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.

Nick (Alexander Nevsky) is an ex-cop who got his unit killed through his own bad judgment. Nick delivers his few lines as if he is Arnold and not that well. He teams up as a private detective with Charlie (Casper Van Dien) a former LA cop and self described sex addict. They are being paid by the wife of a dead FBI agent (Tia Carrere) to capture the killers. They also happen to be the same guys who killed Nick's team.

The film is straight forward without any twists. Charlie being a sex addict provides for some minor humor, but the joke only works a few times before it gets old. Alexander Nevsky simply can't act, but then again how many tough guys can? It was like watching a Steven Seagal movie without Steven Seagal.

Guide: No swearing or sex. Possible distant nipple slip, otherwise no nudity. Girls bras/panties.

Right, well the reason for why I picked up this movie was because it had Mark Dacascos in it. Boy was I surprised to find out that he had less than five minutes of screen time in the entire movie.

Well, this 2016 action movie definitely bears traces of wanting to pick up or cash in on the success of "The Expendables", by trying to put together an all who-was-sort-of-semi-big-in-the-late-eighties-action-stars. But these were not the blockbuster stars of the late eighties action movies, but the ones from the lower rated and smaller budgets. This includes Don "The Dragon" Wilson, Cynthia Rothrock and Olivier Gruner. But honestly, it was actually a blast to have these former semi-big action stars come together in a movie such as this.

As for the lead cast of Alexander Nevsky and Casper Van Dien, well I was familiar with Casper Van Dien of course. But Alexander Nevsky I have never heard about, and he fared well enough, despite only having one expression for most of the scenes that he did. But a movie such as this runs on action and adrenaline, so the inability to put on a thesbian performance was sort of alright here.

There is a good amount of action throughout the movie, which is also what keeps the movie afloat. As for the storyline and plot, well it was entertaining, but it was on the simpler side, so don't expect to be mentally challenged.

It was also nice to see Tia Carrere in the movie as well as Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa.

An entertaining enough movie for what it turned out to be. Worth watching once if you enjoy a good old action movie.