SHOWDOWN IN MANILA is another cheap digital thriller that throws a handful of has-been action stars into a non-existent story of revenge, drug smuggling and the usual heroes battling bad guy gangs. This one was directed by Mark Dacascos, and I'm glad to see that it's thus far his sole directing credit because he shows little affinity for the task. He also has a small but welcome cameo in the movie, playing the husband of TRUE LIES actress Tia Carrere.
The first hour of the story is a real slog to sit through and totally uninteresting. Russian hardman Alexander Nevsky joins forces with middle-aged American cop Casper Van Dien to hunt the usual bad guys, including German hulk Matthias Hues and the ubiquitous Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa. The last half hour picks up a bit and turns into an EXPENDABLES copy in the Filipino jungle, except instead of A-list stars you get the B-list roll-out here: Cynthia Rothrock, Olivier Gruner and Don "The Dragon" Wilson all show up for some jungle hijinks. A pity the rest of the film wasn't more like the last twenty minutes, because then it could have been interesting.
The first hour of the story is a real slog to sit through and totally uninteresting. Russian hardman Alexander Nevsky joins forces with middle-aged American cop Casper Van Dien to hunt the usual bad guys, including German hulk Matthias Hues and the ubiquitous Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa. The last half hour picks up a bit and turns into an EXPENDABLES copy in the Filipino jungle, except instead of A-list stars you get the B-list roll-out here: Cynthia Rothrock, Olivier Gruner and Don "The Dragon" Wilson all show up for some jungle hijinks. A pity the rest of the film wasn't more like the last twenty minutes, because then it could have been interesting.