ChanFamous I wanted to like it more than I actually did... But much of the humor totally escaped me and I walked out only mildly impressed.

Robert Joyner The plot isn't so bad, but the pace of storytelling is too slow which makes people bored. Certain moments are so obvious and unnecessary for the main plot. I would've fast-forwarded those moments if it was an online streaming. The ending looks like implying a sequel, not sure if this movie will get one

Abbigail Bush what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.

Portia Hilton Blistering performances.

Marc Ferriere I thought I was a Johnny To fan. I loved PTU, Running on Karma, and Fulltime Killer. I rank Yesterday Once More as one of my favorite films of all time. But I watched Throwdown with my mouth agape in horror at the sheer lameness of it all.I will not even try to lie - I didn't understand what was going on, not even for five minutes. I still can't explain to you what I just watched. Characters' motivations fluctuated wildly, no background was given until your interest had long since waned, and the martial arts sequences were short and unsatisfying in relation to the western marketing and box copy.Tai Seng's translation and subtitling department needs a rework. There is one major scene in a restaurant with about 8 characters talking at once - the subtitling does NOTHING to try to keep up with the important dialogue. Instead of taking a note from Animeigo or ADV and using different colors and stacking lines of text, Tai Seng took the cheapie way out and presented it in a way that was frustrating.

tsulrednaw This movie was just barely watchable. I kept wishing it would end already and if it weren't for the fact that my friend was actually really into it (he liked the judo scenes, but admitted to having no idea what the movie what about) I would have walked out.Perhaps it has to do with a Hong Kong movie style, but the plot was all over the place and I had only the vaguest idea as to what was going on. I didn;t even really know or care about the characters. Why did Sun Tzo need money? WHy did he leave judo? Why did the other guy want to fight so badly? What is the girl's relationships to the men? Why are they suddenly lightheartedly grasping for a balloon? Why is the guy at the end wearing a blindfold? I appreciate subtlety but, perhaps because of the translation or cultural differences, I found this movie was unbearable.

malfurion I just watched the version that's dubbed in Mandarin, and found the film to be a disappointment after hearing so much high praise about it. So I would advise everyone to try the original HK version or better subbed version instead. Hopefully you would have a better experience.I enjoyed the last two films I saw by the same director (PTU and Breaking News, both subbed), but I found this particular one to be incoherent and the characters hard to relate to. The film hardly makes me sympathize with its main characters, and without that connection, their life and action holds no interest to me, and all the cinematic sequences director employs become only distracting gimmicks (ie the dialog/bathroom scene involve 3 leading characters in the night club, the chasing sequence with female lead, money, a shoe...) The performance by all the actors are great, but the story presents those characters in a way that I don't see enough explanation to how they got to the situation they are in and why they chose to take certain action over other. The pace of the film is all wrong for me, some of the cuts seems to be placed at all the wrong places, On the plus side, the film is beautifully shot. Hopefully all the problem I have with this film is due to bad dubbing, which is entirely possible. But I have no intention to find out after already wasting over an hour of my time.

munchiehk Anyone who watches a Johnnie To movie only for the fight scenes is rather missing the point by a few country miles. This is a director with an impeccable dramatic sense, for whom the violence is purely a by-product of the fallibility of his characters. How on Earth can anyone watch a movie in a language they do not understand, without subtitles, and expect to come away with any feeling but disappointment? It would be like watching The Godfather in Croatian. The point with Throwdown, as with most of Johnnie To's movies, is the CHARACTERS! This may not be his all time greatest film (I would still go for All About Ah - Long), but it is still a great piece of drama. I would recommend anyone to check this out, the subtitled version, not the mainland Chinese pirate version, which is all they sell in Pacific mall, and enjoy a very entertaining piece of film making from one of Hong Kong's masters.