Is it just me or were the 90s an especially creative era for action movies?

Mission Impossible 1 also not really an action movie

Spy Thriller is what it is
 
TheRuthlessOne said:
Looking at your list the some of the 00's and 10's movies I wouldn't even consider to be an action movie.

Gladiator?
Avatar?
Batman?
Looper?
Inception?

These are Dramas that include action scenes.
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I'd agree that Gladiator is not an action film. As you say, it's a drama that includes action.

The rest I think could probably broadly be called action movies, though it does get a bit fuzzy. Batman I would consider to be an action film, as I consider superhero movies to be like a sub-genre within action.

Avatar I don't give enough of a shit about to worry how it should be classified, but "sci-fi action" sounds okay. Same for Looper.

Inception is probably the one I'm most unsure about.
 
shadow_priest_x said:
Yeah, I would call them all crime dramas.
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Usually when you search catagoties you get
Action
Drama
Horror
Comedy
Sci Fi

Under a standard system like this.. These movies are under action.

So yeah i think theres some devate as to what an action movie is.

How is the rock not a crime movie? Lots of criminals!

A movie doesnt have to be unrealistic with headshots every 5 seconds to be action.
 
shadow_priest_x said:
I guess we have to start asking the question here, "What is an action movie?"
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Well I can tell you a lot about MI 1 since I have seen it recently

I can only recall 1 real action scene in that movie and that's the final train sequence. They have other scenes in the movie that are iconic but those are slow burn tense slow scenes.

I need Total Recall people dying every 5 minutes type shit.
 
CrimsonFan said:
Usually when you search catagoties you get
Action
Drama
Horror
Comedy
Sci Fi

Under a standard system like this.. These movies are under action.

So yeah i think theres some devate as to what an action movie is.

How is the rock not a crime movie? Lots of criminals!
Click to expand...

I think that if you want to consider Goodfellas an "action movie" then you're going to be on a lonely island. You can call it anything you want, but I don't think many people will agree.

If you pull it up on Google, you'll see how it's classified. I would concur with this classification.


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TheRuthlessOne said:
Well I can tell you a lot about MI 1 since I have seen it recently

I can only recall 1 real action scene in that movie and that's the final train sequence. They have other scenes in the movie that are iconic but those are slow burn tense slow scenes.

I need Total Recall people dying every 5 minutes type shit.
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Well one thing I noticed was that you specified it was a "spy thriller."

Do you think of Casino Royale or The Bourne Identity as action films?
 
shadow_priest_x said:
There are several titles in that list from the 90s that I have watched several times. I bet I've seen The Rock at least 15 times. Maybe 20.

I think from the 00s and 10s the only films that I've watched more than maybe three times are Kill Bill, Crouching Tiger and Casino Royale.
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That's fine. But doesn't it speak more to your enjoyment than creativity? I mean, getting a criminal outta jail to help stop another criminal wasn't a new concept.


th
 
TheRuthlessOne said:
Bourne probably more so than Casino but they are both pretty much thrillers
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I actually had to have this conversation with myself recently while going through Liam Neeson's stuff. At what point have we gone from mere "thriller" territory to "action thriller"?

Obviously there is such a thing as a "pure" action movie. The Rock is a pure action movie, for instance. But I think there's a big fuzzy perimeter outside of that base classification.
 
Cubo de Sangre said:
That's fine. But doesn't it speak more to your enjoyment than creativity? I mean, getting a criminal outta jail to help stop another criminal wasn't a new concept.


th
Click to expand...

Never saw 48 Hours.

But I thought that making a movie about a guy who has his face surgically removed and then switched with the face of another guy was pretty creative. Taking standard action tropes but then setting them on the ruins of Alcatraz was an inspired decision. Everything about The Matrix was mind-blowing at the time, and on a technical level it was literally revolutionary.

Total Recall and Demolition Man both explored the future in ways that I can't remember any other film doing. T2 was obviously a sequel, but if it was a fucking GREAT sequel that built upon the original in a huge way. The Long Kiss Goodnight took the ideas of amnesia and dual-identities and placed them in an action setting in a unique and entertaining way.

Yeah, I think that era was full of creativity and full of films where, at the time, you watched them and went, "This feels new to me. I don't feel like I've seen this before."
 
Nah. It ushered in the end of a simpler time. A time when explosions could be defended by a slow-mo walk towards the camera. When guns never ran out of bullets. When there was always time to say something cool after killing someone. When it was always made obvious, in at least one scene, that tits and ass were the only reason there was a woman along for the ride with the hero.

Sadly "logic"... and "equality"... and "science" came along and fucked everything all up
 
Jopious Extronimous said:
Nah. It ushered in the end of a simpler time. A time when explosions could be defended by a slow-mo walk towards the camera. When guns never ran out of bullets. When there was always time to say something cool after killing someone. When it was always made obvious, in at least one scene, that tits and ass were the only reason there was a woman along for the ride with the hero.

Sadly "logic"... and "equality"... and "science" came along and fucked everything all up
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None of this really speaks to the conceptual basis of the stories, though.

Sure, we may be living in the era of "realistic" action movies, but having to reload a weapon has little to do with the narrative of the film.
 
Wouldnt the matrix be sci fi?


I dont think action movies exist.
 
Action movie stars died out.... they tried hard with the Bourne Identity crap and Casino Royale. Just wasn't the same. Don't even get me started on douchebags like Mark Wahlberg and The Rock Johnson. These guys are beyond amateur compared to 90's action stars...
 
CrimsonFan said:
Wouldnt the matrix be sci fi?


I dont think action movies exist.
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I'd say "sci-fi action," like T2 or Total Recall or The Running Man.

That is contrasted with a movie like Close Encounters of the Third Kind or 2001.
 
shadow_priest_x said:
Never saw 48 Hours.

But I thought that making a movie about a guy who has his face surgically removed and then switched with the face of another guy was pretty creative. Taking standard action tropes but then setting them on the ruins of Alcatraz was an inspired decision. Everything about The Matrix was mind-blowing at the time, and on a technical level it was literally revolutionary.

Total Recall and Demolition Man both explored the future in ways that I can't remember any other film doing. T2 was obviously a sequel, but if it was a fucking GREAT sequel that built upon the original in a huge way. The Long Kiss Goodnight took the ideas of amnesia and dual-identities and placed them in an action setting in a unique and entertaining way.

Yeah, I think that era was full of creativity and full of films where, at the time, you watched them and went, "This feels new to me. I don't feel like I've seen this before."
Click to expand...

Yes, Face Off is totally creative. Although I thought it kinda sucked. Matrix was highly creative.

Terminator 2 wasn't creative at all. It just beefed up the action. But I'll give it to you on LKG.

Sounds like what it might be is the convergence with sci-fi that elevated that era. Now we're inundated with sequels and comic book adaptations. I'm more of an 80's kid so that could be why the 90's didn't seem particularly special. I'd already seen Aliens, Blade Runner, and Terminator.
 
shadow_priest_x said:
None of this really speaks to the conceptual basis of the stories, though.

Sure, we may be living in the era of "realistic" action movies, but having to reload a weapon has little to do with the narrative of the film.
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Of course it does. Escapism is the foundation of all great action and the best narratives can be ridden like waves of excitement, not fundamentally bound by the ocean of reality we otherwise occupy. We yearn not for a reminder of the small inconveniences that define our reality, but an adventure that's devoid of them. One that allows us to see what we want to be when our ego is unbound by the trappings of the actual human experience.

Of course I was also making a joke about 80's action movies, so there's that.

<BronTroll1>
 
Cubo de Sangre said:
Yes, Face Off is totally creative. Although I thought it kinda sucked. Matrix was highly creative.

Terminator 2 wasn't creative at all. It just beefed up the action. But I'll give it to you on LKG.

Sounds like what it might be is the convergence with sci-fi that elevated that era. Now we're inundated with sequels and comic book adaptations. I'm more of an 80's kid so that could be why the 90's didn't seem particularly special. I'd already seen Aliens, Blade Runner, and Terminator.
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You thought Face/Off kind of sucked? Ouch. I've always loved that movie, and it and The Rock are the films that solidified my love for Nic Cage. There are only a handful of films that old that I can remember actually watching in the theater, but Face/Off is one of them.

I'm surprised you didn't think T2 was creative. It's very different from the first film. The first obviously had action elements, but it was much smaller in scale and was arguably more of a horror film than an action film. T2 was much bigger, expanded on the Skynet idea, had great action setpieces, and introduced an very memorable villain in the T-1000.

I do think you're right that sci-fi ideas merging with straightforward action is a big part of why a lot of those movies were great. It gave you something interesting to think about while you're watching all the carnage. It wasn't just Navy Seals infiltrating a drug lord's compound of whatever.
 
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The 90's was the best era for urban culture films.
I have a long list of under-the-radar favorites from the 90's.

HBO was also the p4p best channel ever in the 90's.

- Hardcore TV
- Tales From the Crypt
- Dream on
- Def Comedy Jam
- Mr. Show
- Real Sex (my favorite show)
- Taxicab Confessions
- Perversions of Science
 
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