Showdown (II) (1993) User Reviews

Very Laughable

[Mondo-Cane · 3/10 · 14 March 2006]

(WARNING! THE FOLLOWING COMMENT CONTAINS A FEW MINOR SPOILERS. THE AUTHOR OF THIS COMMENT FEELS IT WOULD ONLY BE THE COURTEOUS THING TO TELL THE READER AHEAD OF TIME, ALTHOUGH HE IS NOT SURE HOW DESCRIBING A FEW DETAILS NOT MENTIONED ON THE BACK OF THE BOX COULD POSSIBLY MAKE THE VIEWING EXPERIENCE OF "SHOWDOWN" ANY WORSE THAN IT ALREADY CAN BE.)

How or why this movie was overlooked by the crew at Mystery Science Theater 3000 is beyond me. Bad editing, bad dialog, bad plot, bad acting...well I could spend all night going into what was wrong with this movie.

The premise is this; a town for retired mobsters and gangsters gets overrun by a motorcycle gang run by a Kid Rock lookalike named Kincade. The sheriff hires a 65 year Asian guy to take him out and run the gang out of their peaceful little town. He gets help from the daughter of a guy who used to be some big time gangster, who was killed by the vicious motorcycle gang. Also kicking biker ass is some random black woman who saves a gas station owner with her kick boxing skills, once briefly, then a few minutes later, NEVER TO BE SEEN NOR MENTIONED AGAIN. However Leo Fong manages to save the day with his very slow and predictable martial art moves.

I rented this movie because the box cover showed a really bad ass looking gang with some hot girls in tight outfits on the cover. I knew that this movie was not going to be great, and maybe halfway decent at most. For those looking for a great unintentional comedy, checkout "Showdown".

"How would you like a shovelhead?" -James Long

[tarbosh22000 · 13 April 2012]

Kincade (Hoetzinger) is the leader of an evil biker gang that's involved in everything from drugs to burglary to murder. After stealing some money from a racetrack, the gang finds a little town in rural Nevada with a population of 500 people named Sanctuary. Once there, they start terrorizing the townsfolk and causing all kinds of mayhem. The Commander (Lynch) needs help ridding his town of these people, so he calls in a Martial Arts instructor named James Long (Fong). They team up with Mickey (McCormick), a young girl whose father was murdered by the gang. But Sanctuary is named "Sanctuary" because it is filled with old retired gangsters, mobsters and criminals, and for some reason, federal, state and local laws do not apply there. So it's going to be an uphill battle, but who will come out victorious at the end of the SHOWDOWN? Leo Fong is someone we keep coming back to. Most people don't know the meaning of the word "wooden" until they see one of his performances. But there's something compelling about him you just can't deny. Showdown seems to be his baby, as he stars in, produced, wrote and directed it. So it has that Fong-y feel you would expect. Yet he doesn't seem all that excited to be there. But then again, he was 65 years old at the time of shooting, so maybe he was thinking about other things. Naturally it was released by AIP, this stuff is right up their alley. Luckily, this movie is funny for a variety of different reasons, not the least of which are its amateurish feel and non-actors - not to mention some hilariously choppy editing.

It starts with a fist-pumping hair-metal anthem as Hoetzinger rides in on his Harley. Despite getting top billing, with his name alone in a huge credit, this is his only film role to date. It's a shame, he could have been a classic meathead actor of the day. Richard Lynch is on hand as "The Commander" - not to be confused with Chuck Connors as "The Colonel". Lynch is more a sheriff than a commander, but it's always nice to see him, especially in a good-guy role. Troy Donahue is here as "Police Captain". You can see Fong put a lot of effort into naming his characters. It's really just a cameo, he doesn't have a real presence in Showdown.

There are some great styles on display, notably Fong's Member's Only jacket, and the bikers have plenty of stonewashed denim, as well as mustaches and crazy long hair to keep you interested. A picture of them would have made a perfectly fine cover for the VHS, but for AIP, apparently, that would have been too sane and made too much sense, so they got some models who are not in the movie to appear on the cover. Why these people are better than the ones actually in the movie, we don't know. So be aware that this picture is unrelated to the proceedings. Even though this was released in 1993, there's still plenty of classic hair metal on the soundtrack from such bands as Riot House and DV8 (we don't know them either). But another standout song is something called "Feast or Fantom" by Adrena. When is the soundtrack to Showdown going to be released? If you can't get enough Leo Fong or AIP silliness, you can't go wrong with Showdown.

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soundtrack?

[lordvader357 · 10/10 · 25 May 2006]

I've watch that movie... I like SOUNDTRACK but nobody knows anything about the songs in this movie. I've search everywhere in internet and in every known p2p network also ask in many music shops but nobody knows. Salesman told me "well boy i never heard about these songs in my whole life". I extract song RIOT HOUSE-GOOD DIE YOUNG from the movie because it was full and in the end of the film.The rest songs i cannot find absolutely anywhere.Can someone help me? At the end of the movie has a list with the songs:

DV8-NASTY HABITS

RIOT HOUSE/JIMMY JACKSON-HEAVEN

ADRENA/MARK LEVANG-FEAST OR FANTOM

DV8&TIM CARR-BAD AROUND THE WORLD

DV8/FLETCHER PERKINS-MOVING TARGET

WAYNE HARTRLEH-NEON ANGEL

DV8-RIVER'S EDGE

RIOT HOUSE-GOOD DIE YOUNG

DEL CASHER-BLIDE MAMA BLUES

Can someone help?