusing on one war movie and one bad movie a day, and our featured director is currently Mark L. Lester, who started his career by focusing on the drive-in scene. As the times changed, so did he, eventually tackling less B-movie terror and more cheap A-movies, such as our movie for this review: the martial arts yakuza film Showdown in Little Tokyo.
Sergeany Kenner (Dolph Lundgren) is a karate cop with a bloodlust for a local yakuza responsible for killing his family... big whoop. He partners up with Johnny Murata (Brandon Lee) a young and attitudinal cop... big whoo), and together they plan on bringing down the mafia before they gather the gangs together to take over the city... big whoop.
OK, so there's a cool guy vibe throughout the movie thanks to some decent direction and action. Even though Lundgren and Lee aren't exactly the best actors, but there's at least some charisma between them that, while dealing with serious fluctuations between dialogue quality, doesn't feel fake. They're decent enough to work well together. But I feel like Lee's action scenes weren't anywhere near as cool as Lundgren's, so the imbalance there pretty much translates to: "get Lee off the screen. I wanna see Lundgren throw a guy through a wall!"
Our plot here is pretty typical. I must've seen 50 movies with this type of plot, but at least the pace is brisk enough to keep it active, and the trashy city scenery is at least convincing. I can imagine a million guys being entertained at this movie's vision of L.A. yakuza culture, specifically the club scene. Instead of bringing me back to 50 other action movies, the uniqueness brought me to certain scenes in Babylon for its style. So it's not totally irredeemable.
As far as I'm concerned, Showdown in Little Tokyo amounts to slightly more than a typical action movie. Ever. So.. Slightly. I don't really see any reason to watch it for its quality, but as a movie buff I was at least taken in by the historical side due to Brandon Lee's early death. It was also interesting to see an early Tia Carrere. But it's a very predictable buddy cop movie, so there's little to "appreciate" rather than to "tolerate" as not necessarily bad but not original.
= 53
Mark L. Lester's Average Score (4 Good vs. 3 Bad)
Class of 1984: 65
Class of 1999: 58
Firestarter: 56
Showdown in Little Tokyo: 53
Commando: 44
Average: 55.2/5
Mark L. lester is kicked off the bad list and sent to the bottom section of the good list between Tony Randel and Charles Grosvenor.