Rating: C+
Dir: Mark L. Lester
Star: Dolph Lundgren, Brandon Lee, Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa, Tia Carrere
[12] “The proportion of Americans who do not consider Japan a dependable partner rose to 42 pct over the past year, a survey commissioned by Japan’s foreign ministry shows. Major reasons given were fierce economic competition, Japan’s attack in 1941 on Pearl Harbour, and the selfishness of Japanese people”. This news item goes some way to explaining why the villains in Showdown are Japanese, but xenophobia aside, it’s not a bad film, adding a few twists to the ‘mismatched cop’ cliche – Lundgren is the pure American hero, obsessed with Japanese culture; Lee is his half-Eastern partner who couldn’t give a damn about it. They take on the “slopeheads”, rescue a damsel in distress (mostly as an excuse for a very bad pun), learn to respect each other, and make comments about Dolph’s penis. At the risk of repeating myself, “Probably reprehensible, but did you expect anything else?”