Things I'm Sick of - Action Movie Cliche #39

[Ma'varkith]

Especially considering Seven Samurai was ALREADY remade as The Magnificent Seven, a classic film in its own right. There's only so many times you can go to the well folks....

The Magnificent Seven (1960)
Zhan shen tan (1973)
Battle Beyond the Stars (1980)
¡Three Amigos! (1986)
Dune Warriors (1990)
Dikij vostok (1993)
Bug's Life, A (1998)
Galaxy Quest (1999)

I think the well is more than dry at this point.

 

[Pielorinho]

Re: Gladiator was a good flick...

For the record, I think you should. While it might not have been historically accurate, it was still a good movie. Assuming, of course, that you're not altogether incapable of looking around such things. Personally, I don't know much about the era, but I did really enjoy the movie.

I may see it sometime, but it's nowhere near the top of my list of movies to see (right now, that list is topped by The Man who Wasn't There). It looked a little to formulaic, and not quite funky enough, to hold my attention.

I also remember much better movies coming out that year that didn't win the Oscar, thanks to Gladiator; I irrationally and spitefully hold that against the movie .

Daniel

 

[Number47]

Just saw the documentary on PBS this week "The Monster that Ate Hollywood". It gives some very good reasons why movies are crappy, especially action movies. One of the big reasons is that the foreign market is now a very significant factor in movie making. So they make movies that have very little dialogue or plot so that any audience can watch it without worrying about subtitles too much.

It is also a mistake to think about "Hollywood culture" or "Hollywood politics" anymore. All the major studios are owned by global corporations. Global corporations don't dare put anything out there that might anger the public, because it might become linked to their other products.

 

[Rasputin]

Political action movie

IIRC, the movie rights were purchased for Tom Clancy's Rainbow Seven. This was a book that was about a top-secret elite counter-terrorist unit who really kicked a whole lot of ass. There was one scene in the book where it was just great to read what one guy did with a .50 caliber sniper rifle. Anyways, while I'm not trying to give too much away here, the villains in the book belonged to a radical political group. It is just classic what happens in the end of the book. And if you've read any of Tom Clancy's other novels in the Jack Ryan universe, then you know he is willing to let some of the "bad guys" succeed at a whole lot of destruction. I highly recommend this book.

 

[Azure Trance]

I was sort of excited when I first heard about a movie where some of the cliches seemed to be broken, such as the bad guy has morals, isn't 'really' evil, etc-- but then I actually saw SWORDFISH and was disappointed still.

 

[Shard O'Glase]

One action movie that I always though was wierd morrally but it no one else did was this lame steven segal movie(sort of a duh) where he is a environmentalist. He takes on the evil oil corp of course. But anyway in the end of the movie the evil oil corp calls in the FBI saying that some eco terrorists is planning on blowing up their plant, which was true actually. They just left out their evil plans and how they deserved it when calling in the FBI. So in comes Segal what does he do to basically innocent duped FBI agents, does he use his Aikido to take them out without really hurting them. Nope he decides to kill them all instead. Now isn't that a great moral lesson to teach to us all.

 

[Moulin Rogue]

Was it "On Deadly Ground", Shard?

http://www.jabootu.com/ondeadlyground.htm

 

[Shard O'Glase]

I think that was the name of it. Man it was lame.

 

[Mr. Grimm]

Just saw the documentary on PBS this week "The Monster that Ate Hollywood". It gives some very good reasons why movies are crappy, especially action movies.

It is also a mistake to think about "Hollywood culture" or "Hollywood politics" anymore. All the major studios are owned by global corporations. Global corporations don't dare put anything out there that might anger the public, because it might become linked to their other products.

Ain't it the truth -- try watching or reading news that isn't corporate slanted -- they own everything. Well, not the Astro Stadium... What kills me here is that news, as in the presenting of observed facts and events, is now presented in as controversial a manner as possible -- but I can't get an intelligently written and presented plot in a movie.

Anyone remember when "Fast Times at Ridgemont High" or a movie I think was called "Teachers" (w/ Nick Nolte) which were considered pretty much teen spoof movies, and both released in the ealy 80's, actually dealt with teens going through an abortion in a serious way? And those movies as a whole were considered comedies! I don't care if you're for or against a topic, at least there's some debate, some actual real life subject matter going on that is interesting when a film does something like this, especially in a drama, or "epic drama" as someone above referred to them.




What's amazing is that topics that find us divisive in real life are considered taboo, yet they'll show us every manner of death and gore conceivable and we're all pretty much okay with it. You'd think in order to find some escapism, we'd head not to the movies, but instead to the local planetarium to watch the universe blow up or in or whatever the current convention thinks it'll do in the end.

 

[hong]

The Magnificent Seven (1960)
Zhan shen tan (1973)
Battle Beyond the Stars (1980)
¡Three Amigos! (1986)
Dune Warriors (1990)
Dikij vostok (1993)
Bug's Life, A (1998)
Galaxy Quest (1999)

I think the well is more than dry at this point.

Nonsense! This just shows how the well is bottomless!