Showdown At The Grand

Cinema magic isn´t the same anymore. Even if we do get a lot of quality films released every year there is just one thing i actually miss from the 80´s and 90´s and that is true summer blockbusters like we used to have. In the 80´s we got so many wonderful films such as Raiders Of The Lost Ark, For You Eyes Only, Poltergeist, The Karate Kid, Police Academy, The Goonies, Back To The Future and many more. I used to go every summer checking out the latest blockbusters with my school friends, back in those days ticket´s were not that expensive either. Summer blockbusters are no longer the same since the audience doesn´t seem to enjoy watching films in the cinema as we used to do. Just look at the box office numbers from last year when big box office films such as Fast X, Indiana Jones And The Dial Of Destiny, The Flash, Mission Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One and many others flopped really big at the box office. You would think that with such big titles people would want to run to the cinema but people wasn´t interested in films such as these anymore. At least the audience seemed to enjoy Meg 2: The Trench with almost 400 million dollars in ticket sales at the box office, so Jason Statham and big sharks at least helped cinemas get an audience. Biggest success of last year was of course Barbie with Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling that makes fun of the brand Barbie and is also satirical about the American perfect life. There is in my opinion one film that managed to do this even better, that really made fun of both Hollywood and box office movies and that is of course the 1993 action comedy Last Action Hero. Directed by John McTiernan, this film tells the story of the ten-year-old Danny Maddigan ( Austin O´Brien ) who is the biggest fan of action movie star Jack Slater ( Arnold Schwarzenegger ). He is given a chance to see a screener of his latest film Jack Slater IV by his friend and cinema owner Nick ( Robert Prosky ) by giving Danny a golden ticket. What Danny doesn´t know is that this ticket opens a portal between the real world and the cinema world through the magical ticket, so suddenly a dynamite is thrown out of the screen right into the cinema seats where Danny is. He runs towards the screen and end up on the other side in the actual film. He get to hang out with Jack Slater himself, but how will he cross back to the ordinary world? Last Action Hero makes fun of action stars, lots of movies, it even makes fun of the stereotypical people of Hollywood. A must watch if you love Hollywood action movies on the big screen and a true classic from Arnold Schwarzenegger. Speaking of cinema last year i heard about an interesting film called Showdown At The Grand that seemed to be inspired by Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez. Since i am a big fan of both of these legendary directors of course i had to watch Showdown At The Grand, a film that definetely looked different from the usual film released every year. With a great cast included is this one of the highlights from last year or is Showdown At The Grand not the worthy cinema tribute i was hoping it would be?

George Fuller ( Terence Howard ) is the owner of the classic theatre Warner Grand since it opened in the 1920´s with a showing of Fritz Lang´s Metropolis. Times have changed and visitors don´t come around like they used to and bills are not easy to pay. He is offered by big-time developer Lynn Shrader ( Amanda Righetti ) a lot of money if he will allow her to buy the property but he declines the offer. This theatre means too much for him to sell it. Lynn is not taking no for an answer and send her goons Reed ( Mike Ferguson ) and Burton ( Jon Sklaroff ) warn George by beating down his friend Lucky ( John Savage ) pretty badly. However this does not stop George to give up, he have too much planned as he is about to have a special appearance by legendary action actor Claude Luc Hallyday ( Dolph Lundgren ) at Warner Grand for the audience.

Watching a film like Showdown At The Grand reminds me of a mixture of films such as Reservior Dogs, Last Action Hero, Hobo With A Shotgun and even some Machete influences as well in here. This is a true throwback to why old school movies are so important to us who love visiting the cinema, as well as a tribute to the importance of cinemas alone and  why we love to experience a film in an old school cinema seat. To me personally the biggest highlight of this film is to see Dolph Lungren in the action star Claud Luc Holiday playing a blonde long hair bad ass vampire hunter in a scene called Blood Is For The Living, and he´s even the Bible character known as Moses in a short scene called Moses Versus The Nazis. To me this is the perfect film we have to get made into a full feature film. Who wouldn´t want to see Moses kick nazi ass out in the middle of nowhere? Im telling you that alone is the perfect set up for a future cult film. When Claud shows up as the real personality we get to see Dolph Lundgren act more deep than we usually see and i really enjoy this part. But the film is really more focued on the main character theatre owner George Fuller played by actor Terrence Howard, and how much the local theatre means to him. You can sympathise with his character knowing that society have changed, old school theatres are not as appreciated as they used to be and George is still trying to keep that spirit alive. I think this is one of the more interesting characters i have seen Terence Howard do in quite some time because he really does give his character depth, and he shows an image of a man who believe in his passion for movies. There are some scenes in this film where you really feel that George still want to believe that he will still have his audience returning to his theatre. The plot of the film might be quite thin but i think it is the passion for movies and cinemas that make Showdown At The Grand such a wonderful experience for a movie lover like myself. There are a couple of other characters in this film but doesn´t leave the same impact as the main characters. Showdown At The Grand is definetely not a film for everyone and will most likely be loved by classic theatre visitors like myself. Director Orson Oblowitz manage to combine comedy, action and drama in a cinematic experience that we barely ever see anymore. For me personally this is a true highlight that was made exactly for true cinema lovers, Showdown At The Grand hits the right spots to become a delightful surprise.

Rating: DDDD