Spieler Eins
Member
The Raid was so good.
Is it me or do Action Movies seriously suck these days
- Thread starter SystemBug
- Start date
- Status
... is this ... is this really an Action Movie thread with no mention of Aliens yet?
It's a shame action movies have kind of been watered down and have to rely on big, gaudy set pieces composed of CGI to try and one-up each other. The end result is almost always messy-looking (Transformers, for example, looks like clumps of foil being shot at each other) and rarely convincing. I can't remember the last time an action movie made me feel something other than 'well, that was a big explosion' or 'well, that was a lot of shit smashing into other shit.' Even Die Hard 4 was lacking, especially compared to the original, or even Die Hard 3 (which I just watched and holds up nicely).
Does Children of Men count as an action movie? Those long sequences (especially the last one), though shot with a bit of shaky cam, are still incredible.
Edit: I gotta see the new Dredd movie.
It's a shame action movies have kind of been watered down and have to rely on big, gaudy set pieces composed of CGI to try and one-up each other. The end result is almost always messy-looking (Transformers, for example, looks like clumps of foil being shot at each other) and rarely convincing. I can't remember the last time an action movie made me feel something other than 'well, that was a big explosion' or 'well, that was a lot of shit smashing into other shit.' Even Die Hard 4 was lacking, especially compared to the original, or even Die Hard 3 (which I just watched and holds up nicely).
Does Children of Men count as an action movie? Those long sequences (especially the last one), though shot with a bit of shaky cam, are still incredible.
Edit: I gotta see the new Dredd movie.
Hahahahaha
Net_Wrecker
Member
Yes, Strike Back in particular. Any fan of action movies owes it to themselves to watch this series. Great framing and usage of actual military grade blanks in THE BEST gunplay on TV, and besting a lot of movies with much bigger budgets. Watch this show, people.
As for movies, there's still good stuff out there,you just have to dig deeper than the blockbusters which, for the most part, have gone soft or are just boring. In recent years, movies like The Raid, Dredd, Safe, The Good The Bad The Weird, Ong Bak, The Protector, Ip Man, Shoot Em Up, Red Cliff (5 hour version), Exiled, etc. etc. there's still good stuff out there.
Bay abandoned all of his action skills when it came to the Transformers movies, especially the sequels. Haven't seen Pain and Gain though.
Alcotholic
Banned
Came to post this.
Seriously, nothing can really top it in terms of pure action.
XiaNaphryz
LATIN, MATRIPEDICABUS, DO YOU SPEAK IT
...where do I even start. :/
King Allant
Member
yes do this. More people need to see these show
Evolved1
make sure the pudding isn't too soggy but that just ruins everything
They are actually good?
TheKaeptain
Banned
King Allant
Member
yes sir. In strike back the action is better than most movie.
I really need to start watching Strike Back. I stumbled on Transformers 3 by mistake and it's probably the biggest waste of money i've ever seen on screen. Michael Bay has some sort of schizophrenic talent and surely knows how to move a camera, but the fact he don't know shit about restraint, tension, lighting and atmosphere automatically disqualifies him as a competent action director
last great action movie I seen is probably Red Cliff, not technically an action oriented flick but goddamn John Woo is truly the god of choreography.
last great action movie I seen is probably Red Cliff, not technically an action oriented flick but goddamn John Woo is truly the god of choreography.
NEOPARADIGM
Banned
Point Break is pretty terrible.
TUROK
Member
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=plbswZqQvCc
I have to disagree so fucking hard.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qx0IF-qtSUs
Not too shabby, but I always hate it when guns sound weak.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yYvGn3Uy8yc
Now this is what guns should sound like in movies.
Jack Reacher was barely an action movie, but the few action sequences in it were fantastic.
Net_Wrecker
Member
Firearm sound design is weak across most movies, honestly. Once you go HEAT, you can't go back. For that reason it's hard to not recommend something strictly because they replace the raw sounds, or use weak blanks. Strike Back is still top notch despite that, and better than everything on TV. You can tell it's the real audio (listen to the echo or when they get inside the building), they just don't push it to the front of the mix like they should. Hell, stuff like Hard Boiled and The Killer are almost totally dubbed sound effects, but those moves are near or at the top of the genre.
TUROK
Member
It's definitely good from that clip I've seen, but I can't really judge as a whole since I haven't seen the series. There's obviously more to gunplay than just sounds, but I think good sound effects go a really long way in regard to intensity.
Net_Wrecker
Member
Don't get me wrong, I agree, 100%. Audio can make even a very short action scene seem huge.
But anyway, watch Strike Back. They do stuff like that every episode and it's tons of fun. It's the single most consistently impressive live-action action series I've ever seen.
King Allant
Member
wait what other action show are there beside banshee, spartacus, and arrow?
The famous "briefcase scene" from Collateral is a perfect example of a scene where the weapon sounds were fucking perfect.
Michael Mann in general knows how guns should sound. For as boring as Public Enemies was, the shootouts were top notch. The glaring exception is the final fight in Miami Vice, the weapons sounded uncharacteristically terrible for some reason.
Michael Mann in general knows how guns should sound. For as boring as Public Enemies was, the shootouts were top notch. The glaring exception is the final fight in Miami Vice, the weapons sounded uncharacteristically terrible for some reason.
Net_Wrecker
Member
24, Person of Interest, Nikita, Human Target, Dollhouse, Covert Affairs, Burn Notice, Chuck; that's just recent stuff I remember. SB is more regularly impressive to me than anything ever done on TV from a pure action standpoint.
King Allant
Member
Is Person of Interest any good?
Net_Wrecker
Member
You ever wondered what Batman would do without a suit? That's Person of Interest. The episodic nature gets a bit tiresome if you're planning to marathon it, but it's entertaining.
King Allant
Member
I guess I give it a watch, as long it entertaining I won't mind.
...except movies with good action. :\
I know opinions and whatnot...but seeing the Bourne trilogy and Hanna mentioned so often makes me think things are even worse than I thought. The latter two Bourne films have terrible action (with the exception of a few scenes) and represent much of what I hate about modern action flicks: PG-13 can't-see-shit fests. Hanna may not have shaky came, but the action is tame and has no impact at all.
Asian action films can be pretty damn good, and there have definitely been a few gems over the last while...but bad camera work and targeting PG-13 ratings has dragged action films down a lot over the last few decades.
hmmm...guess the cut (North American) version doesn't keep all the action and tighten up everything else? Thought Red Cliff was a few hours too long. So boring...but if remember correctly, the battle scenes were good.
Shit, that's disappointing. I loved the action in District 9.
TUROK
Member
Again, it's not shaky can that's the problem, it's the quick cuts. I promise you that if they shook the camera around yet didn't cut as much, it would be much more coherent.
Still loved Elysium, though.
hardcastlemccormick
Banned
Yeah, Nolan movies in particular encompass most of my issues. Too many cuts, too much motion, not enough spacial information communicated.
My issue with CGI is that you have two actors in a frame running through a green screen, and that shot gets so much shit added around them and none of it seems like it has anything to do with those actors. Like the last Harry Potter movie's fight through Hogwarts, I never felt like anything was going to hit the three main characters, because it was all so crazy and incomprehensible past what the three leads were doing I lost any tension.
My issue with CGI is that you have two actors in a frame running through a green screen, and that shot gets so much shit added around them and none of it seems like it has anything to do with those actors. Like the last Harry Potter movie's fight through Hogwarts, I never felt like anything was going to hit the three main characters, because it was all so crazy and incomprehensible past what the three leads were doing I lost any tension.
Net_Wrecker
Member
I don't know, I've only ever seen the full version. I just can't recommend a chopped up movie. It was made to be 5 hours, so that's how it should be seen, for better or for worse.
Femmeworth
Banned
All I see is piles of scrap metal beating each other up.
Seriously, the action in the Transformers films would be so much better if the designs were actually suited for action.
You're adorable.
RatskyWatsky
Hunky Nostradamus
Yes, very. Strike Back is more gun/explosion oriented and Banshee is more focused on hand to hand, up close and personal type stuff - knives and broken bottles and things like that. Both shows are very R rated and neither of them hold anything back during the action scenes.
The first, everything was so shiny and moving so fast, it was like watching aluminum origami shot out of canons; the second was borderline unwatchable (though for more reasons than the special effects). I refuse to watch the third, the first 20 minutes was awful.
The Transformers flicks are definitely not an example of a good action movie.... If you must go Bay, at least go with The Rock or Bad Boys.
TUROK
Member
Your eyes are broken.
I hear it all the time, people saying they can't tell what's going on. I watch this and have to question their spatial recognition abilities.
I guess the intricacies are fair game, but fuck if any of this minutiae makes the scene bad action.
hardcastlemccormick
Banned
Good in concept, terrible in execution. Most of that scene was indecipherable for me until I had seen the film three times. That stuff adds up, and the cuts are so fast that scattered information is communicated.
Femmeworth
Banned
I'm exaggerating, but you see where I'm coming from don't you? Optimus is somewhat better because of his color scheme, but the Decepticons are the worst offenders.
Something to keep in mind during these discussions: watching an action sequence on a computer monitor (Youtube quality no less) is going to be easier to process than doing so in theater-like conditions.
lazorexplosion
Member
Aside from the obvious stuff already mentioned (over reliance on CG, PG-13 rating, etc) I think one of the bigger problems with action movies these days is the bloated length / run time. Older movies often told a straightforward story - bad guys kidnapped Schwarzenegger's daughter and he's gonna fuck shit up for the next 90 minutes.
But movies these days are trending more towards 3 hours, so you get pointless flashbacks, shoehorned romantic plots / love triangles, predictable twists, lots of unnecessary characters, etc. All that stuff ruins the pacing.
But movies these days are trending more towards 3 hours, so you get pointless flashbacks, shoehorned romantic plots / love triangles, predictable twists, lots of unnecessary characters, etc. All that stuff ruins the pacing.
- Status