Wednesday 26 December 2012

ACTION

"What do you say John?" ---- "Fuck 'em!"
Hollywood spunked out Action Movie in the 80/90s billions were spent on terrible actors blowing things up & we loved it.  Previously action had been split into its individual genres.  Whether it was the swashbuckling of Douglas Fairbanks and Errol Flynn , whether it was westerns or sci fi, they all contained action.  Bond films were spy movies,  Bruce Lee was down as kung fu, Dirty Harry was a cop movie even Death Wish was a vigilante movie  (Now Bond is action,  Everyone in movies knows Kung fu even if they have to download it & the inevitable remake of Dirty Harry will be a young teenage Slightly grubby Harry the early years reboot action movie hopefully long after I'm dead let alone Clint).

Not AWOL. Still producing shite
In the 80s everything had to be categorised it was the beginning of the genres, 3 movies kicked it off as a genre in itself Rambo, he was a war "should have been hero but spat on when returning" pushed to far.  So it could not be a war movie like the others that had Vietnam in the content.  
First Blood (1982) was fantastic, realistic to a point and was far better than any of the genre it helped create and is now part of.  By the end on the 80s one man could take on hundred, body counts were ridiculous and the violence almost cartoon like.  For example Rambo Part 3 (1988).


This set up a million clones were a man is put against what seems an impossible odds 
But they didn't count that hes Ex SAS, special forces, Delta, Ranger, purple heart winner,, the goddamn cooks a SEAL.

"Remember me" "err are you  Mark Dacascos"
Another was 48 Hrs (1982) which couldn't really be a cop movie as Murphy was a criminal it did however spawn a thousand cop, buddy cop & cop criminal movies that would all be classed as action.


The best example however was Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981) which was just pure action adventure from the start, a long lost genre of the early cinema serials.  So if you run, jump, shoot, punch its an action movie.  
List of notable 80s Action Movies 
List of notable 90s Action Movies


The stars became bigger than the heroes it used to be James bond was the star the actor could be replaced.  Now it was Stallone is Cobra, now schwarzenegger, Lundgren, seagal, Van Dam, Norris were the stars and the movies were wrote around them. 


I'm not fucking fat I'm big boned
By the mid 90s the world was bored Stallone, schwarzenegger & Willis were selling burgers and trying comedy.  The films had nothing new to offer so Hollywood looked abroad.








 Asia provided Jackie Chan, his films had been amazing people for years all through the 80s doing his own amazing stunts with no regard for personal safety it was awesome.  

Asian Stand off
Hollywood decided to tempt him over with a few millions dollars then restrict him with stunt man union rules, health & safety and make him boring.  The same happened to Jet Li and also director John Woo along with great action star Chow Yun-fat, who went from the amazing  A Better Tomorrow II (1987) The Killer (1989) Hard Boiled (1992) to being tempted over to America & ending up making shite like Paycheck (2003) & Dragonball: Evolution (2009). 


Woo went home don't blame him.  Asia is still producing  great action films Japan brought us Battle Royal (2000) Thailand has Tony Jaa with Ong-Bak (2003) & The Protector (2005) , Hong Kong has Stephen Chow with Kung Fu Hustle (2004) & Korea with The Man from Nowhere (2010).  
"Look Hollywood flying double gun" Oh copy & paste into script

Hollywoods best recent attempt was the stripped back Taken (2008) which didn't rely on huge special effects and played like Hollywood meets a Euro thriller (makes sense seen as its written by  Luc Besson & set mostly in Paris). 

The Low budget film makers have been doing this for years Van Damn & Seagal make multiple movies each year with European funding or filmed in eastern Europe to keep costs down.  There are still action stars coming through while Hollywood has the Rock & Vin Diesel.  No budget has Scott Adkins.



 

Now Hollywood has gone crazy with The Expendables (2010) & The Expendables 2 (2012) getting all the old fucks back for a reunion tear up.  So who knows whats next.


At last all in the same movie


 Who cares 

Forced to fight

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             (2006)                     (2010)                     (2003)     


Dolph Lundgren

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             (2012)      


Revenge Movies



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             (2011)      


Game movies


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             (2010)     

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