Things that make you go "KABOOM!" (Action)

Member Name: Scott Fowler

Product:	Action
Date:	02/05/02 (148 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Explosions, lots of

Disadvantages: Easy to follow!

Somtimes you just want to see things blow up, you don't need believable plot or characters, even a decent story, just big fat explosions and possibly doves flying in slow motion (God bless you Mr Woo). Welcome to the wonderful world of the action film. The following are my personal favourite action flicks, in no particular order.

1) Die Hard - The first and the best. What's worse than being trapped in a skyscraper by a bunch of terrorists? Being trapped with your shoes off, that's what! Bruce willis is fatastic as John McLane, a lone cop trapped in the Nakatomi building and trying, with little help from the outside, to overcome the terrorists. Has two or three great explosions, my favourite being the "bomb down the lift shaft". As with most good action films our hero also has a few good one liners -

"Who's driving that car? Stevie Wonder?"

"I promise I will never even think about going up in a tall building again"

Great stuff.

2)Con Air - From the opening titles with Nic Cage learning Oragami in prison you just know this is going to be a quality action film. It has a great cast - Nic Cage, John Cusack, Steve Buscemi, John Malkovich and even Chief O'Brien from Star Trek. The plot is absurd - let's stick all our most vicious convicts on board one plane to take them to a new maximum security prison, Oh and let's stick this parolee on as well. the parolee being Cameron Poe (Cage) who just happens to be an ex US Ranger.

You just know it isn't going to be a smooth trip and sure enough the prisoners seize control of the plane. Some great action, explosions and a breathtaking landing on the Las Vegas strip make Con air a fantastic romp. and of course it comes with the Jerry "kaboom" Bruckheimer seal of approval.

3) Face/Off - John Woo is the slow motion action king. It's official. If you took all the slow motion out of Woo's films
they'd last about half an hour!! Face/Off is no exceptionand comes with his trademark dove shot.

John Travolta is Sean archer, Nic Cage is Castor Troy. Archer has been hunting down Troy ever since he killed his son, putting visible strain on himself and his family. He finally cathes him and puts him in a coma, great he can finally get on with his life. But wait Troy has planted a deadly biological bomb and the only person who knows where it is is Castors brother Pollock Troy. What will they do? Simple Give Sean Archer Castor Troys face and send him to jail to prise the information from Pollock. But wait Castor has come out of his coma and taken on Sean Archer's identity!! fantastic romp.

4) The Matrix - More Sci-fi than your average action film, but this is no bad thing. This film oozes cool with long leather coates, wrap around sunglasses and sharp suits, not to mention the at the time, and now much copied, ground breaking special effects.

This is the type of role Keanu should stick to, no acting just playing the "hero" with lots of fighting. Has one of the best actin sequences filmed when Neo and Trinity go to rescue Morpheus. "We need guns. Lots of guns" and the way they just discarded them when the ran ot of bullets he was right!

5)Mission Impossible II - Not a great film, but as an action film it's fantastic. Again Mr Woo at the helm and yes there are Doves!

Tom Cruise returns to play Ethan Hunt in the second Mission Impossible instalment. Anthony Hopkins plays his boss "This is Mission Impossible Mr Hunt. Difficult should be a walk in the park"

With John Woo we were sure to have some breathtaking action sequences and he doesn't dissapoint on this level - In particular the climatic confrontation between Dougrey Scott and Cruise is great - starting on the motorbikes and finishing with a fist fight on the beach.

Sure the film is flawed and has a pretty fli
msy plot, but for action it gets a 10 out of 10!

6)Broken Arrow - Another of Mr Woo's efforts with John Travolta , this time as the baddie "Deak" to Christian Slater's good guy "Riley". The two play Us Air Force pilots and buddies/rivals. When Travolta hijacks a stealth plane the two are flying and jettisons the nuclear payload, Slater is determined to track him down and stop him.

Again being John Woo we have some wonderful OTT action sequences and some fine one liners - "Would you please stop firing at the thermo-nuclear device!"

Travolta overacts wonderfully and seems to really enjoy playing the bad guy, while Christian Slater manages the action hero role well enough, throw in a couple of explosions and what more could you want.

7)Blade - Wesley Snipes plays Blade the Daywalker who is on a mition to avenge the death of his mother by wiping out all Vampires. He is not to be messed with and those who do (Vampires anyway) usually end up as a pile of ashes.

Stephen Dorf is Deacon Frost a Vampire with a plan. He needs Blades blood to call forth La Magra, the blood god, and allow Vampires to rule the earth.

The action is constant with some truly breathtaking fight sequnces, not much in the way of explosions but hey you can't have everything....

8)Leathal Weapon - The first in a very succesful franchise and in my opinion still the best. Mel Gibson is Riggs, a cop on the edge. Danny Glover is Murtauh and he's too old for this sh*t. The classic odd couple pairing and it works extremely well (obviously or there wouldn't have been 3 sequels).

Throw in a couple of great bad guys (Gary Busey in particular as Mr Joshua ("Where did you get him? Psychos R Us?")) and you have the perfect recipe for a great action film.

If anyone out there hasn't seen this then go and watch it, right now! go on....

9) Total Recall - Couldn'
t have a list of my favoutite action films without at least on Arnie film in there. Very tempted to go for Commando but Total Recall just pips it.

Arnie plays Douglas Quaid, a man who has recurring dreams about a trip to Mars, though he has never been. A trip to Rekall Inc seems like a good solution - they sell implanted memories so maybe they can help. But something goes horribly wrong and another personality emerges. He suddenly finds friends and strangers are trying to kill him, even his wife! Is he dreaming have Rekall Inc melted his mind?

He soon finds out he is not the person he thought he was, and embarks on a journey to Mars, for real this time, to find out the truth.

A bit more comples than your usual Arnie blast-em up and all the better for it I think, though it does have some good action sequences including an exploding head!

10) Air Force One - I love this film. It is totally cheesy an brilliant fun. Harrison ford is President Jim Marshall. Gary Oldman plays baddie Egor Korshunov who manages to hijack the presidents plane, Air Force One, with the president (who just happens to be ex soldier, how convenient!) and his family on board.

Egor wants a Russian general relased from prison but he's going to have a hard time as Jim has just made a stirring speech on America's zero tolerance to terrorism.

Jim manages to convince Egor and his crew that he escaped in the escape pod, while he is actually hiding on the plane. He then sets about trying to regain control of Air Force One.

Harrison is great as the president and at one point utters one of the best one liners in recent cinema history - "Get off my plane!"

Highly enjoyable and totally "God bless America". If you haven't had the pleasure I highly recommend this little gem.

So there we go my fave action films (well today anyway!)

the almost list:
Charlies Angels
Commando
Alien f
ranchise
Blade II
lots more.....

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