Recommend some action flicks for our beloved janey.

A brief guideline from bignick:

In every action movie there has to some suspension of belief, just like in wacky comedies or sci-fi. But, within that world, things have to make sense. There has to be logic behind the characters behavior. If you find yourself second guessing the actions in every scene, the fault is not in you for refusing to turn your brain off. The fault is in them for not coming up with a better story. There are tons of action movies from The Great Escape to Die Hard that manage to actually be good.

Bonus points if they're in foreign languages. And don't even think about Mads. She's already seen Casino Royale.

I'll start:

Indiana Jones triology
The Matrix
Batman Begins
Terminator 2 : Judgement Day

(And you should absolutely see Die Hard and The Great Escape)

lol

thanks in advance, friends!

Seriously, no Harrison Ford?

Because I do think I have to watch that.

Yes, Road Warrior was the second in the Mad Max series.

I think I only need to see the first one.

I tried watching it a few months ago & couldn't get past the 1st 20 minutes or so

It can seem cliche, but it's the movie that kind of launched the cliche.

I watched the second half of it a few months ago and remember how much I loved that movie.

Humungus, The feral kid, the gyro captain...great stuff.

He starred in two of the greatest trilogies ever made. Have you even seen Star Wars or Indiana Jones? Any of them?

before you were born.

I kinda burned out on the genre then.

I used to like Ford but he just makes my teeth grate now.

I saw Empire Strikes Back in utero. I saw the whole trilogy when I was 3.

I *drove* some friends to see Star Wars when it first opened. lol

with my powerful kicking. Even as a fetus I had impeccable taste in film.

*please don't be mad at me, me saying that is not an attack on you, it's one of the unintentional "catch phrases" uttered by Danny Glover in the movies

The series tails off right around LW 3, but you HAVE to at least peep the first 2
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(I REPEAT)
... and all that could have been...

The guys who statistically break down scripts (whom Gladwell discussed awhile back) claimed it to be the perfect movie.

.:-)


~~~~~

It is painful in the extreme to live with questions rather than with answers, but that is the only honorable intellectual course. (c) Norman Mailer

See, I'm not as big an idiot as I sometimes seem, lol.

And had actual character development to the grunts: Hicks, Hudson (Game Over Man!), Vasquez... and Paul Reiser rivaled the Xenomorphs for the top villian spot.

I hate to give Michael Bay credit, but The Rock had some great action scenes.

Heat - best robbery scene?
Dead Presidents - 2nd best robbery scene?
Apocalypse Now - "who's in charge here?"
Die Hard
Predator (did Janey say no Arnold?)

Tony Jaa's oeuvre is particularly enjoyable.

Is going buck wild on another continent over your pet elephant really realistic?

talkin about *realistic* lmao

that's my favorite

My favorite moments are listed. :-)

dawg you ain't heard??...they using enriched uranium now

I think I initially saw in the theatre

The date scene always has me dying.

and Will Smith is explaining how they met?

Yeah, I laughed pretty hard at that. "So I said wusssup?" I was like oh you so did not.

When Martin Lawerence's daughter is about to go out on her first date. He and Will Smith clown the young man somethin awful.

Basically he was raised to protect and cherish those elephants as brothers. If someone kidnapped your little brother and took him to Australia, wouldn't you go and use every move of Muay Thai boxing you knew to find him?

All of Jaa's films are about protect and preserving some part of Thai culture.

particularly PET elephants.

I never saw any of those.

Or any Harry Potter ones, either. It's not like I'm favoring one over the other, lol.

And I can respect it.

Huh?

Mech

a laughable plot, but good martial arts action

I'll be damned if I can remember any of the names, though.

Well, Infernal Affairs, obviously.
Crouching Tiger is probably another obvious one.
But there've been a few others. I just can't remember their names.

Action in its purest form. No frills. Pretty much just big men in a jungle and an alien.

~~~~~

It is painful in the extreme to live with questions rather than with answers, but that is the only honorable intellectual course. (c) Norman Mailer

Arnold Swarzenegger
Carl Weathers
Jesse Ventura

Are some of the headliners, but the last 20 is pretty much just Arnie.

that doesn't sound terribly appealling, does it?

If I had to pick an actor to fight an alien in the jungle Jesse Ventura would be high on my list.

~~~~~

It is painful in the extreme to live with questions rather than with answers, but that is the only honorable intellectual course. (c) Norman Mailer

If you haven't seen it... well... you need to.

You know what always fascinates me about that one is men's responses to it. I mean, my best friend's little brother (who must be in his 40s now) came home from that movie and cleaned his room without being asked.

That's just one example, but it really does seem like it speaks to boys and men very, very strongly.

in '85 all I wanted was a Valtera skateboard and to hitch a ride on the gate of a truck, all the while playing the Power of Love. Then reality set in...

My appreciation grows with each viewing. The structure, the suspense, the holy-shit-how-can-he-get-out-of-this that crosses your mind and builds with every passing moment. It's so awesome.

______________________________________________________________________
(I REPEAT)
... and all that could have been...

Robert Redford, Ben Kingsley, Dan Aykroyd, Sidney Poitier... great cast, fun movie.

I love the film. I've seen it at least a half dozen times. But nothing really blows up. I'd call it more of a caper film.

Surprisingly good!

what about Red Dawn? yeah, a very right-wing propaganda flick, but good cheesy action and presents the "what-if" Cold War scenario. Tons of recognizable youngstas in that film too - Charlie Sheen, Jennifer Gray, Lea Thompson.

______________________________________________________________________
(I REPEAT)
... and all that could have been...

I'd even add Training Day to the list

If you're in the mood for something mean-spirited but funny, I'd also recommend The Last Boy Scout

If you want to see a really well-made homage to the Warner Bros. gangster pictures of the 30's and 40's, I'd highly recommend New Jack City
______________________________________________________________________
(I REPEAT)
... and all that could have been...

He pulls a knife
you pull a gun
they put one of your guys in the hospital
you put one of theirs in the morgue!

Connery was so RAW in that.

he's a hottie

Nick Cage's finest performance in any of his sundry action movies (which isn't saying much). Sean Connery basically playing a 65 year old, crotchety Bond who's been in prison for the last 30+ years. And Ed Harris as the guy you love to hate.

And some VX nerve gas.

And effing Alcatraz.

I remember when they were filming that, lol.

oh HELL no

Cable cars go nine miles per hour, lol.

after the explosion, the scene ends with the cable car driver exclaiming, "damn, shit, fuck...i'm gonna get that muthafucka" or something to Nic Cage.

janey, you're in the city, watching The Rock is mandatory to live here.

in about 3 minutes. i mean, i can fucking hustle about this town, but it takes me at least 10. i should learn to drive a cable car.

People don't know there are only three lines and two of them share about half the route, lol

I know Connery was barreling through shit with the Hummer, but damn...3 mins?

I'll put this bitch on my netflix queue, lol

you have lost your damned mind!

seems like janey has an aversion to Arny, but he has some gems out there:

Running Man
True Lies
Conan The Barbarian - JEJ as a cult leader with virgins flinging themselves off cliffs ... dope.

I've always felt like T2 gets far too much credit because it had better explosions and FX. But in terms of plot, performances and resonance the original Terminator is light years ahead of it to me.

I am also a huge Arnold fan. I'll watch any Arnold from 1980-1994, including Last Action Hero, which I am a huge apologist for.

It's a pretty good deconstruction of action flicks, and a decent paean to movies in general. I really don't understand why it got as much hate as it did.

I think the kid really did a lot to ruin it. He had a lot of screen time and he just couldn't carry his part for shit. I still love it. The self-aware plot devices, frame work story, action references, the whole lot. The dumbest thing they ever did was open against Juraissic Park though.

Kid: Patients?

Ahnuld: Look at the elbow of my jacket. What is it doing?

Kid: Wearing thin?

Ahnuld: Bingo!

That quote basically sums it up

now, with that said, back in the day i would have answered the exact same way.

BUT, i revisited 1 & 2 on my way to watching 3 for the first time ... and 1 was just about perfect for a sci-fi action film. the soundtrack is dated, but shit, it was 1984. then we got to T2. i was amped because i hadnt seen it in quite a while and looking forward to the "better" movie after T1 was so damn good.

and i was completely let down.

T2 seems childish and corny compared to T1. all the stupid lines, the unfunny interaction between little john & arny. ugh. T2 was trying to crossover and, while it worked at the box office, it didnt work for me upon a more aged viewing.

FOH

The synth soundtrack alone kills me. I enjoy both, but T2 has infinitely more replay value.

i dont think it was enough to detract from the movie. plus, the dating - to me - adds to the 'charm' of the movie, lol.

its no worse than anything john carpenter has thrown into his movies or what queen did with highlander.

which, btw, highlander should be somewhere on this list as well.

when in doubt go Hong Kong.

Police Story.

http://fuck-your.blogspot.com
http://www.myspace.com/insightclopediabrown
http://www.myspace.com/dumhi
http://www.youtube.com/group/okayplayer
http://www.last.fm/user/DawgEatah
R.I.P. 3rd i

fun little movie

Ol' Jack says ... what the hell.

le femme nikita
leon, the professional
b 13 (i know she alrady mentioned this joint, but it's good)

rick

That's just a great fucking movie that happens to have some shootouts.

most films don't strictly adhere to one genre, they draw elements from many to be good. it's the exact nature of that synthesis that makes them interesting.

especially drama, every film in here has elements of drama, fuck every piece of narrative worth observing has drama.

so anyway, how do you differentiate?

What that ratio needs to be however, I have no idea

Angel-A

Not an action movie, exactly. But very sweet.

I'm heading off to Seattle on Friday (6/8). :-) ooh I'm all excited! it's been forever since I've had a vacation!