good action films
 

picking up on Strangelet's comments in the 300 thread -- what are some pure action films that aren't also completely retarded (not that retarded can't be fun too)?

my personal favs:

Hard Boiled
Big Trouble In Little China
Terminator 2
Once Upon A Time In China 2
Sanjuro
Spider-Man 2
...

Re: good action films
 

semi-recent suff:
(these can be seen on youtube)

Sha Po Lang/Kill Zone - more cop story than all out action movie. Donnie Yen vs Wu Jing and Donnie Yen vs Sammo Hung (Sammo plays a mob boss).

Fatal Contact - Wu Jing plays a naive martial artist that ends up in an underground fighting ring. minus the fighting scenes, its actually a really depressing story. fairly simple looking with some subtle/clever little action bits. highlight fight scene is the 3-on-3 tanker fight.

Dragon Tiger Gate - kinda cheesy Donnie Yen movie (based on a HK comic book). kinda like a live action anime.

Re: good action films
 

hard boiled and big trouble in little china both kick a lot of ass

the professional comes to mind. also some of the recent art house chinese westerns like house of flying daggers and croucing tiger hidden dragon. the first matrix I thought was awesome, the two sequals would be examples of bad action movies. I mean even a movie like Die Hard I think is a great action movie because it had interesting characters.

these come to mind. but i'm sure I'm missing a ton

Re: good action films
 

I wouldn't call Heat a straight action movie, but the street shoot-out is unmatched.

I also quite like Hero.

I remember really liking Mission Impossible 1, but I haven't seen it in ages.

KILL BILL.

Re: good action films
 

so is the idea that the movie is still actually good? comparing T2 to 300 is almost blashphemy! T2 to me, has lots of meaning and humanity to it.

but mine would be Die Hard... although is suppose some do think it's quite silly... but action it sure is!

rediculous one: ong bak, hard to beat that action!

Re: good action films
 

i must be one of about 10 people on Earth who liked Matrix Reloaded better than the original.

i happen to hate Zhang Yimou's "art-house" wuxia films (Hero etc). they're so pretentious and fascist! well, Hero was and i heard the same about Curse of the Golden Flower.

adam i feel the same way about MI 1.

Kill Bill i'm reserving judgment on until i see Lady Snowblood (the movie that most directly inspired it).

***

yeah, T2 was hugely influential on me as a kid. i just picked up a used DVD of it, since i'd only ever watched a cut-up tv version of it on VHS! how awesome is that film. the kid-and-robot camaraderie, the nomadic traveling-out-of-the-city, the T-1000 is probably in half the artwork i do, Arnold's one-liners, etc.

speaking of Arnold -- Predator!!

Re: good action films
 

I love Hero. I didn't care for House of Flying Daggers. I loved the use of colour through the subsequent re-tellings of the story, and the guy using the arrow shaft to finish his calligraphy = class. Political ethics aside.

I'm with you on Reloaded, personally. I think they're both equally stupid, but I thought the wraith twins and the highway sequence were both really, really well done.

Re: good action films
 

i just saw Lethal Weapon in a theatre and it was something. the sadistic Mel Gibson stuff was a little jarring though.

Re: good action films
 

Is it really? I've never seen it but I adore Kiss Kiss Bang Bang.

Re: good action films
 

The first Die-Hard(Jesus complex) and True Lies are STILL the number ones for me.