Action movies in the 80's are better than the ones today.

[Guy from the 80's]

Action movies today are all about nail polish and CGI. CGI are not that good looking so its really crap.

I was playing Blood Dragon and then I realized, or should I say remember, just how awesomely rad the 80's were. There are so many references to rad movies in Blood Dragon that I decided to fire up Commando [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0088944/].

The movie starts with a bunch of people GETTING KILLED. The first guy gets killed while emptying the trash (you keep that in mind) while the other whos a car salesman gets run over by a villain customer. The third guy is a fisherman who gets blown up.............

Then all of a sudden you see a chainsaw, and the camera zooms out and you see Arnold Schwarzenegger in his prime carrying a 250 pound log on his left shoulder while hes carrying a big chainsaw in his right arm. He then walks to his survivalist house in the middle of nowhere where he starts to chop this wood into pieces with an axe. As hes cutting wood he can see a reflection in the blade of his axe and he turns around and its his daughter. He picks her up and they lol together. A few seconds later he senses a helicopter approaching. It lands and some people exits it.

An army guy with stars tells Arnold that his men has been killed off, but everything is cool because he got some men to protect him. Arnold asks if they are any good and the army guy says they are the best but not as good as him. Then the guy leaves in his chopper and as soon as hes gone some guy appears from behind the bushes and kills one of the guys and injures the other. Arnold is on the ground protecting his daughter (of course)They all crawl into the house. Arnold asks the surviving soldier if hes ok, even though injured he says yeah I'm ok. Arnold says be on the lookout, remember they are down wind. Down wind you mean I can smell them? I could Arnold replies.

Arnold tells his daughter to hide in her room and as she goes there he runs into his survivalist walk-in gun locker where he gets a big fucking gun that he puts in his belt and he also gets a big assault rifle and lots of ammo. He runs to his daughters bedroom but shes not there, theres just a douche with a wife beater beard that tells him to relax and that if Arnold wants to see his daughter again he needs to cooperate. He asks "if you want to see you daughter again you got to cooperate right?"

Arnold answers "WRONG" and he blasts the guy in the forehand with the assault rifle.



Action movies in the 80's are better than the reboot/remake SHIT today. After playing Blood Dragon I watched Commando (10/10) and I'm now watching the Running Man and after that I will watch total Recall and after than Predator.

(what happened next?)


Arnold gets his guns on

 

[Zantos]

I think The Expendables, and more-so The Expendables 2 are a great throwback to that style. The macho men and cheesy lines, and the unnecessary yet strangely alluring violence.

But if you're not willing to go that far I'll compromise with some 90s action. How do you feel adding Universal Soldier (1992, Van Damme) and Soldier (1998, Russell) to that list?

 

[Axolotl]

There's plenty of great action movies post 80s, The Matrix for a start and almost no films from the 80's are as action heavy as Kill Bill. Even Commando is weighed down with a totally pointless romance.

The 60's and 70's had better action with Clint Eastwood and Bruce Lee, and I can't think of any shootout that can compare with the finale of the Wild Bunch. Look Arnie is great and his 80's stuff is wonderful but I don't think it's as good say John Woo's Hong Kong work.

 

[Zantos]

How do you feel adding Universal Soldier (1992, Van Damme) and Soldier (1998, Russell) to that list?

Spoiler: vid

Fine, be that way. You'll just be all "Zantos help! I'm Schwarzeneggered out and need something to ease myself off" and I'll be all "Nope, I'm busy watching Chuck Norris fight ninjas"

Incidentally, that's probably the single best response I've had to anything I've ever posted.

 

[Darks63]

The action movies of today and the action movies of the 80's are both products of their time. It is hard to compare them as a result. In the 80's we like the muscle bound hunk blowing up the bad guys with a smile type hero. In the 90's the heros got a little more gritty and rugged but were still somewhat like the 80's heros and in the 2000's we were more into the anti heros. Now superheros are the thing and will be for the foreseeable future.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

I don't know if they were better but they certainly had a way of coming up with awesome one-liners.


In case anybody's wondering, that's Roddy Piper in John Carpenter's They Live. Duke Nukem is his and Ash William's lovechild.

 

[Scarim Coral]

Well for one thing, we lack the proper action heroes actors to fill in those actions movies (Arnold and Stallone). Yes I know there are a few like Dwayne but none of them really capture that action man look.

 

[Guy from the 80's]

There are many good movies in the 90's indeed Zantos. Last action hero (loved it) Demolition man (loved that also)
But the spirit of the 80's..........


The spirit....




when do you see anything like this

 

[SadakoMoose]

If you're willing to look in Hong Kong, then the 90's were a pretty good decade for pure action.
Most memorable Jackie Chan pictures came out in that decade, as did one of the best John Woo pictures; Hard Boiled.

 

[DoPo]

Oh, man, Commando is probably my favourite action movie. It's just so...action movie-y, I love it! Also, I like Sully, I really do - it's the one character that springs directly to mind when I think of the movie.

Anyway, which would be the current action movies? I don't really watch a lot of movies as a whole, so I don't really know. I don't think I can properly compare then and before. I can think of...Crank and Transporter, some of the most recent I've seen. Yeah..., as I said - not a lot of movies. Those were good - I like Jason Statham when he plays...erm, Jason Statham, apparently - I think all his movies concern a single character. There was also Expendibles but I don't really count it, as it's pretty much an 80's movie. That was alright, needs some fiends and beer and it works.

 

[TephlonPrice]

Oh, man, Commando is probably my favourite action movie. It's just so...action movie-y, I love it! Also, I like Sully, I really do - it's the one character that springs directly to mind when I think of the movie.

Anyway, which would be the current action movies? I don't really watch a lot of movies as a whole, so I don't really know. I don't think I can properly compare then and before. I can think of...Crank and Transporter, some of the most recent I've seen. Yeah..., as I said - not a lot of movies. Those were good - I like Jason Statham when he plays...erm, Jason Statham, apparently - I think all his movies concern a single character. There was also Expendibles but I don't really count it, as it's pretty much an 80's movie. That was alright, needs some fiends and beer and it works.

The Raid: Redemption.

You want action, this is it. PLENTY of brutal, violent Pencak Silat action, featuring bone breaks, stabbings, neck breaks, improvised ass kickings & some shootouts. But mainly, it's just hand to hand violence at its finest.

I'd also recommend Shoot Em Up if you haven't seen that. Humor with plenty of gun battles galore & a nice little story to tie it up.

 

[Owyn_Merrilin]

I think the problem is that in the 80's and 90's, studios weren't afraid of the R rating. Ever notice how practically all modern action movies are rated PG-13? Including things like the most recent Die Hard movie in its theatrical release, a traditionally R-rated series. Today the studios would rather have the extra cash from getting that 13-16 crowd into the theaters without the hassle of needing an adult to go with them, so they neuter their action movies in order to keep things under an R.

Basically, the people making movies back in the day had more of a free hand with the kind of stuff they could do. Today it has to be borderline kid friendly to get greeenlit. Which is great for some movies, but not usually for the kind of movies involving large amounts of guns and explosions.


Edit: Well, kid friendly or Oscar bait. Oscar bait can get away with an R, but Oscar bait is one thing these movies were not.

 

[Chemical Alia]

Commandooooooo, that's it! I've been trying to think of the name of that movie for ages. And every time I describe it, nobody knows what I'm talking about, despite knowing 100% that I've seen it with them before, and that there's probably only one movie where Arnold's daughter gets kidnapped and wacky hijinks in that Galleria mall.

 

[Tiger King]

Commandooooooo, that's it! I've been trying to think of the name of that movie for ages. And every time I describe it, nobody knows what I'm talking about, despite knowing 100% that I've seen it with them before, and that there's probably only one movie where Arnold's daughter gets kidnapped and wacky hijinks in that Galleria mall.

just remember the quotes:
"let off some steam Bennett"

 

[Zweiblumen]

Jackie Chan.

That is all.

... is what I want to say, but I can't remember what the forum guidelines say about lengths of posts so I'm too scared to. Also I don't actually feel that Jackie Chan movies are the best action movies. That is a title I will hand over to this movie (at least I can't think of any action movie I like more):

 

[generals3]

WHat i miss about those old action movies is how they went over the top in the action and cheesiness but still took themselves seriously.

And i would also like to note there were quite a few awesome action movies in the 90's too.

 

[008Zulu_v1legacy]

It seems to me the difference is 30 years. A 65 year old action star can't do what a 35 year old action star can do. Watching a bunch of old men runn... driving around shooting people, it feels half hearted.

OT: Solve puzzle; circle of life.

 

[Product Placement]

For anyone ever doubting the awesomeness of 80's action flicks, this scene alone is the conclusive proof of how wrong you are.

The follow up:

"Hey, what did you do with Sully?"

"I let him go."

 

[Baron_Rouge]

Some are, some aren't. You can't make an all or nothing claim like that without people, myself included, thinking that it's just nostalgia. Some 80's action movies are indeed better than the ones today, Commando was awesome, and I've heard it said that the most recent Die Hard is a steaming pile of crap. But are you going to argue that Gymkata is better than The Dark Knight? Or that Jaws 3-D was a better film than Looper? What about Inception? What about Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol, Taken, Casino Royale, Skyfall, or the Matrix? Some of those are fantastic. I don't think it's as black and white as you seem to believe.