Wonderful character development!

The acting in this movie is really good.

I enjoyed watching this film and would recommend other to give it a try , (as I am) but this movie, although enjoyable to watch due to the better than average acting fails to add anything new to its storyline that is all too familiar to these types of movies.

Watching it is like watching the spectacle of a class clown at their best: you laugh at their jokes, instigate their defiance, and "ooooh" when they get in trouble.

Billy Blanks headlines in this hilariously cheesy Karate Kid rip off as an ex-police officer turned school janitor(!) who makes it his mission to break a cruel kickboxing tournament whilst simultaneously teaching one poor wimp how to defend himself against the local school bully. Well, if you enjoy movie clichés then you'll absolutely LOVE this little gem! Yes, it's all here; new kid getting bullied by karate bad boy who trains under a psychopath; both share the same love interest; kid learns karate to defend himself and is an expert in about......um.....all of what appears to be a about a week(!!!!) Of course the newly trained student must inevitably meet up for a climatic showdown with his bullying nemesis whereupon by seeming contractual obligation he is subsequently beaten to the point of apparent near death but suddenly, as if by some divine intervention an ostensible miracle transpires and he subsequently leaps back to his feet (plus rips off his shirt to reveal his macho, oiled down physique) and administers a miraculous and victorious come back (wow!!!!!!) then for the grand finale the psychopath instructor by clichéd obligation of course faces off against the kids teacher - cue our Billy in turn taking a brutal beating to near coma before suddenly realising that good guys are supposed to win and getting back to his feet (now obviously sans his shirt in order to show off his macho, oiled down physique) and forgetting his pronounced injuries, wins in style (with a series of lovingly shot, slow motion spin kicks no less!) Great Scott! - This doesn't have an original idea in it's body but frankly who cares - it's pure dumb fun of the highest calibre.As a final note (or is that insult?) although this was made in 1993, judging by the hair styles and clothing the students (who curiously all look as though they are actually in their thirties and forties!!!!!) wear, it looks more circa 1980's! Tremendously daft stuff and a real hoot if you're in the correct frame of mind.

This is twice in one day. First I tuned into the Chinese film A Touch of Evil and got the Orsen Welles B movie Touch of Evil. No problem as it was a great film. Then, I tune into Showdown in Little Tokyo and get Showdown, a Billy Banks film that barely could be called entertaining. Cinemax needs to hire people that know what they are putting in the descriptions.I hung in there just to see Billy Blanks. I vaguely remember him from Lionheart. The film was basically a remake of The Karate Kid without all the "wax on, wax off" garbage. At least the Karate Kid worked for months to get in shape. The kid in this film was able to do it in 10 easy lessons.The one redeeming character in the film was Brion James as Asst. Principal Kowalski. He really seemed to be having fun with his role yelling at the kids for smoking or just looking stupid. James managed 156 films before his life was cut short at 54.Don't bother.

Well, everyone else did a great job of summarizing Showdown but I had to add my two cents!I for one thought it was a pretty good movie that could have been alot better if it weren't for the $10 budget and the obvious storyline theft from a 1984 classic! I recently recorded it off of the TBS Superstation (and I know I am probably missing a bit of it) but from what I saw, I couldn't stop crying from laughing. I don't care what anyone says, Billy Blanks is the man! Anyone who thinks otherwise, is just mad because the dude is making a fortune off of Tae Bo! Although he has not much of an actor (like Steven Segal), he is a great martial artist and kicks rear with the best of them! He has been in some pretty bad movies but always entertains with his skill. But I don't know why he decided to play, Billy, the Janitor. He could of at least used a different name like Bobby, the Custodian or something. I couldn't help rooting for the good guy, Ken Marks. (played by Kenn Scott and I don't know what it is with people using their real names in movies) I don't know whether I was having Karate Kid flashbacks or what, but I liked the guy's performance (although he had better moves as a Ninja Turtle). However, if I were him, I would have left Julie (Christine Taylor) and her Marsha Brady playin behind alone. I mean especially since she had that crazy boyfriend Tom (Ken McCloud). Although he kept going up to her, I found myself saying, "He must really want to get his butt kicked!" after awhile.Enter the "Token Nerd" Mike (played by John Mallory Asher)! In a "Weird Science" sort of way, he adds some funny sarcasm to the mix with his "I told you so" but "Please hang out with me" attitude. Lee (played by Patrick Kilpatrick) should have had more lines or better ones. One thing I don't understand is how he went from sounding like a whining Al Bundy (remember the line "You killed my brother pig!") in the beginning of the movie, to the soft/loud spoken master of martial arts.He is a great actor and was good in "Death Warrant" as the psycho. Yeah I know both guys needed their own respective nemesis but he was as unbelievable as the ones who played Tom's friends, Rob (Michael Cavalieri) and Gina (Seidy Lopez) but I guess it's Different Strokes for Different Folks. As soon as Ken starts training with Billy, I could not believe the timing or the fact that they even made reference to the idea that they stole from the Karate Kid. When Billy made Ken clean the toilets and Ken was like "I get it! So it's like Wax On, Wax Off!" I almost fell out. I was thinking that right before he said it and when Billy added his "No, this is Toilet Cleaning!" line, I was like this was so wrong. By the way, what was up with the guy Tom's hair in the fight at the end of the movie. He looked like he stuck his finger in an outlet. Anyway, this whole movie was worthy of being shown at 3:00am when I saw it but it was a riot and I can still watch it over and over again!

Putting all of this film's cliches aside, there is nothing left to watch. And, frankly, that's what makes it the entertaining piece it is. This one feels like you've seen it twenty times the first time you see it.The plot of Showdown is an integration of two main subplots: 1) a retired cop/school janitor joins his old partner to bust an illegal fighting ring lead by an old enemy and 2) a high school senior tries talking to the wrong man's girl at his new school and has to learn martial arts from the school janitor to defend himself from her aggressive boyfriend/fighting champ.Sound like the Karate Kid? You got it, but this time, Mr. Miagi is a ripped black guy (Billy Blanks, creator of Tae-Bo) who used to be a cop, but quit when he accidentally killed a kid at a party break-up and is now the school janitor. Meanwhile, the master of the local dojo, Lee, plays it rough with his students and offers much more than friendly wagering at his illegal fighting ring. Karate Kid meets Baywatch Nights in this 1994 classic about a nice guy who's just trying to finish first.The acting in this one is excellent for the type of movie it is, but the production, namely the editting, ran into a couple rough spots. It's nothing you'll notice if you only see it once, but I don't recommend seeing it less than ten times. Try fast forwarding to your favorite parts and you'll end up watching the whole movie.What is most surprising about this film is its script. So bad, it's good; you'll literally laugh out loud at Vice Principal Kowalski's no-nonsense attitude toward his unruly students. And Lee's anger allows him to deliver some of the best lines in a movie ever. To be honest, the only thing Showdown is missing is sex, but I guess this was a time in Christine Taylor's (Melody from Hey Dude) career when a sex scene would've been going overboard. As a side note, I have heard there is an uncut version wherein there may be a sex scene between Lee's business partner and his best fighter (there's room for it at the dojo), but they don't show that one on Showtime.The characters may be typical, but it's impossible not to like them, and the scenes outside the school can't be beat; every moment is entertaining. Plus, they even tried to deliver a few moral lessons as suggested by the text at the start of the film, so pay attention.Also, see how many small-time actors you can point out because this one is full of familiar faces, young and old.