Thoughts on the current state of Action films

As promised in my review for The Expendables, here are a few thoughts on the current state of Action films.


There is a problem that seems to plague all recent action films (by this I mean those of the last 10-15 years).
They just aren't good action films any more, by this I mean they cannot hope to rival such old school action films of the same breed as Die Hard (perhaps the greatest of them all?) Predator, Mad Max, Terminator 1&2, Rambo: First Blood, Point Break, Robocop etc.
The more recent ones may be good films in their own right, but I feel that when looked at as action films, they often fall short.

Happy Birthday Clint Eastwood!

May the 31st was Clint Eastwood's birthday.
I won't be doing a post for every star's birthday, but Eastwood has had quite an influence on me and I thought it would be a fitting tribute to his extraordinary career that has spanned about 6 decades.
He is a director and actor I have long admired so I decided to watch one of his films to celebrate his 81st.

I chose A Perfect World as it is one I had in my collection but had not had the chance to see yet.
Here are a few of my thoughts on it.

Blockbuster Review: The Expendables - 2010

I've noticed that I mainly review great films on this blog. So I thought I might try my hand at writing about one of the worst films I saw last year.
That would be Sylvester Stallone's The Expendables.

The Expendables is a film with so many problems that it would take me far to long to list them all in this review, so I'll keep it short.
Actually, when I originally started this review I rapidly veered off into a rant about the problems that plague modern action films, but I've decided to use that for another post.

Instead we have The Expendables, the single worst action film I saw last year (thank God I didn't pay for it).
It is a film so puerile, so poorly made, so badly acted and so awfully written that I honestly felt embarrassed for all those attached to it.

End of Week Post

This was an interesting week that saw the end of my Silent film marathon and my return to normal blogging. Thanks again to all those who put up with my endless Silent film reviews for weeks. I appreciate it. 


25th Hour - 2002 directed by Spike Lee
9/10

A most excellent film that ranks among Spike Lee's finest films. The whole cast is excellent and while I had a few problems with Lee's style of film making at first the at times jarring editing in particular, I soon got used to it.The story was one that might not sound very interesting on paper, but I can assure you that the combined talents behind this film make it quite gripping to watch, even though it lasts well over 2 hours I can honestly say I was not bored for a minute.
At first I felt a bit to detached from the film, possibly because of how overtly even aggressively American it was, however I found the end to be very moving.
It's a very realistic film in many ways, especially where the different characters and there motives are concerned, and I liked that a lot. Very admirable work by Spike Lee.