There is nothing i like better than a good action movie, a story told through unbelievable physical action and witty one-liners provided by a typically strong, determined, relentless and ever-victorious hero. Its safe to say that without a doubt the 1980's was the official era of action, it saw action movies and their macho adventure heroes take over Hollywood. In the 1980's heroic male film stars were a plenty, Harrison Ford in Indiana Jones (1981/84/89), Sylvester Stallone in Rambo (1982/85/88), Bruce Willis in Die Hard (1988) and Arnold Schwarzenegger in The Terminator (1984).
The action stars of the 80's were all rugged, daring, act first think later kind of guys, they thought nothing of walking through rooms of cutthroats and hired killers, right up to the boss of the group of reprobates, to tell him not to threaten women and children anymore or he'd have him to answer to. It wasn't until i'd watched most of the classics and some of the less commercially celebrated movies such as Tango and Cash, Truck Turner and Escape from New York, that i realised there are no modern equivalents, there are no action movie stars from my generation, that are anywhere near in the same league as the 80's stars. Male action heroes in today's society tend to be more cynical, more weary and definitely more aware that violence may not be the solution to every problem. Men in Hollywood films nowadays tend not to be the hard-masculine heroes which we saw in the 1980's, they more often than not combinethe toughness required of an action hero with a more sensitive, thoughtful or caring side, which is typically revealed in often quite brief moments of the movie, many of the modern superhero films can be used as examples of this because the hero character always has an alter ego. For example the Spiderman movies, (2001/04/07), they are typical contemporary blockbusters and represent a more modern view of a man. Spiderman is the traditional action fighting for good hero, but his alter ego Peter Parker (Toby Maguire), presents a humane and multilayered representation of modern masculinity. He is sensitive and emotional, he is appealing but a little geeky, he tries hard but doesn't always succeed. In Spiderman 2 especially, he is torn between his desire for love and happiness and his sense of duty to protect the people of New York. The less 'macho' hero is also shown through the portrayal of the villains, the new Green Goblin, Harry Osborn, is forgiven and redeemed as he gives his life to save former friends. In the 1980's no bad guy was ever forgiven, redeemed or even still alive by the end of the movie.
However, it seems that someone in the industry noticed there was a lapse in this genre and sequels to the most well known action movies began to appear. For instance, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (2008), released an unbelievable 27 years after the first Indiana film and with the hero being a 65 year old Harrison Ford, an icredible age for an action hero. The movie was described and reviewed as being very similar to all the other Indy films and gained mostly positive reviews, in short it was a classic case of 'same old same old' and that'd would've been fine if people wouldn't have wanted something new and fresh and exciting. It's a similar story with Die Hard 4.0, released in 2007 a whole 19 years after the original. Die Hard 4.0 was the most successful film in the series grossing a total of $385.5 million. And it did tick a lot of the old 1980's action classic boxes with ridiculous deaths and countless witty one liners. For instance when John McClane smashes a French villain through a 12 storey high window, the villain plummets to the ground lands on a car and sets off the alarm, there's silent pause and Willis utters the words "that's gonna wake the neighbours", and with that one line some of that 80's magic was recreated. But a lot of the film was just full of nostalgic elements, and the reviews picked up on this describing it as a "nostalgic trip for those who grew up with the original films" in short it didn't appeal to a new generation audience. These much later sequels usually have a sort of next generation 'sidekick' to try and appeal to a newer and younger audience for example Shia LeBeouf on the Indiana Jones film, who throughout the film is being groomed, albeit unconvincingly, as the next genereation big action hero.
I and i'm sure lots of other people crave these old school action movies, where the hero faces and takes down 4 trained gunmen single-handedly in a heart stopping gunfight or routinely walks into the heart of danger outnumbered and outgunned and always emerges victorious with barely a scratch on them. We crave these films because we have become fed up and bored of how politically correct and careful actors, writers and directors have to be, and how nowadays you have to show that violence is not neccessarily the solution to every problem and that even the most evil and villainous of enemies can show human emotion and be saved from thei evil ways. I just want a movie jam packed full of action, subtle humour and completely unimaginable and i
unbelievable stunts.
Thankfully it appears that someone has heard my prayers and granted my wish, as two films will be released this year that have sparked my interest and got me very excited. The first is co-written, directed and stars Sylvester Stallone one of the best known action stars of the 80's and has one of the most incredible all action casts i've ever seen including big names such as, Bruce Willis, Jason Statham, Dolph Lundgren, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Mickey Rourke, Steve Austin, Jet Li, Terry Crews and Randy Couture. If only Steven Seagal, Jean Claude Van Damme and Kurt Russel had agreed it would have been a pretty much perfect action star cast. The well known faces and brand new story and effects will no doubt attract audiences of all ages, genders and nationalities and i'm sure the film will be a huge success on its release on the 13th of August. The second that caught my eye was the making of the A-Team into a movie, starring the great Liam Neeson and Quinton 'Rampage' Jackson and also starring Sharlto Copley and Bradley Cooper who will appeal more to a younger audience as they recently appeared in Dictrict 9 and The Hangover, respectively, both of which gained high critical acclaim and many positive reviews. Although i know nothing will ever match up to the action packed glory days of the 80's, i think, these films will come very close and mark the return of the all action hero.
