In the new action comedy Showdown at the Grand, George Fuller (Terrence Howard) is the proprietor of The Warner Grand, which is an architecturally wondrous and super cool theater that seems like the Music Box in Chicago, which was originally for stage shows before it started showing movies. Times are tough at the moment because the cinematic experience is shrinking, and George has sunk all his money into getting film star and personal hero Claude Luc Hallyday (Dolph Lundgren) to make an appearance during a showing.
Enter Lynn Schrader (Amanda Righetti), CEO of Schrader Industries (perhaps a nod to Paul Schrader). Right now she’s in the middle of building Nirvana, an all-inclusive complex designed to be sustainable in the event of a plague or terrorism. All that’s standing in her way is the Grande, so she offers George this incredibly large sum of money to buy the theater with. As the stick to her carrot, Lynn also sends her goons, Reed (Mike Ferguson) and Burton (Jon Sklaroff), to persuade George as well. The result? Well, a showdown at The Grand. Here are our thoughts on the film, which is out Nov. 10.
A Film for Movie Lovers
Showdown at the Grand
Release Date November 10, 2023
Cast Terrence Howard, Amanda Righetti, John Savage, Dolph Lundgren
Runtime 92 min
Genres Action, Comedy
Showdown at the Grand is a film which requires a certain love of the movies, considering how much it pays homage to many different film genres of old. The most obvious send-up is the Western, with George as the cowboy protecting his homestead, and Lynn as the evil railroad baron wanting to tear it down in the name of progress. While Lynn is certainly in the same vein as Mr. Morton (Gabriele Ferzetti in Once Upon a Time in the West) or Hedley Lamarr (Harvey Korman from Blazing Saddles), her whole evil gentrification shtick is also similar to the villains in antihero/superhero films like RoboCop and Darkman.
Related: Funniest Western Comedies, Ranked
Beyond that, there are several shout-outs to different films that require you to be a cinephile to fully appreciate lover yourself to understand. There’s a scene between George and his friend Lucky (John Savage) repeating several different famous movie lines back to each other. Burton ironically reveals himself to be a movie lover as well, such as menacingly quoting lines from Angel Heart and correcting George’s movie trivia twice.
Once Upon a Time… At the Grand
Shout! Studios
If you watched Once Upon a Time… In Hollywood and found yourself bored and wishing for the Kill Bill days, then you should stay away from Showdown at the Grande. This is a very talky movie that’s all about style and setting a mood. Akin to Once Upon a Time… In Hollywood, the film is centered on establishing different cool, smooth-talking characters, and while there are moments of action and suspense, they’re few and far between. Unfortunately, unlike Tarantino’s film, the characters in Showdown at the Grand are a little thinly written, but the cast’s earnest and charismatic performances help offset that.
Related: Exclusive: Dolph Lundgren on His New Action Thriller The Best Man
One dynamic that they could have drawn more from was between George and his new employee, Spike (Piper Curda), who cleverly discussed writing a thesis on “Western imperialist pop culture as a form of soft capitalism.” George, by contrast, is implied to be less egalitarian. When Lynn points out to him that the big guy upstairs could be a woman, George scoffs and repeats Lynn’s earlier line about “mental gymnastics.” The generation gap between George and Spike, two people who both love cinema but are ideologically different, isn’t something that Showdown at the Grand explores. The film didn’t necessarily have to go there, but it would have helped flesh out the characters.
Stylish and Fairly Entertaining
Shout! Studios
Well, while Showdown at The Grande pales in comparison to other postmodern cinephile action films like Bad Times at the El Royale, it is still pretty entertaining, and the cast does a great job (Howard is delightful, and Lundgren is funny, in particular). It also certainly has style, like one really cool transition that goes from Lynn on the phone to an ad for Schrader Industries. You can also tell that a lot of love for cinema went into the making of this movie, and your enjoyment will likely be based on how much you appreciate recognizing other films when watching it.
Shout! Studios, in association with Christian de Gallegos Films, Benaroya Pictures, and Bondit Media Capital, will release Showdown at the Grand in theaters and on demand across all digital platforms (AppleTV, Amazon, GooglePlay, YouTube, Vudu, Microsoft, DirecTV, DISH, BELL) Nov. 10. You can watch the trailer below:
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