BADASS SHOWDOWN sounds like a kick-ass movie for martial arts legend Cynthia Rothrock but in actuality it turns out to be another of those interminable '1313' straight to video productions from schlock director David DeCoteau. The setting is one more that mansion in the hills, where a bunch of buff young guys strip off and spend their time endlessly showering and doing plenty of exercise. The "plot" involves Rothrock hanging around in an extended cameo and writing notes on a clipboard as she appraises their talents. The worst thing about this is the incompetent staging of the fight scenes with the ridiculous dubbed-in sound effects.

When I first heard of its release, I was excited at the prospect of watching Cynthia Rothrock's first movie in almost half a decade. So what if the DVD cover looked stupid and it was directed by trashmeister David DeCoteau - it was an action movie starring the Lady Dragon, so I was bound to have a good time. Then I began watching, and before the film was half over, my happy illusion shattered. Good friggin' grief, is this a dreadful movie. This film can be marketed as an action movie the same way that the director's 1313 series can be marketed as sci-fi movies: sure, the premise deals with an action concept and there's a bit of fighting, but by and large it's just a showcase of near-naked male bodies. I'm talking just a step above softcore pornography, and that's not what I wanted to watch.The story: a legendary manager of champions (Rothrock) invites five young fighters to her villa to select her next big star - a decision she will make by observing them train, spar, and take showers.Let me reiterate, this is not really an action movie. There are five fight scenes between the male performers, but their choreography is lackluster - lots of bouncing around and fist-tapping - and the camera is forever zooming in and out on the action. The most offense Rothrock gets in is giving some of her costars dirty looks. It's a dark day, if someone is throwing kicks in a movie Cynthia's in and it's not her... Of course, if we substitute fight scenes with scenes of the performers showing off their semi-naked forms, the movie becomes a bit more substantial. I have never seen so many prolonged training scenes, shower scenes, and shots of men walking around in their underwear for no reason in a single film. I think literally half of the runtime is given over to these dialog-free montages. Could this be appealing to the right audience? - definitely. Would I still have picked this one up, had I known it was this kind of movie? - definitely not.Given the kind of film this is, any kind of plot is completely facetious, and BADASS SHOWDOWN looks rather foolish when trying for the minimum. There are parts in here about the tension between Rothrock and her young protégé (Josh Griego), a shady deal between the contestants played by Kip Canyon and Brandon Schinaman, and a very last-minute insertion about the parentage of Jarrid Balis' character, but all writing for the film feels like a second priority and inconsequential - more so than that of any regular dumb action flick. Production-wise, the movie's still better than a lot of the no-budget junk flooding the market these days, but it still looks pretty cheap. Most of the camera-work is hand-held, there are many time-killing environment shots, and the entire picture takes place in a single limited location. The movie tries nothing ambitious, which is probably for the best given its resources and agenda, but it's all the more boring on account of it.I have no earthly idea what Cynthia Rothrock was doing in this movie. It has to be one of the easiest projects of her career, and also one of the very worst, even without the considerable disappointment factor of this being her first film offering in four or five years. Shame on the producers for marketing this one as an action movie. Even if looking at handsome men in their underwear is your kind of thing, the internet has enabled you to pursue that activity for free - no need to spend money on junk like this.

Oh my god! Cynthia Rothrock is finally back in the movies again. Yay!!! Hang on, the movie is so shocking she ought to stay away from being in future movies if they will continue to be as bad as this one.Like other previous reviewers stated...Badass Showdown has gay boys pretending to be martial artists and you can tell that they don't know martial arts. Badass Showdown is choreographed/directed and produced by people who don't know martial arts at all.I just don't understand how someone can show such bad acting or why Cynthia would return to movies and appear in a total flop of a film. I am very disappointed. The only time I will write a review is when the movie is extremely good or extremely poor. I would rarely say how bad a movie is. I just want everyone to know that I am telling the truth to save others money or time. I am a major movie buff and can watch almost any movie from beginning to end. I didn't even finish watching Badass Showdown although I consider myself a loyal Cynthia Rothrock fan. Watching the gay boys pose in shower and in bedroom made me expect some soft gay porn to begin but it never did...thank god. My wife after ten minutes of the movie was telling me to change to another. If you are gay, then you might like Badass Showdown.

I will try to write this without trying to insult anyone involved with this movie. Sorry if I do, but I have to say Badass Showdown is an insult to the viewers too.All is filmed mostly in one location, except for the nice beaches we can see sometimes.After watching a while, I just had to find out who the female director was. To my shock it was a man named David DeCoteau. There are a lot of scenes with all the guys showering, often a couple minutes of watching them. And quite a lot of scenes with half-naked boys doing exercise (not even doing it right).The plot is thin, if any at all.The actors are so bad you think they lost a bet and had to be in this movie. Yes, they are that bad.Then there is the music/sounds. What did the sound department think of? Action movies usually have some crappy sounds, but this has a huge amount of it. The music doesn't fit in, it sounds more like from a sci-fi thriller.The hand-held cameras does nothing good if you ask me. It made me dizzy and it looks like its filmed by kids.I could not give 0 out of 10, so I had to give it 1. I'll watch Night of the Lepus 100 times before I watch this again. If they used $1.000.000 on this movie, a better choice would be to give it to charity or homeless people.