Movies That Were Probably Made By a Spasm of Six Year-Olds on Acid: The Top 75 Action Films Poll Results Thread

i found the definitive post on 'the matrix'

This isn't even a question.

ha i watched dirty harry for the first time tonight too. it was really fun though pretty ridiculous (the mayor wants harry to be the money carrier AGAIN after he loses scorpio on a technicality the first time!?!). harry himself is so over-the-top - eastwood plays him like he constantly has the potential for violence (see the hateful looks he gives his lieutenant during the first mayor's office visit, or how he reacts to the DA who says they have to let scorpio go) and so it's a good thing he's a cop because at least he can channel that violence against creeps. the score is amazing, really like the weird stop-start drumming during the opening scene. and the guy who played scorpio was great too.
even though i hadn't seen it before, of course i knew the famous "do you feel lucky?" speech from cultural references etc. but i imagined it to be in a scenario where it provided some psychological leverage for harry. but the first time he says it, with the bank robber, the dude's bleeding out on the sidewalk in broad daylight with harry literally standing over him. harry could have just kicked the gun away. it was pretty weird in that context, he's just taunting the dude for no reason. makes a little more sense in the climax, kind of wished they had just saved the speech for then because it's distracting how he says literally the exact same thing, word for word.

Also re: Dirty Harry - that Lalo Schifrin score is on POINT. Holy shit how much do I love that music?

xpost n/a: yeah the "do you feel lucky" speeches kinda make Harry more psycho-seeming. Like he's thought about it so much he has a little theatre for his takedowns.

I tried to talk to Mr Veg about how you could kinda draw a line from Dirty Harry to Taxi Driver...just that world where the protagonist is so clearly adrift from the rest of society
...dunno if it's a super-obvious or super ridiculous thought, I just got excited when it occurred to me.

Just watched Taken. This was kind of ridiculous and racist but also great.

Musicals! .. not many takers for that one though i'm sure.

I would be down for a musicals poll!

ditto

Watching Road Warrior again :D

did not participate in this because i am a dumb ass, but that will not prevent me from having OPINIONS FOR U:

APOCALYPTO - n/s
INDIANA JONES AND THE TEMPLE OF DOOM - rad, not a patch on ROTLA
GOLDFINGER - bond movies are a separate universe, hard to mesh w my idea of the "action movie", but this is one of the best
VANISHING POINT - so fucking badass. according to sarafian, kowalski's wrecked car at the end "looks like a bent penis".
DIRTY HARRY - remember fragments from TV when i was a kid. assumed it was for dads. love the gauntlet though.
THE HURT LOCKER - cool, too serious by half
DIE HARD WITH A VENGEANCE - never loved a die hard
CON AIR - n/s
BRANDED TO KILL - fuck yes, so cool and crazy, my favorite s suzuki by far. more existential torpor than proper action.
ASSAULT ON PRECINCT 13 - n/s
SIN CITY - playboy:sex = sin city (rodriguez):sin city (miller)
INFERNAL AFFAIRS - n/s, hated the departed
DEMOLITION MAN - completely vanished from my memory
TAKEN - n/s
MAD MAX - incredible movie, much darker and slower than the road warrior, but the chase/crash stuntwork is mindblowing, maybe the best i've ever seen
JAWS - eh, good movie
THE FUGITIVE - n/s
CASINO ROYALE - hate all bond post moore
COLLATERAL - n/s
THE INCREDIBLES - great! only randian in the most tangential, fourthhand sense.
ENTER THE DRAGON - one of the best pure action movies i've ever seen. sound design alone is magnificent. once taped off the intro flashback sequence, where his sister is murdered ("now you know the truth") - an amazing listen
MIAMI VICE - n/s
KUNG FU HUSTLE - one of my very favorite films, endlessly imaginative and diverting, never gets old
GET CARTER - n/s
AKIRA - so tied up in my mind w the alt 90s, "kaneda!!!!!!"
LA FEMME NIKITA - by far my favorite luc besson flick ("eglu eglu eglu"), way better than either the fifth element or the professional
DISTRICT 9 - action heavy and somewhat dubiously plotted 2nd half is a bit of a letdown after the much richer first, but still one of the best science fiction films of the last 20 years
TOTAL RECALL - never got the hang of this. love verhoeven, but this whole movie is a big, veiny gonad.
THE WILD BUNCH - n/s
THE GREAT ESCAPE - n/s
COMMANDO - fuck arnold fucking shwarzeneggar
THE KILLER - cool as shit, cops and crooks not separated so much by their aims as their tribes
THE FIFTH ELEMENT - despite not being la femme nikita, i do love this (chris rock and gary oldman aside). best airtight garage yet put on film.
SPEED - n/s
BULLITT - n/s
YOJIMBO - n/s
LE SAMOURAI - great interior design and a nice mood, otherwise a bit dull?
DAWN OF THE DEAD - best zombie flick ever made, opening raid on the apt building is assault on precinct 13 raised to psychedelic extremes
TO LIVE AND DIE IN L.A. - lot of people getting shot in the face, iirc
THE MATRIX - saw it twice the week of opening, will love the matrix til the day i die, fuiud
INDIANA JONES AND THE LAST CRUSADE - ass
CRANK - pretty good, better than the sequel
THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK - prefer star wars, but this is as good a sequel as anyone could have hope for, maybe the best "part 2" ever
THE BOURNE IDENTITY - n/s
THE WARRIORS - when i was a kid, we watched this at my friend todd's 13th birthday party. then we dressed up in karate gis (and fake karate gis made of towels and such) and went out into the night to smash up mailboxes. obviously leads to youth violence.
THE BOURNE ULTIMATUM - n/s
THE BOURNE SUPREMACY - n/s
ONCE UPON A TIME IN THE WEST - the best western i've ever seen, NOT A ACTION MOVIE DUH
BIG TROUBLE IN LITTLE CHINA - loved then, love now, 2nd hand wuxia shit, but kurt russell was never better
THE DARK KNIGHT - barf
PREDATOR - cool enough, i guess
POINT BREAK - n/s
BATTLE ROYALE - kitano is the best thing in it, otherwise a lot of fun, but not a real favorite
THE THING - otoh, one of the best horror/sci fi/action movies ever made, probably seen it 30 times, only hope to see it 30 more (or well maybe 10)
KILL BILL VOL. 1 - easily my favorite tarantino, not as "good" as pulp fiction maybe, but much more rewatchable and fun
POINT BLANK - n/s
THE TERMINATOR - maybe the only schwarzeneggar flick i really love
NORTH BY NORTHWEST - cary grant and alfred hitchcock might be my two favorite people ever to have been involved with the making of films
STARSHIP TROOPERS - great, does not hold up
THE ROAD WARRIOR - gread, holds up just fine. maybe better now than it was then.

was princess mononoke nominated?

also, made for morbuis itt, but first posted elsewhere for nogood reason:

http://i274.photobucket.com/albums/jj242/donaldparsley/DOM.gif

oops, i guess i should've said, re: assault on precinct 13, that i've never seen it all the way through, so i can't in good conscience comment. applies to several of those "n/s" entries.

Watching Road Warrior just reconfirms what a good/great arc Max has between MM1 and MM2...and makes Thunderdome all the more infuriating, lol.

For me, the two instances of Harry's "do you feel lucky" speech show how much has changed about him during the movie (and set up the very end of the film after he shoot Scorpio), and also how different Scorpio is from the run-of-the-mill 'creeps' Harry usually deals with.

you could kinda draw a line from Dirty Harry to Taxi Driver

I kind of disagree with this, although I can see the argument. Travis is adrift from society, Harry is unfortunately all too much a part of the society he lives in. His violence is prompted directly by the violent actions of other people. It's a bit clearer in the sequel 'Magnum Force' (not as good as DH but worth checking out).

I'd pick Magnum Force over DH as it least confronts the 'for dads' bullshit of the first film.

I'd actually draw a line from Dirty Harry films to Death Wish series!

Money drop is a great sequence, certainly watch that if it was on TV.

Weird that the "Go ahead, make my day" line doesn't show up until Sudden Impact.

Not really, just bcz Ronald Reagan's puppeteers loved it doesn't mean it was part of the original; he didn't need it while he was governor.

This was kind of ridiculous and racist but also great.

^Motto of the thread.

Integrate your lives.

what's the 'for dads' bullshit in the first Dirty Harry film?

Scorpio has Harry running a lot in the ransom scene...
http://second-reel.blogspot.com/2011/03/dirty-harrys-race-for-life.html

in shoes.

Thunderdome:Mad Max1/2::Babe 2: Pig in the City:Babe

Not really, just bcz Ronald Reagan's puppeteers loved it doesn't mean it was part of the original; he didn't need it while he was governor.

Morbs, this is both pedantic and nonsensical at the same time (the bifecta?). Like, I truly don't understand your point. Anyway, it is strange that one of a character's iconic lines does not show up until the third film in a series. It is not strange that Reagan used it. Though it would have been strange had younger Reagan used the "do you feel lucky?" speech.

babe 2 is a pretty damn good movie, though. thunderdome is kind of a mess.

I believe that 98% of the line's "iconic" status is due to the Reagan co-optation. Waht else does this series have; "Do you feel lucky, punk?" HOW ASTOUNDING

xp

wait dude it's a really well made and gripping movie.

Babe 2 is a pretty damn good movie and kind of a mess.

I saw it in the theatre with my wife I want to say Christmas Eve the year it came out. There were six people in the theatre, total. Us, two weird loners, and a mom with her kid, who cried the entire time.

yeah, it is a mess -- major studio recutting i seem to recall. but the action sequences are fantastic.

it kind of anticipates toy story 3 in a weird way.

Morbs, Reagan used it because it was iconic. Like "I'll be back." I vividly remember the ad campaigns for the movie that used it, all the pop culture references, etc. I only know of Reagan's invocation in retrospect. Plus, Reagan used the line two fucking years after the movie came out!

AFI had it at #6 of their greatest movie lines list. That's not Reagan's doing, either.

it wasn't used until the 4th film was it, not the 3rd?

Yeah, that's right. Sorry if I confused them. Frankly, it blows my mind that there are five Dirty Harry movies.

i was amazed as a kid when i saw the first film and that line wasn't in it!

still remain unimpressed by dirty harry

AFI had it at #6 of their greatest movie lines list. That's not Reagan's doing, either.

It is in fact, but fuck all

ie, if Reagan hadn't used it pretty much only ppl like you would remember it.

"ppl like you"

http://a1.ec-images.myspacecdn.com/images02/59/6735df4ee2da41d397abaa9276816c12/l.jpg

Lou Gosset Jnr on the left?

Dirty Harry is a wonderfully crafted, beautiful movie despite its fascist message.

Waht else does this series have; "Do you feel lucky, punk?" HOW ASTOUNDING
― Literal Facepalms (Dr Morbius), Sunday, February 19, 2012 2:23 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

it's a great scene.

http://blogs.warwick.ac.uk/images/michaelwalford/2006/10/06/triumph_of_the_will_stadium_shot.jpg

Literal Facepalms (Dr Godwin)

I didn't want to wade in because this thread was going so fast at the time, but gotta disagree with all the praise for Die Hard With a Vengeance. It's a VERY dumb movie, obnoxious and silly. Part of what makes the first film the greatest action movie ever is the well-constructed plot and the intelligent characters, so to end up with nonsense like moving hundreds of tons of gold in dumptrucks is pretty pathetic.

Irons shooting Sam Jackson in the leg was rad though.

I just watched Die Hard 3 for the first time since it was in theaters, and it was better than I remembered. Boilerplate, and nowhere near the first, but still solidly entertaining. At the time it seemed very going through the motions, but maybe a couple of decades of going further through the motions have cast it into more favorable relief.

I don't get excited much about it past "Hot Time Summer in the City".

Well, it is all downhill from there, tbf.

'Southern Comfort' is on Britishers TV tonight. Worth watching?

yes!

Is that the Deliverance knockoff with Powers Boothe and one of the Carradines?

man this thread has me going through a few of my favorites. especially hk stuff. rewatched the mission this afternoon, the blade yesterday, time & tide in the next few days (still pissed at ilx that this is not gonna place, has some of the most impressive & best action scenes of all time). i know ppl here love johnnie to's election too and it is quite great (that's gonna be for this week), but everytime i think of him i think of that great tracking shot at the beginning of breaking news.