Gratuitous action movie post, seriously, I get way too geeky with the action movie discussion, don't waste your time here, go adopt a puppy or something else useful instead, anywhoo...
The following is a result of a year long action movie bender.
While I like to think of myself as a man with pretty decent taste in movies, I have to admit, and this is probably just filling a stereotype, but I love action flicks. I mean, sure you have to look at them from the proper perspective, no one should be comparing Hard Boiled or Casino Royale to The Seventh Seal, even though Hard Boiled is, in my opinion the greatest action movie that has ever been made. But one thing that's unfortunately happened, is I've started watching a lot of Hong Kong action movies, and sadly, it's very hard for me to be amazed with the output we get here in the States.
Don't get me wrong, there's some great shit that comes out here, Dirty Harry and Casino Royale are some of my favorite films of all time, but in terms of actual action scenes, I find it kind of disturbing how much the quality differs. What annoys me, is if they're called action movies, why then do they have so little action? Let's take Die Hard, arguably the most popular American action flick, for a film with that title, there sure as hell isn't too much action is there? I mean, from the beginning, we know that there are 12 terrorists or whatever, and that's that. At it's most completely fucking insane level, it's never gonna get more bad ass than Bruce Willis kicking the shit out of 12 guys, and possibly a few outsiders. Compare that to John Woo's Hard Boiled, I mean, here is just one scene in the movie, and it's just part of a bigger one.
Of course then people will say things like, well if you just want action then why not watch Michael Bay. Let me be clear here so you know of my bias right away. I fucking hate Michael Bay, his only film that I get any sort of kick outta watching is The Rock, and even then I'm rolling my eyes way too often. Two problems with Michael Bay, you see, as insane as the action gets in the Hong Kong flicks, they still focus on storytelling first, the action is a complement to the story, but at the same time the filmmakers don't forget that the reason people go to those movies is to see action. Course they don't have the budget that we do here so action cinema revolves mostly around martial arts pictures, but it's the same basic deal.
That brings me to my next sort of diatribe. Why is it that when we have fight scenes, it's always edited to a point where no one can tell what the fuck is happening. The most obvious examples would of course be the Bourne films, but it's influence has unfortunately spread to most action movies now. What the hell is that? I mean, when you watch the dvd extras, they always spend so much time telling you how much the actor trained to get in shape and learn the fight choreography and whatnot, so how about showing it dammit. I'm not saying just leave the camera still, you can cut and make an exciting action scene while still showing what happening.
In spite of all this though, there is some great shit we get here too, and honestly one of the reasons I love Scott Pilgrim as much as I do is because I was just so damn happy to see great action scenes films in such a way that makes me pleased to no end.
My favorite fight from that movie:
So why did you just read all that? Well, I don't know, I figured this was a blog right? I can put whatever I want on my blog so... there.
The following is a result of a year long action movie bender.
While I like to think of myself as a man with pretty decent taste in movies, I have to admit, and this is probably just filling a stereotype, but I love action flicks. I mean, sure you have to look at them from the proper perspective, no one should be comparing Hard Boiled or Casino Royale to The Seventh Seal, even though Hard Boiled is, in my opinion the greatest action movie that has ever been made. But one thing that's unfortunately happened, is I've started watching a lot of Hong Kong action movies, and sadly, it's very hard for me to be amazed with the output we get here in the States.
Don't get me wrong, there's some great shit that comes out here, Dirty Harry and Casino Royale are some of my favorite films of all time, but in terms of actual action scenes, I find it kind of disturbing how much the quality differs. What annoys me, is if they're called action movies, why then do they have so little action? Let's take Die Hard, arguably the most popular American action flick, for a film with that title, there sure as hell isn't too much action is there? I mean, from the beginning, we know that there are 12 terrorists or whatever, and that's that. At it's most completely fucking insane level, it's never gonna get more bad ass than Bruce Willis kicking the shit out of 12 guys, and possibly a few outsiders. Compare that to John Woo's Hard Boiled, I mean, here is just one scene in the movie, and it's just part of a bigger one.
Of course then people will say things like, well if you just want action then why not watch Michael Bay. Let me be clear here so you know of my bias right away. I fucking hate Michael Bay, his only film that I get any sort of kick outta watching is The Rock, and even then I'm rolling my eyes way too often. Two problems with Michael Bay, you see, as insane as the action gets in the Hong Kong flicks, they still focus on storytelling first, the action is a complement to the story, but at the same time the filmmakers don't forget that the reason people go to those movies is to see action. Course they don't have the budget that we do here so action cinema revolves mostly around martial arts pictures, but it's the same basic deal.
That brings me to my next sort of diatribe. Why is it that when we have fight scenes, it's always edited to a point where no one can tell what the fuck is happening. The most obvious examples would of course be the Bourne films, but it's influence has unfortunately spread to most action movies now. What the hell is that? I mean, when you watch the dvd extras, they always spend so much time telling you how much the actor trained to get in shape and learn the fight choreography and whatnot, so how about showing it dammit. I'm not saying just leave the camera still, you can cut and make an exciting action scene while still showing what happening.
In spite of all this though, there is some great shit we get here too, and honestly one of the reasons I love Scott Pilgrim as much as I do is because I was just so damn happy to see great action scenes films in such a way that makes me pleased to no end.
My favorite fight from that movie:
So why did you just read all that? Well, I don't know, I figured this was a blog right? I can put whatever I want on my blog so... there.