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

I saw Fong Sai Yuk when it came out, but if IIRC it spent too much time developing its silly plot that didn't work very well, so I didn't like it that much, even if it had some awesome fight scenes. Though TBH I can't remember anything about the plot anymore.

Btw, I watched Big Trouble in Little China last night for the first time in 15+ years, and while it was pretty much as good as I remembered, I wonder if I'm the only one who thought the ending was a bit anticlimactic...?

SPOILERS

I mean, the way Lo Pan was killed was cool, it went according to how they planned it (wait until he marries the green-eyed woman, so he turns mortal, then kill him before he kills his bride to gain superpowers), and Jack Burton's knife trick was actually foreshadowed earlier in the movie. But after that the movie still tried to build up momentum, like it hadn't reached its climax yet... So first you have Thunder blowing himself up, which looks funny but makes little sense (if he was so upset over Lo Pan's death he wanted to die himself and take heroes with him, wouldn't there have been a more effective way to do that?). And then you have Lightning attacking the heroes, and you're like, wow, he's clearly the strongest of the three magical warriors, now there's gonna be a climactic kung fu fight. But instead of that he just flashes his lightning bolts, slowly walks towards the heroes but never manages to catch them, and is defeated by dropping a statue to his head! And if that wasn't big enough an anticlimax, the editing and music still try convince you the suspense isn't over, and the final climactic scene is... the good guys driving away in Jack's truck. Seriously?

I mean, I know it's a half-comedy, and rest of the movie is awesome, but I was a bit disappointed that out of the three magical warrior bad guys, only the first one was defeated in an actual fight. Funnily enough I remember liking the ending more when I first saw BTiLC as a kid in the 80s. Back then, seeing Thunder explode in a funny way felt like a good enough climax; kids obviously don't care as much about proper narrative structure as adults too.

missed out on the oscar for that very reason iirc

I'm completely baffled by the praise for Death Proof's car chase. It's one idea (stuntwoman on the hood of the car) drawn out for a seemingly endless amount of time, and it's in the middle of nowhere so it doesn't even offer any off the traditional thrills of a classic chase sequence.

also i was desperate for her to be squashed after that diner scene.

Furious speculation!

Locks: Aliens / Die Hard / Escape From New York / Heat / Inception / Raiders / Robocop / Ronin / Terminator 2 / The Seven Samurai

Pick 5 from: Bad Boys / Children of Men / Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon / Face/Off / The Good, The Bad & The Ugly / Gladiator / Hard Boiled / Independence Day / Lethal Weapon / Men In Black / Taking of Pelham 123 / Top Gun / Transporter / Under Siege

What I think - I have no fucking idea. Children, Crouching, Face/Off, Men in Black and Transporter? Though that's just "these are my favourite five films" of that lot.

no way Inception shows up

Lethal Weapon and CoM way more guaranteed than Inception imo

What is the mysterious quality that bars it from the top 75 action films? It's a lot more comfortable in the genre than nearly anything from the pick 5 list.

it eats farts, for one thing

i was gonna list other reasons but dayotm

I remain... unconvinced.

ok well how abt taking a look at the inception thread where... most of ilx cops to not really caring for it after the hype

i'd advise against opening that thread tbh

it just links to another one

BWONG

Inception was on my ballot, but I wouldn't want it showing up this high on the list.

I liked that movie.

My "action films" I rewatched over the weekend: Die Hard With a Vengeance, Hanna.

wow so i should watch Ronin then? was it a big hit? i'm baffled as to how i missed this when i've seen and loved pretty much every other one of the big 80s/90s films mentioned on the thread. i don't even remember it coming out here.

but makes little sense

Hence the title of this thread.

wow so i should watch Ronin then?

Absolutely!

ronin, the ilx top-5 action movie? ya it's prob worth a go.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v212/etienne_saint/goodbadugly.png

#15

THE GOOD, THE BAD, AND THE UGLY

Sergio Leone
1966
United States/Italy
(423 points, 13 votes)

I once saw a very very early matinee of The Good, The Bad & The Ugly (with ice cream and everything) and I have rarely ever been so truly truly happy.

― @d@ml (nordicskilla)

The Good, The Bad & The Ugly may be my all-time favorite movie, the more I think about it.

― El Diablo Robotico (Nicole)

Leone > EVERYONE ELSE.

― Alex in SF

The title sequence is for The Good, The Bad and The Ugly is one of my favorite things ever (the rest of the movie is up there too!).

― Spencer Chow

Sergio Leone!

watched the whole trilogy recently, for a few dollars more is my fav, very elegantly done

The Good, the Bad & the Ugly (with ice cream)

great start! The s/track has everything in it (including ice cream truck music)

i like it but i think it goes on a bit..

For a Few Dollas More def the best of the trilogy, but you can't beat the music from this one.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v212/etienne_saint/FrenchCloudyPopeye.jpg

#14

THE FRENCH CONNECTION

William Friedkin
1971
United States
(436 point, 15 votes)

Hackman is incredible, as is old Roy. You can almost see my old house near Coney Island in the train/car chase.

― Yanc3y (ystrickler)

This is one of my favorite movies. HOWEVER does anyone else agree with me that it'd be way better, and easily the greatest movie in history, if it ended WITHOUT the "where are they now" synopsis at the end?

― Ally

A little bit of a revive here -- as mentioned above, had picked this up a while back, finally sat down and watched it tonight for the first time. Very very good film indeed -- I think Ally's right to an extent regarding how the synopsis throws things off a bit at the end, but even knowing there's a sequel (admittedly the original audience wouldn't have known) it's still a strange and striking conclusion, and in ways even knowing what happened -- whatever it was -- still leaves a great question mark. I think that has to go down in large part to Don Ellis's score -- while I initially thought it was a touch strident thanks to the opening credits, his use of extremely high strings, reverb and more really all came together beautifully at the end.

The editing is something I noticed throughout the film as well, very disorienting without losing the thread of the story (and I thoroughly appreciated how many details weren't spelled out but were left for an aware audience to deduce or create). Pity about the blood when it appeared, though, it all looked fake.

Fave realization via the BBC documentary -- he, that was Eddie Egan, the prototype for Popeye Doyle, actually playing Popeye's boss! Did a pretty job too, I had thought it was just a random character actor.

― Ned Raggett

But is the car chase as unplanned and real as they say? I've seen reference to it being so, and also seen it referred to as 'reputedly' unplanned and real. Anyone know?

― Dave B (daveb), Monday, January 6, 2003 7:49 AM (9 years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I don't think it was totally unplanned, but it wasn't in the script and they sort of made it up as they went along. I seem to recall the director getting interviewed saying it was originally going to just be a regular car chase but those had been done to death and they wanted to out-do all the other chase scenes.

― Aaron W

The French Connection

man, i was convinced good bad ugly would be top 5, top 3. i gave it my second place vote.

i always feel like a rube when i admit this, but most of leone's movies test my patience. this movie has a special ingredient that all his other movies are missing: TUCO

http://i.imgur.com/tm4As.gif

i actually had to see good bad & ugly 3 times before it really clicked with me. once when i was a teenager (thought it was ok), again when i was about 19 in the theater (felt disconnected from it, didn't care about what was happening really), and again last year in a really big, nice theater, and it finally hit me how good it was. i think i actually loved it from the opening shot onward. probably my favorite opening shot of all time: first just an empty vista, then suddenly al mulock's mug fills the frame:

http://i.imgur.com/TtzP0.jpg

the whole thing was just so captivating and awesome, leone was so great with mis en scene, it all just *worked* for me suddenly. maybe i had to get older, maybe i had to see it in a theater, maybe it just needed time to grow on me. i'm inclined to give his other stuff 2nd and 3rd chances now though

the civil war digression was p unnecessary imo

how does a male teenager not love that movie, I don't even understand how that's theoretically possible

yeah civil war etc takes it below 'few dollars more' iirc

French connection was in my top three i think?

the civil war digression drags a bit because the actor who plays the captain is such a ham, but it culminates in one of the all time best movie explosions so its still cool. the extended version is really unnecessary - the scene where tuco meets up with his old gang didn't need to be restored, it goes nowhere.

civil war stuff in TGTBATU is epic imo, i mean they have to scam their way through a war, both sides of it, to get to this gold. plus it brings out some interesting empathetic moments from each of the three characters.

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_AG0NMLjCoX4/S9THTmEs07I/AAAAAAAAHsA/BlZmCXGX5zQ/s1600/Tuco+03.jpg

french connection owns. i accidentally gave it fewer points than TL&DILA but its really way better - hackman & scheider > petersen and that other guy, and 70s NY >>>> 80s LA

Civil War stuff was necessary for it to be more awesome. Also, it's set up by the great gag with the dust covered blue uniforms.

Just saw Sorcerer not long ago. It's pretty great, but makes me wish "Wages of Fear" was in the running. But I guess that's more ... a thriller?

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v212/etienne_saint/sevensamurai.png

#13

THE SEVEN SAMURAI

Akira Kurosawa
1954
Japan
(441 points, 12 votes, 1 first place

what does it mean that samurai once filmed as (mythical über-invincible warriors to) pragmatic professionals now filmed as mythical, über-elegant killers?

also, there is definetly a mythology of the samurai sword as well as of bushido.

― cºzen (Cozen)

Caught a screening of Seven Samourai last night. Perfect three hour film, but the NFT had a 5-10 intermission (a screen with a japanese character (which I suppose might have meant 'intermission') and music). The guy who introduced said it wasn't really a break as such.

People talking afterward was all a mix of 'this was great' but also 'three hours'!

― xyzzzz

I think Seven Samurai justifies its 3,5 hour length... Though apparently there are also 3 hour and 2,5 hour shorter cuts of it in existence, but I've only seen the original cut, so I have no idea how well the other versions work. And the intermission (along with the japanese text and intermission music) was part of the original version of the movie, or at least that's how it was introduced when I saw it at a local film archive. I love Seven Samurai, but I still think it was nice to take a break in the middle of such a lengthy film, I'm not sure why movies these days don't have intermissions any more. IMO every movie that lasts more than 3 hours should have one.

― Tuomas

I think Samurai films have trouble with endings because the genre already contains, in The Seven Samurai, probably the best ending ever.

― Andrew Farrell

#13.... what the fuck!!!

^ my first place vote

aw fuck i've checked my ballot and i left FC out, no idea how

Roy Schneider currently has more movies that placed than Bruce Willis or Sly.

scheiderman

i watched 13 assassins over the weekend b/c it was talked about itt -- its really fun and good but a lot of the time i was wishing that i was watching 7 samurai instead

seven samurai has more awesome scenes than you can count. and awesome characters. kurosawa's camera movement in the battle scenes is incredible. its the perfect movie imo

yeah same max