Showdown at the Grand

George Fuller (Terrence Howard) runs an old movie palace, the Warner Grand. He is having a special showing of a 90's post-apocalyptic action thriller with star Claude Luc Hallyday (Dolph Lundgren) making an appearance. Meanwhile, he is being harassed by land developer Lynn (Amanda Righetti) and her thugs who want his theater for a neighborhood rebuild.

Action starts too late and ultimately is too little. The movie is obviously setting up for a fight with all the movie prop weaponry. Dolph Lundgren needs to show up sooner. He is a better actor than most give him credit for. At the very least, he can be fun. He needs to be unleashed. This is spending too much time setting things up. The final battle is only the last third of the movie and is rather a bit underwhelming. This is not enough.

I didn't know what to expect when starting the film but quickly found it to be witty, entertaining and even profound. The layers of the themes and subtle nods to cinema are extraordinary. I think this film will become a cult classic in years to come! Excellent writing, directing and acting. Terrance was a joy to watch- his character was full on nuance. Dolph was brilliant as well. Just all around an extremely pleasant surprise. I found myself grinning, laughing, enthralled, moved- the entire spectrum of emotions. I am excited what's next for the director Orson. He is clearly a very talented man!

Lighthearted parody of old classic action movies, which are being honored and made fun of, simultaneously. Charming. Amusing.

Lots of silly fights. Lots of stolen one liners from classic action movies. Lots of hilarious appearances by Mister Dolph Lundgren himself. And a wonderful performance by the always great actor Terrence Malick. What great men!

Highly recommended for the Dolph Lundgren fans and other B-movie action fans, provided they can appreciate a playful parody like this about this B-movie action genre.

The story: The mob is pressuring a grand old cinema owner (Terrance Howard) in selling his cinema. He refuses and the heat is on. It just happens though that the owner (Terrence Malick) is a big fan of old action movie star Dolph Lundgren and he puts up a tribute for him at this beautiful theater. And it proves that it is quite handy to have a real action movie star around when the mob is attacking you!

This was pure fun and I had a number of LOL moments (Moses vs. Nazis) that was a mashup of Tarantino and Cinema Paradisio (Best Foreign Language Film 1988) with maybe a shoutout to French "Elvis" Johnny Hallyday? For me the simplicity of the story comes with a warm fuzzy feeling of being a kid watching movies on the big screen on a Saturday afternoon and walking away having been on an adventure. Shout out to Dolph Lundgren who owned his cheesy 70's b-flick character. Pure fun and I think anyone who doesn't enjoy the film is thinking too hard and needs to enjoy the ride and not try to figure out why the roll bar is too tight. I for one love independent film making for this very reason, artists enjoying making films and entertaining audiences. I was entertained.

It's entertaining enough but it really doesn't have the budget or imagination to compete with movies like Grindhouse or Mars Attacks as an homage to old B-Movies.

Lundgren is perfectly cast as a washed-up action movie star and plays along with the limited material he has to work with. Terence Howard seems to treat it too seriously as if it's making a serious point about independent cinemas closing which the movie seems too arch to be doing.

It can just never get the balance between chaos and pathos right for that to happen.

There's just a constant feeling that self-refenential B-Movies were so much better in the late 20th Century and that nostalgia ain't what it used to be.