Harockerce What a beautiful movie!

Hadrina The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

Brendon Jones It’s fine. It's literally the definition of a fine movie. You’ve seen it before, you know every beat and outcome before the characters even do. Only question is how much escapism you’re looking for.

Deanna There are moments in this movie where the great movie it could've been peek out... They're fleeting, here, but they're worth savoring, and they happen often enough to make it worth your while.

lastliberal This is twice in one day. First I tuned into the Chinese film A Touch of Evil and got the Orsen Welles B movie Touch of Evil. No problem as it was a great film. Then, I tune into Showdown in Little Tokyo and get Showdown, a Billy Banks film that barely could be called entertaining. Cinemax needs to hire people that know what they are putting in the descriptions.I hung in there just to see Billy Blanks. I vaguely remember him from Lionheart. The film was basically a remake of The Karate Kid without all the "wax on, wax off" garbage. At least the Karate Kid worked for months to get in shape. The kid in this film was able to do it in 10 easy lessons.The one redeeming character in the film was Brion James as Asst. Principal Kowalski. He really seemed to be having fun with his role yelling at the kids for smoking or just looking stupid. James managed 156 films before his life was cut short at 54.Don't bother.

Brian T. Whitlock (GOWBTW) I've seen this movie one time, and all I can say is the star Ken(Kenn Scott) was sorta like Daniel Russo of "The Karate Kid" only there were a few things his sensei(Billy Blanks) did that Miyagi didn't do. Billy helped enhanced his speed, and reflexes to go against Julie's controlling boyfriend, who was taught by a deranged sensei named Lee(Patrick Kilpatrick), who people there seem to totally dislike. The fight scene was nothing like the KK, especially when the other students saw what Lee did to his own pupil. Kenn tried to help only to land a sucker punch to the lower lumbar. Then it was Billy vs. Lee. And guess who the other team root for? Billy of course. When the other group of students told Billy about their dissatisfaction of Lee. Billy never decline an offer like that. Would you? The others were very happy to have a new sensei. I DON'T BLAME THEM! I liked the girl who wore the half-shirt. She was hot! Kenn Scott is very good in karate, is because I was taught by the same sensei he did in real life. It was here in North Carolina! Sorry, you'll have to see the movie, it may be cheap, if you see it that way, but I enjoyed it very well for many reasons. Rating 3 out of 5 stars.

cursive_iz_king Dear God, thank you for this little piece of brilliance! This is a terrible film, but it works for some reason. A few observances:1.) Apparently 40 year olds have to attend high school now. 2.) Have you ever seen that many people get their asses handed to them at school? 3.) I guess this actually is plausible, because the creepy principal is always too busy smoking confiscated cigarettes and hitting on the oh so sexy sex education teacher. "I hope we can work together sometime." coy smile. Brilliance. 4.) Ben Stiller's wife is the "love interest". If I ever meet him or her, I'm going to have to ask about some memories from the making of this little gem. 5.) The writers knew that everyone was going to call it a Karate Kid rip off, so they slip in the reference to wax on/wax off when the kid is cleaning the bathroom. This still feels like a second rate karate kid. 6.) Villain - "You know where the door is. Leave through it." Isn't this a little redundant? Couldn't he have just gotten away with the first part? 7.) The bad kid (cough) looks a hell of a lot like Dr. Cox from scrubs. That's actually what prompted this little rant, I wanted to see if it was his kid. 8.)Billy Blank's Haircut should've won best supporting actor. 9.) This club where the people fight for money... Do they serve beer there? Is there a place like this in my town? I'm there in a minute.Truly entertaining film. Waiting on the director's cut DVD. Watch it, live it, enjoy it.

ikari135 Well, everyone else did a great job of summarizing Showdown but I had to add my two cents!I for one thought it was a pretty good movie that could have been alot better if it weren't for the $10 budget and the obvious storyline theft from a 1984 classic! I recently recorded it off of the TBS Superstation (and I know I am probably missing a bit of it) but from what I saw, I couldn't stop crying from laughing. I don't care what anyone says, Billy Blanks is the man! Anyone who thinks otherwise, is just mad because the dude is making a fortune off of Tae Bo! Although he has not much of an actor (like Steven Segal), he is a great martial artist and kicks rear with the best of them! He has been in some pretty bad movies but always entertains with his skill. But I don't know why he decided to play, Billy, the Janitor. He could of at least used a different name like Bobby, the Custodian or something. I couldn't help rooting for the good guy, Ken Marks. (played by Kenn Scott and I don't know what it is with people using their real names in movies) I don't know whether I was having Karate Kid flashbacks or what, but I liked the guy's performance (although he had better moves as a Ninja Turtle). However, if I were him, I would have left Julie (Christine Taylor) and her Marsha Brady playin behind alone. I mean especially since she had that crazy boyfriend Tom (Ken McCloud). Although he kept going up to her, I found myself saying, "He must really want to get his butt kicked!" after awhile.Enter the "Token Nerd" Mike (played by John Mallory Asher)! In a "Weird Science" sort of way, he adds some funny sarcasm to the mix with his "I told you so" but "Please hang out with me" attitude. Lee (played by Patrick Kilpatrick) should have had more lines or better ones. One thing I don't understand is how he went from sounding like a whining Al Bundy (remember the line "You killed my brother pig!") in the beginning of the movie, to the soft/loud spoken master of martial arts.He is a great actor and was good in "Death Warrant" as the psycho. Yeah I know both guys needed their own respective nemesis but he was as unbelievable as the ones who played Tom's friends, Rob (Michael Cavalieri) and Gina (Seidy Lopez) but I guess it's Different Strokes for Different Folks. As soon as Ken starts training with Billy, I could not believe the timing or the fact that they even made reference to the idea that they stole from the Karate Kid. When Billy made Ken clean the toilets and Ken was like "I get it! So it's like Wax On, Wax Off!" I almost fell out. I was thinking that right before he said it and when Billy added his "No, this is Toilet Cleaning!" line, I was like this was so wrong. By the way, what was up with the guy Tom's hair in the fight at the end of the movie. He looked like he stuck his finger in an outlet. Anyway, this whole movie was worthy of being shown at 3:00am when I saw it but it was a riot and I can still watch it over and over again!