The B Action Movie Thread - Page 1672

 

So the whole movie takes place in a grocery store? No thanks.

I wish i liked BLADE as much as some of y'all. Snipes is great, but the movie never really engages me. I can never get past Dorff as the villain. It's the sequel that does everything right.

Exclusive John Hyams interview on UNIVERSAL SOLDIER 4.

http://www.moviehole.net/201254134exclusive-hyams-answers-those-universal-soldier-4-questions

Fat Elvis, How about near the end when The Daywalker crashes Vamp HQ in his...Bladecycle, and Frost is yelling at his men to...Bring Him Back Alive, not realizing Blade is doing most of the shooting?  Blade is totally...Kick-Ass!  Blade 2: The Magnificient 7 was also Awesome, but not as much as the first.  Blade Trinity was only memorable for Blade and Abagail Whistler portayed by...aBIELing Jessica!

Please check out my videos and subscribe and like them at The Bearded Hitmen on youtube.

 

I got Max Payne 3 and a made a couple videos of me playing the multiplayer and doing terrible at it. Enjoy.

I thought the first Blade was okay, but Blade 2 was the best of the series. The smartass banter between Kris Kristofferson, Ron Perlman, and Matt Schulze steals the movie.

BLADE 2 is an all time classic.

 

BLADE should get a lot of credit for starting the legitimization of comic book films.  It still holds up as a movie quite well I feel.  The CGI is real spotty and I agree Dorff as a villain is pretty tame by today's standards, but I will stand-by the Blood-Rave scene as being an all time classic action scene.  Its just a fantastic introduction to BLADE as a character, it really showcases Snipes' strengths when it comes to on-screen martial arts, has a VERY MEMORABLE soundtrack associated with it.

 

I still remember seeing that scene in theaters and thinking..."holy shit, this is something I was not expecting from an American film right now!"

Thanks for the kind welcome, fellas. I finished reading Lee Child's One Shot yesterday, which has me uber-stoked to see Christopher McQuarrie's adaptation that's dropping in December. While Tom Cruise is considerably shorter and more raven-haired than the 6"5 blonde Jack Reacher, I'm confident he has the intensity and physicality to be well-suited to the role. Look no further than his most recent stint as Ethan Hunt in Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol or reminisce on his feats of badassery in Collateral for evidence. Hell, I'm just jazzed to have McQuarrie behind the camera again. It's been far too long since his vastly underrated 2000 effort The Way of the Gun. As an added bonus, Jai Courtney co-stars in the flick. This will be my first opportunity to check out the Aussie import before he takes on the role of John McClane Jr. in A Good Day to Die Hard.

I remember seeing Blade in the theater with my Parents and being wowed by how cool it was. Agreed on the rave sequence. It's pretty much the standout piece from the film.

 

 

Blade II however does indeed trump it. It's crazier and more gory than the first. Still hate how they handled Donnie Yen's character. He almost seems just like window dressing.

 

I haven't read the books, so I guess I'm safe from bitching about Cruise, and he's someone I 100% support. If what I'm imagining is right, and that's Ethan Hunt by way of Collateral, it'll kick ass. The Way of the Gun is among the closest we've come to a modern Peckinpah and I can't wait to see McQuarrie behind the camera again.

 

Oh, and Werner Herzog as the bad guy!

 

Been playing MP3 myself and loving it so far. Like the flashy Brazil setting, really sets it apart from the previous 2 games.

 

Bummer the garbage PAYNE movie couldn't have at least spawned a DTV sequel with James McCaffrey rightfully cast.

It deserves a reboot. I don't mind Wahlberg as Payne, but this was in the midst of Fox's pure nonsense era a few years ago.

 

Hell, I think we need a time machine and a lot of money and we can get Rene's ideas of Sergio Leone's The Punisher and Il Batman made!

I agree that Blade 2 is the superior film in that series. The first one was just OK, but I haven't seen it in a minute. The less said about the third one the better.

 

So tonight I watched Double Team on Encore Action and it's been a while since I've seen this one as well so I had totally forgotten that JCVD fights a fuckin' TIGER. Well, mostly he runs away from the tiger, but he does give it a flying kick at one point. I love Tsui Hark's crazy-ass camera angles and movements. But it's very apparent why Dennis Rodman didn't have much of a film career. Yeesh.

Edited by Mister Falcon - 5/16/12 at 9:23pm

 

Well, to be fair it is an Australian production featuring Australians and filmed in Australia, so it won't have an A-list cast that most people around the world would know. In fact, if IMDb is to be believed, the movie was going to be directed by a guy we all know and at least used to enjoy but for whatever reasons it was changed at the last minute... Russell Mulcahy!

 

 

I can't believe I'm defending a movie known as Bait 3D, but the idea of sharks loose in a damn grocery store is so hilarious and wacky I actually want to see it. It certainly beats the generic Shark Night 3D (or so I've heard; I still need to see that film) which has a generic setting and the only noteworthy things are either preposterous-the engine behind the plot-or some really questionable decisions, the main thing being that apparently there's a scene where an African-American male character grabs a spear straight out of Africa and uses it as a weapon. I mean, YIKES.

 

Even though I wouldn't mind seeing the film, I still will always giggle at the title and think juvenile things.

 

 

Well, there's no shame in not really liking the film. I agree that some things haven't aged all that well, and the second is pretty awesome. It's not like you're saying that Die Hard isn't all that great, after all. I have a 4 pack of the three movies and the made for TV film from a few years ago so eventually I'll at least watch the first two and try to stomach the aggravating Trinity.

 

 

I've come across at least one person on Twitter who is a big fan of the Jack Reacher books and isn't too happy with Cruise being cast in the role. I haven't read any of them so I don't have a horse in the race. I presume those people would be unhappy with most of the people that would be cast as Jack, so I won't put too much stock in what they say.

 

 

Yeah, but I guess it's true what they say about the DTV business not being like how it was a few years ago; even those goofy in name only sequels to theatrical movies aren't really being made anymore. It's a shame as maybe if the studios wouldn't be such asshats (a big if) then a sequel would have been at least more true to the game and not such a waste of everyone's time.

 

Anyway, I recently got back from seeing God Bless America, and HO-LEE SHIT, am I glad I was able to see it on the big screen. Everyone else laughing at the pitch-black humor didn't make me feel so bad for doing the same thing. I swear, Bobcat is a mind reader and peered into my brain and wrote the script based off of what I believe; not that I want to grab a gun and kill all the horrible people in American society (and I do think there are many rude and ignorant people around) but it felt REALLY good to hear someone ranting and raving even more than me about that sort of thing, and that's a hell of a feat. Even I was taken aback by some of the things that were done and said. I agreed with most of it, but not all of it.

 

The fact that the story was great as revenge fantasy and the two leads were awesome made it all the better. While this isn't as beloved by me as The Raid: Redemption this is a close second and that's a great 1-2 punch.

 

And yes, while I won't be seeing the movies that many of you will this summer (sorry, but The Avengers doesn't really interest me; I've only seen the two Iron Man movies out of that whole franchise, and I'll never forget how Iron Man 2 made me so enraged, especially the Justin Hammer character) this year is really strong for movies and by December, I'm expecting a Top 10 list that is quite a big stronger than the ones I've done the past few years and mentioned on here.

Not sure what I like most about the finale of DOUBLE TEAM. The look on Rourke's face before he goes kaboom or how Van Damme, Rodman, Belloq, and that baby manage to survive a massive explosion by huddling behind a Coke machine.

 

What a great movie.

 

 

Correct me if I am wrong, but didn't Guillermo Del Toro have the "snowman" role created just for Donnie Yen to get on screen for a little bit?  He originally brought Yen on only to be the choreographer but loved working with him so much that he wanted to get him on camera for a bit so he added the character to the Bloodpack.

Yep, that's some serious product-placement right there. I wonder if Spielberg ever saw that movie?

Currently mainlining all the After Dark action films tonight. Just got through Stash House and half of The Philly Kid. Not a whole lotta thrills thus far. Going with El Gringo next, then Transit - saw Dragon Eyes earlier this week. I'm betting it's the best of the bunch, and that ain't saying much.

EL GRINGO, while having its share of flaws, was much better than DRAGON EYES. Easy pick for best of the After Dark flicks I witnessed. I'm gonna pass on PHILLY KID and TRANSIT.

I actually enjoyed DRAGON EYES. The film was JC's cheapest DTV yet, but looks damn good. The sepia didn't piss me off like it did in ASSASSINATION GAMES, thanks to the splashes of red and Peter Weller's OTT suits. Speaking of Weller he kept the whole thing afloat when there wasn't any action. JC had a good cameo, showing some very Liam Neeson like gravitas and there was enough action for me.

 

If thats the case, you'll just love Van Damme's KNOCK OFF, Mister Falcon.

 

You won't be dissapointed.

 

New UNIVERSAL SOLDIER: DAY OF RECKONING Pics

 

BLADE 2 is a more entertaining film. But let's not forget it has some serious flaws. The awlful looking "Ninja" CGI. The waste of Donnie Yen and the Bloodpack. The Whistler/Blade relationship also lacks the strong connection they had in the first film as well. I think BLADE sets up its universe extremely well and Snipes gives a very good performance as well.

Hey Guys, Blade is not just about...The Opening action scene.  Frost, killing the Vampire Elder by giving him a...Permanent Suntan, Whistler armed with a sniper rifle, backing up Blade who was just captured by Frost's henchmen, The fight in the nightclub entrance in Frost's HQ, the scene on the...Bladecycle where Blade did get captured.  I found Blade to be...Sharper, more exciting, and the...Better film.

Looks like we're on the same page, fleed!

 

The one with Lundgren giving the sermon gives me Johnny Mnemonic flashbacks.

Good news for Divide fans. Sounds like a remake of Mr. Majestyk starring Michael Biehn and directed by Xavier Gens. Which sounds awesome.

Man, STASH HOUSE was dull. Dolph wasn't bad, though. And the end credits misspelled Sean Faris' name, giving his surname an extra 'r'. Keep it professional, After Dark!

Ya know what STASH HOUSE needed more of? More shots of Lundgren seen through the house's security system. That didn't get tiresome at all. Blech.

 

 

 

Damn, this is gonna be one freaky-ass movie. Can't wait.

Just praying for a Theatrical release here.

felix, It is good to be on the same...Page in the...Book of the...Deadliest, Blade, with you!

Beat Max Payne 3 yesterday. Fucking ownage right there. Was gonna finally watch Wake of Death but decided the cheapness was killing my mood and went with Munich instead. I'll revisit Wake later. 

 

 

It was either him or Wesley that insisted on giving hima screen role.  Wesley is a martial arts film fan, so it makes sense if it was him. 

 

This is why he doesn't have any lines, I guess.

 

 

It would be great.  But a 3D Blu-Ray will do just fine if that isn't possible.

 

 

Saw a couple of films the other day.

 

How I spent my Summer Vacation (Get the Gringo) - This was fun.  Not a laugh riot, but it does have some dark humour.  Gibson keeps it restrained and is pretty good.  I would describe it as Payback, with fewer 'name actors' (Bob Gunton, Dean Norris and Peter Stormare are the names), in a different location and with a little more humour.  A good film, but not a Gibson classic.

 

Piranha 3DD - A bit of a disappointment.  This is basically a lower budget version of the first film.  Busey is the 'Dreyfuss' of the film and those outtakes from 2 weeks back are more fun then the scene he has in the film.  The bit in the trailer is it as far as Busey madness goes.  Koechner is the O'Connell and nowhere near as entertaining.  Hasselhoff is fun, though (stay for a minute after the film ends) and it does have sone fine woman on show (real and really fake, if you know what I mean).  There isn't as much mass carnage as the first film, that was what that film did do right.  Then the film ends.  Very brief and never hits it's real potential.  Fans of the first film will enjoy it, but there really is less to enjoy then the first.

 

Christopher Lloyd must've had deja vu, his scenes parallel the first exactly.

Rewatched SUDDEN DEATH with all the hub ub it raised in this thread recently.

 

Fantastic film.  Hyams is a real pro of old school filmmaking.  

 

Definitely one of the better "Die hard on a [blank]" films to come out of the '90s.

 

Also, got caught up watching SPEED on cable a few nights ago...this was a big movie for me.  It was the first R-rated film I saw in theaters...what a way to start!

 

God damn that is a fantastic flick.  The music, the action, the keaneau.  Jeff Daniels with a money supporting role.  I really dug the intro as well with the elevator stuff.  As a native Angeleno it is still always satisfying watching a LA metro bus plow through rush hour traffic.

 

If I made a top 10 of the 90s, SPEED would definitely have to be on it.

 

It also had one of the all time classic trailers that I remember getting me real pumped in theaters

 

I was hoping that with Gulaget on board, Piranha 3DD would be even crazier than the first one. I'll still be seeing it.


That is an awesome picture from Unisol 4. Looks like Adkins is holding the same machete that Dolph is holding to his throat in that picture from that Hyams interview the other day. Could he be covered in Dolph's blood?!

That's disappointing because it had potential and the screenplay I read wasn't bad, just needed good direction. Waiting to get my hands on a decent copy to see it and make my own opinion but most of what I read is not good... :(

 

 

 

I don't think this still should have leaked (spoiling their showdown), but yeah bloody UNISOL 4 will be...!

My favorite part of that Hyams interview...

 

That's what I'm talking about.

 

.......

 

By the way, is no one else excited about those thrilling shots of Bryan Mills kicking ass in TAKEN II: RENDEZVOUS? I still have yet to see a single movie directed by Olivier Megaton, but I'm still very hopeful this sequel will deliver the goods.

 

Does Katrina Bowden at least show her boobs in this one? I can't get over on what happened to poor Kelly Brooks in the first one.

Much love for SPEED here, too.  The performers, de Bont's direction, the stunts and that Mancina original score...  All great popcorn entertainment.  That trailer is a classic with it's Hans Zimmer BLACK RAIN music, sure.  And the opening week release television commercials were good too with their borrowing of Silvestri's score from PREDATOR.  (Couldn't find a link but they used the track from the scene where Dutch yells for everybody to "Get To Da Choppa!")  

 

I think SPEED and CLIFFHANGER are my favorite "DIE HARD on a..." flicks, with the second string being UNDER SIEGE, PASSENGER 57 and SUDDEN DEATH.  

 

And de Bont may be hit-or-miss as a director (though I love TWISTER and liked LARA CROFT TOMB RAIDER: THE CRADLE OF LIFE well enough), he sure was a great action film cinematographer.  DIE HARD, BLACK RAIN, LETHAL WEAPON 3, THE HUNT FOR RED OCTOBER, BASIC INSTINCT...  Nobody used anamorphic 2.35 like he did.

Edited by Engineer - 5/17/12 at 10:58pm

 

Awesome. Hopefully he's a melon farmer. And the movie also has Danielle Harris, who, well... puts a melon in my pants! I don't know about the director, as to be honest when I saw Frontier(s) recently, I did NOT like the movie at all. Hopefully it still turns out well.

 

 

Tremendous. Yeah I am not so sad any longer that the movie didn't come to Orlando.

 

I forgot to mention that last night when I was at the Enzian I was outside for a bit at their open-air bar and not too much to say there. Thankfully they had Wi-Fi so I used that while drinking a locally-made beer and checking out the cute nerdy girls that are always around at that place. While I watched the film I had some PABST BLUE RIBBON, because they offered it and what else would be better to drink while watching such a film?

I've been thinking of blind-buying the Shogun Assassin Blu-ray set off Amazon as it's pretty cheap ($39.00 for five flicks) and I dug the few Lone Wolf and Cub mangas I've read. Have any of you guys peeped these pics? Are they worth a look? I've been curious to see them since the first installment was referenced in Kill Bill Vol. 2. Any thoughts would be appreciated.

 

Oh yeah, anyone thinking of suffering through Battleship this weekend? I tend to dig Peter Berg's directorial efforts (especially The Rundown and The Kingdom), but this flick's looking like hot garbage. Perhaps it'll make a good, drunken Redbox pick four to five months from now.  

From word one BATTLESHIP seemed like a bad idea. Never quite understood why Berg got involved with it. I've liked most of his films save for HANCOCK. Seemed like he was somewhat building to a Mann-like career. Not so much anymore.

I'd pick them up, set aside a day or two and watch them in order as soon as they arrived. (I might just do that this weekend...). If you dig samurai stuff, these are un-missable. Creepy, ultra-violent, these are the height of 70's chanbara.

Seriously, I envy you the experience of seeing these for the first time.

 

I agree Engineer...De Bont had quite the career behind the lens.  His work as a cinematographer is legendary.  Looking at his IMDB he was involved in some of the best of the 80s and 90s.

 

His work as a director in SPEED is definitely underrated.  SPEED 2 was a mess and TWISTER was an alright movie but its hard to compare to the nonstop break neck pace of SPEED.  Something is ALWAYS happening in that movie.

Just watched El Gringo.  It's a small budgeted movie that tries a bit too hard at times to be cute or cool, but Adkins is great in it and the squib-work during the big shootout is Verhoeven impressive.  The gun fight itself has a few great "NICE!" moments and Scott kills somewhere over 50 guys within five minutes.  Definitely check this one out, guys.

 

 

I have all the movies and love them.  But despite what Akutagawa says, I would probably steer clear of Shogun Assassin, which is actually a couple of the Lone Wolf And Cub movies edited into a single film.  It makes watching the actual films a messy and awkward experience.  Just get those instead.

I bought the dvd of Shogun Assassin back around December and dug it for being crazy violent, and it has interested me in seeing the Lone Wolf And Cub films, so maybe I'll eventually check them out.

 

I love how bonkers that whole sequence gets. Feels like the movie blew 2/3 of its budget putting those 10 or so minutes together.

Actually, yeah, avoid Shogun Assassin, which as mentioned above is just a bunch of sequences from several of the films edited together. There are six movies in the series, then SA. 

She does not.

 

Piranha 3DD spoilers, as if you think this movie can be spoiled.

Piranha 3DD is definitely a disappointment. With ticket prices so high, especially for 3D, you really need to earn that cost. Piranha 3DD clocks out around seventy minutes (maybe less?) before endless bloopers and end credit nonsense. The movie builds up to a huge massacre akin to the first one, but it lasts maybe ten minutes, and you're kind of surprised at how easy it is to get rid of all those Piranhas. It also doesn't follow through on the cliffhanger ending of the first film, where you find out that there's a massive Adam Scott-devouring piranha out there. Spoiler. This is even more of a shame, considering this one ends with the promise of even further Piranha evolution. But they screwed themselves, I doubt we're getting a probably awesome Piranha 3DDD that could have been very Humanoids From The Deep-ish.

If Piranha 3D was the Saving Private Ryan of aquatic carnage films, then Piranha 3DD is more like We Were Soldiers.

 

Anyway, saw all the After Dark films.

Stash House was kind of a stinker. A lot of people rip on Dolph not being a good actor, but I couldn't get over the complete stiff they matched him up with to terrorize this couple. Also, wasn't Sean Faris in Never Back Down? A half hour into this movie, and he's crying and whining like a child. I would say he backed down fairly quickly.

The last ten minutes were alright, but the rest of it was zzzzzzzz.

 

The Philly Kid was pretty predictable. Wes Chatham is the lead, and I thought he was an actual MMA guy trying to go into movies, so I cut him a little slack. Knowing he's an actual actor, I gotta say - this guy isn't gonna happen. He gets out of prison after a massive misunderstanding from when he and his friends were young (they're all mid-thirties, but in the prologue, they're all supposed to be seventeen or eighteen. Yeah, ok). Old buddy Devon Sawa (looking rough) lures him into MMA, mostly to settle his own gambling debts. Neal McDonough is the steely rich trainer, and Michael Jai White has a cameo where he yells and doesn't fight anyone. Some people want to make money off him, some people want him to throw fights, there are some guns, whatever, whatever. Low rent, skippable.

 

I liked El Gringo, though it definitely tried to be too cute. Adkins was good, and the action was pretty top notch. Christian Slater was a weak spot, I feel as if he had no idea what kind of guy he was supposed to be playing, and he's not charismatic enough to still make that interesting. Cute girls in this.

 

Transit - Adequate. Some thieves (James Frain, Harold Perrineau, Diora Boobtastic Baird and some other guy) hide a million dollar stash in some family's car as they go camping, a stupid idea that of course bites them in the ass. Jim Caviezel is playing the dad of the family, so he's stressed out, but he's playing a regular Joe, so he doesn't have to be as dead serious as he usually is. The action near the end is pretty heavy duty, some cool fist fights and shootouts. And god, even all dirtied up, greasy and sweaty, Diora Baird is the very definition of potato in your pants. But there's a lot of double crosses, and it's all really slow to get started, and these characters are just pretty boring people.

 

Disagree about Slater. Looked like he was having a good goof with the role and some of his line deliveries gave me a chuckle, particularly "Yep!"

 

Oh yeah, I have that one on DVD. It's just crazy! As a matter of fact, I need to watch it again as it's been awhile since I've seen it.

 

That's one of the film's faults.  It's ending doesn't live up to what that sequence seemed to promise... though I'll chalk that up to the film's low budget.  The only major gripe I have about the movie (aside from its random shifts in tone) is its wildly out of whack conclusion. 

Warning: Spoiler! (Click to show)

A Netflix Instant heads up: Steve Buscemi's very underrated prison flick ANIMAL FACTORY. The cast is pretty cool: Willem Dafoe, a proving-his-critics-wrong great Edward Furlong, Danny Trejo, John Heard, Edward Bunker, and a movie stealing brilliant Mickey Rourke. An unusual, humanist take on the subgenre, and a true gem of 90's Indie cinema.

 

Also of note, for those with Sony Movie Channel, tomorrow at 11 AM is (as you all know) one of my favorite Walter Hill joints, HARD TIMES. Bronson rules!

 

I'm about to watch THE PLAYER for the first time in almost twenty years. So, yay!