MovieChat Forums > Showdown in Little Tokyo (1991) Discussion > Only a 5.5?

Only a 5.5?

posted 15 years ago by qinkilla
15 replies | jump to latest

I'll preface the subject title by saying I rate movies based on genre and if they did what they were created to do effectively. I gave this movie an 8. Why? Because I've seen it a ton of times and it's the kind of movie you can put on in the background when you're doing something else, and look up once in a while at nice boobs, cool fight scenes, and a few good one liners - oh, and one of the greatest main bad guy death scenes ever!

Being said, most people that watch Showdown are probably action fans. If you like "The Notebook" or "Titanic" this sort of movie probably isn't your usual cup of tea (although it could be). Showdown is at least better than 70% of the action movies out there. No, it's not on the level of Die Hard, but how many movies in the genre are?

Just curious on why it gets a 5.5? Do people come on here and say, "Gee, it's not as good as The Godfather or Shawshank Redemption or Die Hard or Aliens, so I'll give it a 5 or a 3 or a 1?"

I enjoyed this movie more than many big-budget action films - when I was a kid, and now. Anyway, just food for thought. It has a bunch of flaws and silliness, and is somewhat dated, but it's a good ride. I guess my point is to discuss how we rate movies. What is the baseline criteria when rating something like Showdown in Little Tokyo?

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[–] Jon364 14 years ago

Agree it should be at least a 6 or a 7. It acomplishes it's goal well. To me it's a got a really cool computer game vibe, it reminds me of computer games of that era. It's not realistic, it's not perfect, it's just a fun ride.

[–] 14 years ago

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[–] bugala2614 14 years ago

are you kidding? this is by far the worst action movie I've ever seen. I'm surprised its not on the bottom 100

[–] asgard-5 13 years ago

Judging by the potential of the story and the talent involved, it has a fair rating. To me this movie looked like they lost all the good stuff in a fire and had to piece it together again from the discarded takes. The crew must've been sampling the Red Dragon beer when they came up with dressing Dolph into those clothes in the end. Showdown is barely 80 minutes long, but it feels a lot longer. The trailer makes this movie look far better than it actually is.

have a nice life!

[–] atari_saturna 10 years ago

This is one of my fave action movies. There are a couple of movies like this, Cobra and Commando which manages to have zero to no storyline coupled with super cheesy dialogue and over-the-top violence and pulls it off effortlessly. The ones who claim this should be in the bottom 100 has clearly missed the point. Dolph has at least about 10 movies *beep* than this and if you look at Seagals post 2000 output one can see it is not wasy to make anything this superb!

[–] Fluke_Skywalker 10 years ago

So it was a 5.5 when the OP started this thread in '09, and now five years later it's a 6 even. That's a full half point jump. You don't see that very often.

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A journey into the realm of the obscure: http://saturdayshowcase.blogspot.com/

[–] 10 years ago

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[–] jimpemmas (23) a year ago

Because most people don't rate based on "genre and if they did what they were created to do effectively". All movies are (or should be) rated based on screenplay, acting, directing, cinematography, music, editing etc. Some fun factor matters too for sure but it is not enough.

[–] April-151-CT (10210) a year ago

6.1 now. But it definitely should be at least a 7.

[–] chiefcaseyryback (679) a year ago

I give it an 8. Great fun and good action .

[–] April-151-CT (10210) a year ago

Agreed 💯💯💯💯

[–] BOandBarbecue (2264) a year ago

6/10 is fair score. maybe 6.5/10 on saturday nights.

problem with film is good action but no substance.

imdb trivia say studio cut 10 min of scenes before film release. scenes of characters development between dolph and brandon. scene that may give heart and depth to film.

this is what this film lack - heart. action film need heart like first blood, terminator or die hards. without heart it is just actions and no substance and do not connects to viewer which explain why they all rate it 5.5 on averages.