Showdown in Manila

Showdown in Manila at first glance may remind you of The Expendables, but instead of the 80s and early 90s big action stars like Arnold and Sly, it use the "direct to video category". I am not saying this negatively as i for one enjoyed these type of movies. I had fun with Cynthia Rothrock, Don The Dragon Wilson, Olivier Gruner and Mark Dacascos action movies. Sadly, these peoples are barely anymore than an extended cameo for the first 3 and a litteral cameo for the last as Dacascos is actually the director of the movie and his poster appearence is completely misleading.

The movie instead follow Alexander Nevsky as the main character Nick Peyton. Imagine taking Arnold Schwarzenegger but basically stripping all the charisma and one liners from his characters. Thats pretty much what remain there. Nevsky speak with a huge accent making his dialogues hard to understand, but the biggest offender is that he has absolutely no charisma or acting skills. The Terminator showed more personality than his character.

Casper Van Dien plays his partner in the detective agency and is by far the best actor in the whole movie. He tries his best to add charisma and personality to it but thats sadly feel like trying to light a piece of paper in a water bucket.

Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa and Mattias Hues plays the villains and they do fine altough i felt they were wasted overall.

The story ain't nothing special, and i supose with better writing, acting and charisma it would had been alright to hold us til the climax, but in its current state it was litteraly a chore to sit trough. By the time you reach said climax you just wish the movie was over.

Dacascos direction when it comes to action was ...fine i guess, even tough the limited budget clearly showed its ugly head, but i felt like he watched Nevsky deliver his line like a robot and was like "thats a wrap, great take". I just can't understand how they could look at this and think it would pass.

I really wish i would had liked this movie, and don't get me wrong i was not expecting theatre quality in term of budget and action, and i was more than fine with these actors "very average acting skills". I never watched a Don The Dragon movie for his acting. That said the movie would had improved a lot if he had been the main character cause his acting is several steps above M. Nevsky.

This movie was litteraly on Youtube completely free (sadly with no subtitles, wich made a lot of the dialogue of Nevsky hard to understand for a non english native as i am) so i can't be too harsh on it i guess as it didn't cost me anything. But if i always enjoyed owning and putting back once in a while an old Bloodfist or China O'Brien, Showdown in Manila is one movie i never intend to rewatch.

At least we know who should play in the life and times of Imelda that being Tia Carrere (Ms. Wells) who all of a sudden is looking a bit maidenly. Ms Carrera however was by far the best actor in this mess. Alex Nevski (Nick) should stick to being a thug rather then a depressing leading man. Even Veteran Casper Van Dien (Nick) was off key in a part that only Dirk Benedict could love. Everybody else was forgettable and struggling with a script that could have used a couple of rewrites. Nick's girlfriend Sofia (Maria Bravikova) pop's in from time to time and seems to be from a different movie, it is weird. The only good things about Showdown in Manila are - the music is not bad, the ending had some finality, and sniper Victor (Dmitriy Dyuzhev) looks a lot like a young Martin Landau, but other then that don't waist your time.

Just another Nevsky-Kurytsin lame movie making attempt. Talentless in all ways, pointless and ridiculously stupid. See for yourself.

first of all trailer and actors the style of movie looks like cheap version of Expendables movie. Mark Dacascos as a director is terrible. as a actor doing Martial Arts and action everything is great !! about what is most terrible thing about movie is writing of movie sucked is only thing is cast in movie are not really part of movie the guys who were only part of movie is Alexander Nevsky and Casper Van Dien are only guys part of movie. In Expendables for example they show everyone but in this movie NO it's 2 guys they only show the rest don't appear like almost to end of movie. the story follows in Raid Team Nick Peyton (Alexander Nevsky)was SWAT Team in Manila working in it to catch Aldric Cole

(Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa)is main villain and his Henchmen trying to be like Steve Austin Character in first Expendables(Matthias Hues)Dorn in movie as always all raid team got killed the only one is left is Nick was shot and he Survived. 2 years later Here you go Crying Freeman (1995), Drive (1997), Cradle 2 the Grave (2003) (Mark Dacascos) Matthew Wells in film he directed and act in and Showdown in Little Tokyo, True Lies, Harley Davidson and the Marlboro Man (Tia Carrere)Mrs. Wells is in it this playing her husband going for a holiday The action your going to have last for second is Mark Dacascos character killed 3 guys then he's character gets killed off buy Aldric Cole now Mrs Wells wants revenge she goes up to these Private detectives Nick (Alexander Nevsky) and Charlie (Casper Van Dien) oh look it's Starship troopers live and work in Manila. A murder investigation leads them to the jungle camp of an international terrorist called The Wrath what a lazy as name called Wrath for the group villain leaders. Nick and Charlie agrees to do mission to catch the guys who tied to kill him, in movie the actors you might think everyone is in it like part of movie but the only actors who is part of is only Alexander Nevsky and Casper Van Dien are only guys who is part of it none of another actors Don The Dragon Wilson,

Olivier Gruner, Cynthia Rothrock they don't appear at final showdown of movie. in all movie its just Alexander Nevsky and Casper Van Dien are looking and Investigating to find the guys who were involved is Aldric Cole and Dein doesn't do much in movie only thing is he gets into fight for second with Casper character then Alexander knocks him out that's it he gets arrested he doesn't do anything in movie. the action is lazy not very well made but why could off the budget could been a bigger movie you have the final showdown at end of jungle this is when Don The Dragon Wilson, Olivier Gruner, Cynthia Rothrock they appear at final showdown in a very well great place to shoot a action movie if it was a BIG BUDGET movie but its a very low budget movie with fake shoot outs, fake blood spatters, fake Explosions now i love action scenes at jungle or like rip off of the rescue mission like in Predator in jungle scene and Welcome to the jungle AKA Rundown in jungle that's where Aldric Cole is hiding they found they were Hiding in Jungle. one final showdown they had a M60 Machine gun shooting around but it didn't last long. Don Dragon Wilson kicks ass in movie but not for long but no stunts for him but i can see a lot of stunts in movie Cynthia and Oliver fights in movie you do see them fight but you can see Cynthia background fighting so its not her there is too many stunts in movie come on final showdown has few another explosions that's it the hand grenades are so fake. movie didn't do anything its not worst movie but it's fun to see these actors back but they don't appear until at very end of showdown. Mark Dacascos doesn't know how to direct or write movie i don't know why he got himself as character killed when he is not in movie he is in it for 30 seconds then he got killed off i don't know why he really did that he could be lazy ass can't be bothered or been lead star in film like his old films i love and liked his old staff that's what got Me Interested but then got me Disappointed it got all the other fans Disappointed rather then getting Alexander Nevsky why could of they get Jean Claude Van Damme or Dolph Lundgren as Lead but Alexander Nevsky was OK but not great. Mark Dacacos is great as actor and Martial Arts but for directing makes everyone disappointed i was thinking of John woo to direct movie rather then Mark he is terrible writer terrible director why ? the action is good and it's good to have Don The Dragon Wilson,Olivier Gruner, Cynthia Rothrock back in one movie they don't appear until at end of showdown what a sad thing they all could been apart of movie specially Mark Dacascos if you want movie like this stick with watching Expendables 1-3 Stallone is better director, writer and has better idea's then Mark. Mark Dacascos Said i wanna make movie like this but complete Epic fail. 5.10 but why is this so cheap why could been different director big budget like Expendables better story but Mark Dacascos Lazy directing with lazy action expect at final showdown ending in Jungle. and it's a movie is just good for time waster that's all i can say it's not like your gonna watch more then million times it's your opinion not mine.

Ok. The middle part of this movie was terrible. I even considered turning the movie off. But aside from all of that, the beginning and the end (the first 25 minutes and the last 30 minutes) were pretty good. Those scenes were not too boring, included lots of action, and the acting wasn't that bad. A lot of the time. Keep in mind that I said a lot of the time. Because there was one actor (the main actor in the movie, Alexander Nevsky) who was absolutely horrible. He has only been in a few films ever, does not even speak good English (he has a Russian accent so it is occasionally difficult to understand what he is saying), and simply looks bored when killing the bad guys. On the plus side, he is not seen much in the action scenes, only moreso in the middle of the movie. To conclude, I think this film should be watched at least once, as some parts of it were very enjoyable, and at the end, the fifteen minute long fight scene with guns and explosions is one that I just can't stop watching.