Hey guys! Zach Who Watches Movies here and I’ve got some rambling
to do. With the recent release of Mad
Max: Fury Road and the rave reviews from critics and movie nerds alike, I
got to thinking about modern action movies. I left Fury Road boasting that it was one of the greatest action
spectacles that I have ever seen; I even wrote it in my review. I personally
think George Miller has outdone his previous best work, The Road Warrior, and created something unlike anything we have
seen before. This leads me to why I am writing this article. I feel that Mad
Max is only the most recent in a modern transformation of action cinema, just
in the past few years we have seen modern works of genius like The Raid movies, John Wick, Pacific Rim, Snowpiercer, Edge of Tomorrow, and a
whole bunch more all leading up to the new Max film. So I ask this question, is
it time to finally accept some of these movies into the all-time greats of
action cinema?
Ask any movie geek what their favorite action movie is, even
if they answer with something modern, as soon as you bring up a classic like
say the first two Terminator movies or Die
Hard and that person immediately rethinks their answer. There is a variety
action flicks from the 80's and 90's that have been considered the pinnacle of
the genre. Movies like the aforementioned as well as Predator, The Road Warrior, Aliens, and The Warriors, I mean I could go on and on. They are the movies that
created this mass moneymaking machine we love so much and in turn it has become
almost accepted that they are untouchable and anything today that comes close
owes it to them. I’m not saying this is wrong or even bad, these movies are
considered the best of the best for a reason, but have we finally reached a
point in both film and technology that we just can’t ignore it any longer?
At the turn of the century there is no denying we suffered a
fairly long drought for good action movies. In the first almost decade of the
new century there are really only a few that stand the test of time (and before
you bring up the X-Men movies and the Raimi Spider-man's, I'm trying to keep
super hero movies out of this. That’s a whole other post in itself). I believe
this led to us movie geeks holding on to these old treasures even more and
reaffirming are suspicion that the best is in the past. The movies we fell in
love with growing up were well rounded films, not just senseless action, boring
characters and way to complex story-lines. They brought memorable characters
into our lives like the T-1000 and John McClain that will live on forever. In
the early 2000's we got Shia Lebouf and a bunch of robots from space. As far as
big studio action movies went, no one seemed willing to think outside the box
and take a risk. This resulted in a long train of movies following the basic
action movie formula, making them all rather forgettable.
I don’t want to talk about bad movies however; I am here to talk
about the great ones. Fast forward to the second decade of the twenty first
century, half way through and I believe we have seen resurgence in the action
genre. Not only that, but perhaps the dawn of a whole new age of action
spectacle. People keep mentioning how the new Fury Road has set a new bar for action directors and big budget
studio blockbusters. While I agree, I don’t think this is the first movie to
raise the bar in recent memory. In terms of large scale and big budget I think
2013's Pacific Rim created an entire
new level of VFX dominant action. What Guillermo del Toro brought to life on
screen was a visual masterpiece and on a scale we hadn’t seen before. He made
the Transformers movies look like a Saturday morning cartoon. He created a simple yet clever plot line that
was easy to follow (I don’t care what you think, it's easy to follow) along with
fun characters you are sure to remember. Like Ron Perlman's Hannibal Chow and
Charlie Day as the Kaiju Groupie Dr. Newton Geiszler. I feel this movie is the perfect embodiment of
what can be done when VFX is done right.
When thinking about big studio blockbusters, 2014's Edge of Tomorrow comes to mind. This
movie may have underperformed at the box office but it is kind of the perfect
modern rendition of a 90's action movie. Let’s be honest, Tom Cruise IS one of
the greatest action movie stars of all time and like action movies he had been
kind of dormant for the past almost decade. Edge
of Tomorrow was not only a rebirth of Cruise as an action juggernaut; it was
a call back to the kind of movies we loved from the 80's and 90's. It follows
the same basic formula as those films and adds a modern touch of technology and
creative storytelling. Not only that but Tom Cruise and Emily Blunt play two
incredibly compelling characters that will have you emotionally hooked from
start to finished.
*Honorable mentions to Rise and Dawn of the Planet of the
Apes as well as Skyfall and Fast & Furious 5-7. All of which are fantastic
examples of a new age of big budget action movies.
I want to step aside from big summer blockbuster though and
talk about a few smaller movies that I think have changed what we are to expect
from R rated action movies from now on, starting with The Raid movies. Gareth Evans has created two action/martial arts
epics that contain within the frames some of the greatest hand to hand combat
sequences the world has ever seen. I’m not kidding, what Evans, Iko Uwais and
others have done with these movies is absolutely insane. These masterpieces
have already been influencing action directors all over the business. Just
since their release we have seen major scenes in both season one of CW's Arrow and Netflix/Marvel's Daredevil that pay direct homage to
Iko's hallway fight scene in the first Raid movie. It's not only action either,
the films follow a well thought out story that sends Iko's Rama through a
stunning character arch. When I first saw the first Raid I immediately called
it one of the greatest action movies I have ever seen and still do to this day,
and then I saw the second one in a movie theater. The Raid 2 is the godfather of action movies in an almost literal
way and if you haven’t seen these movies you need to find them and watch them
now. Aside from the new Mad Max these were the other real inspiration for this post;
I fully believe both of these films belong in the canon of great action movies.
This could have easily just been about Fury Road and The Raid's
but when I kept thinking; more and more wonderful movies from the past few
years kept popping into my head. It would have felt unjust to leave so many of
them out when they are all an important part of this new wave. This brings me
to the final two films I am going to talk about at length here, 2014's Snowpiercer and John Wick. You of the main things you hear people talk about when
reminiscing on old favorites is that they took place in these amazingly
creative universes. You could truly see a filmmaker’s vision in those movies
like The Warriors, Terminator, or Predator. Well these two films (Snowpiercer and John Wick) both take place in amazingly original universes that are
some of the flat-out coolest we’ve seen in a long time.
In Joon-ho Bong’s Snowpiercer
we are taken into a post-apocalyptic world like we’ve never seen. After we
destroyed the O-zone and tried to fix it again we send the earth into a new Ice
Age, one that destroys all of humanity. Well, almost. Back when the world was
alive a super-rich train enthusiast decided to build a railroad that went
around the entire world creating a loop, a loop that it would complete once every
year. Now fast forward back to the apocalypse and the only surviving humans are
now aboard this train on an endless loop around the frozen world. That is
friggin cool. It’s a classic story of rich vs poor, good vs evil whatever you
want to call it but it’s thrown into a wild setting. With Chris Evans in his
prime as the lead and some beautifully shot action scenes this movie will only
grow with time. I think of it almost as a modern day Escape From New York type movie set in bleak future where the good
really aren’t that good but the bad are so much worse. It has an intelligent
story and great characters, check this one out if you haven’t seen it for some
reason
Now on to John Wick,
the final film I will go into depth with. We recently found out that this one
is getting a sequel and Keanu Reeves is returning. This is incredible news
because not only is it the best Keanu movie since the Matrix but it brought
with it one of the greatest "underground crime" universes I have ever
seen in a movie. The twisted and intertwined world of organized crime and
contract killers is simply fascinating. They have a hotel and a restaurant for
hitmen that left so much to be explored and they all answer to
"Management", all things they can get way more into with more movies.
I can’t wait for that, John Wick is
easily one of the most ruthless action flicks I have seen since the turn of the
century. Keanu Reeves takes it to the next level with first time director and longtime
stunt coordinator Chad Stahelski who is responsible for the magic of The Matrix. They gave us a modern day
Badass like Max or Snake Plissken in John Wick and the guys behind it are now
being courted for all types of big budget action movies along with being signed
on for the sequel, clearly it’s already making its mark.
*Honorable Mentions go to The Purge: Anarchy, The World's
End, and Kingsman: Secret Service. All other great smaller action films you
should definitely see.
I never intended for this post to be a list of my favorite
action movies of the last few years but I couldn’t think of a better way to do
it. What I hope I did with each small synopsis is show you that each of these
movies does exactly what is we love about classic movies like T2 and Die Hard but adds a new level with the modern day technologies in
film-making. These all kind of lead up to Fury
Road which really embodies all of the best aspects of these movies and
multiplies them to a level we thought we'd never see mainstream Hollywood go
to. Seriously, whoever made the final decision to give George Miller hundreds
of millions of dollars to go into the desert and film his vision deserves a god
damn medal or something. From here on out the way action movies work will never
be the same and each of these movies served as a sort of stepping stone to the
next phase of the genre that climaxes with Mad Max.
With all of this considered I ask again, is it finally time
to accept some of the modern action masterpieces like The Raid into the official canon of great action movies? Do these
movies really not stand up to Terminator
or Die Hard or are we letting
nostalgia blind us from admitting that the best maybe isn’t locked in the past?
I want you guys to tell me what you think; I believe I have made my stance
quite clear. If you agree and want to talk about some movies I may have forgot
then let’s talk! Even if you disagree completely, tell me why. I love a good,
intelligent argument. I am only 24 years old so some of the movies may not hold
the same nostalgic value for me as they do you. I love to see how the opinions
differ with age. Leave some comments below or hit me up on twitter
@ZachWWMovies and tell me what you think.
For sake of this piece, I've decided to pick what I believe
at this time to be my Top 10 action movies of all time. I'm putting them in no
particular order because I hate ranking things, but these are my ten favorite
as of this moment. They are as follows:
-The Raid
-The Raid 2
-Mad Max: Fury Road
-The Road Warrior
-The Bourne Identity
-John Wick
-Pacific Rim
-The Terminator
-Die Hard
-Raiders of the Lost Ark
So there's that, this is my personal list so I expect yours
to be completely different. Share your top ten with me either in the comments
or on twitter. Otherwise thanks for reading, smell ya later!
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