The other day I watched The Rock again for the millionth time (but I hadn't seen it for a couple of years). It is one of the best action movies ever and there have been very few decent ones since it came out. The mid eighties to late nineties seemed to be the golden age of action movies. This perception can be partly attributed to my age - I was a teenager in the nineties and teenage boys love action movies, but I think it's still fair to say that the standard of action film making has dropped in the last decade.
Part of the reason why The Rock is so good is the actors. It has a great cast of "proper" actors. Ed Harris plays an excellent morally compromised villain, Sean Connery plays his best character since Indiana Jones' dad, and Nicolas Cage is great as the reluctant hero. A lot of action movies feel the need to use an "action star" in the lead role and this is often to the detriment of the film. Vin Diesel cannot act. The Rock (not the film, the wrestler) cannot and should not be allowed to act. The only reason these people are in films is down to an incorrect assumption that if Arnold Schwarzenegger can do it, then these guys can. Don't get me wrong, I'm not for one minute suggesting that Arnold was ever a good actor, but his meat-headedness was used to great effect by the people that casted him in a lot of action films. This idea was poorly replicated by a lot of other action stars like Sylvester Stallone, Jean Claude Van Damme, Wesley Snipes and worst of all - Steven Seagal.
Bruce Willis, Mel Gibson and Harrison Ford can all act reasonable well, and they've been in some classic action movies - I don't think that's a coincidence.
Here are some must-see action classics:
The Rock
Terminator 2: Judgement Day
Predator
True Lies
Die Hard
Lethal Weapon
The Bourne trilogy
Aliens (not as good as Ridley Scott's 'Alien' but it is more of an action film)
Léon
Patriot Games (perhaps more of a thriller but who cares)
Mad Max
7 comments:
Yes.
Yes.
Yes.
Yes.
But no to those filthy Bourne movies. Especially the first one.
What about The Last Boy Scout? That is perfect.
In fact, I think both Bruce Willis and Arnie had a golden age around then. Most of thier stuff was good, good, good.
What don't you like about Bourne?
i liked the discovery of his 'super powers' bit... but then after that, the plot felt a bit silly. in the end it felt like the great revelation was that he was shot and thrown in the water. we kinda knew that at the beginning. nothing was really explained.
Actually, I saw a good movie on cable the other day (in a Kathmandu hotel room), it was an indie New York thing, with Vin Diesel in it! It wasn't an action movie! It was good!
Strays.
And just checked IMDB, he wrote and directed it!
What happened?
Wow, there must have been more to the man than we gave him credit for.
Maybe you could do a review of it on your blog?
Completely agree. The Rock is a modern classic.
This is the film Cage should be remembered for. On the page the Goodspeed part is nothing (similar to Smith in Independence Day), Cage totally makes it. Totally makes it spectacularly so.
Two stellar leads and a cast full of character actors at the top of their game. Even Vanessa Marcil, wonderful.
Bay goes way over the top, but it actually works here (as opposed to the destructive-like effect he's had on most his films).
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