Action Movies

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I am rounding out my movie collection and I'm looking for some personal favourites in the Action or Sci-Fi/ Fantasy theme. I have all the popular ones so if you could mention some remote ones that may have fallen to the wayside or even a few older ones I may have missed, I would like to check them out.

Please don't list any such as Die Hard, Aliens, Terminator, The Rock or Lethal Weapon type ones. I know the score already. Gimme some personal faves I may not even know about.

In Sci/Fi Fantasy I have just about watched every one so just gimme your regular faves but the less popular, the better. Maybe I missed one.

Thank you gentlemen and ladies.

Some Examples of Remote Action Movies:

Death Hunt with Charles Bronson
The Rocketeer with Jennifer Connelly
Sniper with Tom Berenger
The Hunted with Tommy Lee Jones.
Bullitt with Steve McQueen.

[ January 29, 2006, 02:13: Message edited by: Newfie ]

 

Would Dirty Harry count? Well worth adding to your list in any case.

 

No, I am a Clint fan so I have all his westerns and Dirty Harry's and a few more besides. Anything that falls into the sequel category I already have. Little less mainstream.

I guess I am looking for something kind of mainstream but stands alone like the above mentioned movies. Something a little underrated.

Any westerns too would be appreciated because I am not too familiar with the older ones. Anything before the revival of the western with Dances with Wolves, Unforgiven, Tombstone and Young Guns would be great. I already have Butch Cassidy, Clint's, and the Mag Seven.

 

SciFi:
Bladerunner
Logan's Run
Ghosts of Mars

Fantasy:
Labyrinth
Ladyhawke
Legend
Dragonslayer
Troll

Western:
The Outlaw Josey Wales (probably have )
Rio Lobo
Rooster Cogburn
Big Jake

Western TV series:
(These might be available in collector's sets now)
Alias Smith and Jones
Maverick
Bonanza

 

That's the stuff, kuemper. You' re on the right track.

 

Starchaser: The Legend of Orin

It's an animated feature but it was excellent and I don't think it was too popular so you may want to check it out.

Also, you've probably already seen it but I'd never forgive myself if I didn't do my duty and tell you about it on the very off chance that you haven't. The Usual Suspects.

 

Demolition man.

Might be a bit mainstream for this discussion (Since it stars Sylvester Stallone, Wesley Snipes, nd Sandra Bullock), but is, imho, the best action movie ever. The main thing I noticed is that the violence is acually fairly realistic. Not the usual blatent violations of physics you see.

Also, it is a great movie in general, in a sarcastic campy way. It gives an interesting look at the downsides of Utopian socities and how cultures can change with time.

And of course the libertarian manifesto:

Sorry if seems a like a rany but it is one of my favorite movies ever.

 

If you liked the Man With No Name movies with Clint Eastwood, you should check out Once Upon A Time In The West with Charles Bronson (Who was actually one of the people Sergio Leone originally wanted to play Clint's part ).

 

Demolition Man is great.

I'd like to add:

'Crying Freeman' (martial arts)

'Ong Bak' (drop-your-jaw martial arts)

'Payback' (Pulp)

'El Mariachi' and 'Desperado' (mexican pulp)

'Kiss of the Dragon' (Jet Li's last good movie)

'The Untouchables' (Pulp)

'Ronin' (Frankenheimer )

'Outland' (SF)

'Hero' (okay, this was Jet Li's last good movie)

'Stargate' (SF)

'Rambo' (or 'First Blood')

'Total Recall' (SF)

All 'Indies' (Pulp)

'Speed'

'The Fifth Element' (SF)

'The Seven Samurai' (martial arts)

'Die Hard' (1, 2 and 3)

'Lola rennt'

'The Replacement Killers' (Cho Yun Fat is good in every movie, even if it is bad)

'Taxi Driver'

'The Deer Hunter'

 

Sci-Fi
Dark City

Martial Arts
Hero
House of the Fkying Daggers
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
Stormriders trilogy
Warriors of Heaven and Earth
Moon Warriors

General
Wasabi
La Dernier Combat
Subway
Nikita (La Femme Nikita)
(those 4 are all french)
Thesis (spanish)
Ran (Japanese)
Leon

 

Don't forget Once Upon a TIme in Mexico, the capper for the Mariachi trilogy

 

Once upon a time in china (Jet-Li)
Bladerunner (Harrison Ford)
Split Second (Rutger Hauer)
Predator (Arnold)
Lionheart (Van Damme)
Bloodsport ( Van Damme)
Commando (Arnold)
Bubba Ho-Tep (Bruce Cmapbell and Ossie Davis)
Willow (Warwick Davies and Val Kilmer)
Romeo is bleeding (Gary Oldman)
Red Scorpion (Dolph Lundgren)
Blind Fury (Rutger Hauer)
The Three + the Four Musketeers from 1973 (loaded with famous actors. Highly recomendable)
License to Kill (Timothy Dalton)
The Sharpe movies (Sean Bean)


well thats about it.

 

Didn't include it because I have not seen it yet. From what I heard it's not particularly good.

I forgot 'Zaitochi', though. Don't let you scare away by the dance scenes. It's a Kitano.

 

Thanks for the help, guys. I forgot about the Fifth Element and Dark City; they are classic Sci Fi. I'll check out Once upon a time in the West, Crusader because I'm a Bronson and a Sergio Leone fan. I watched Once upon a time in America though and that was terrible, but his cowboy movies are okay.

I am not much for foreign language films, John Wayne movies or karate movies. The only exception to these rules was Das Boot (unreal!), La Femme Nikita and The Seven Samauri. John Wayne, (I know some of you guys will despise me for this), was too ugly to be a cowboy. As for karate movies, Ong Bak Thai and Unleashed were the only refreshing movies I have seen in the past several years in this genre. John Woo, I think, ahem, blows and I can't see the appeal of such movies as Hero, House of Flying Daggers or Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. But that's only my humble opinion.

 

Fabius, it's a majorly coplicated movie with so many twists and turns that it's either loved or hated by people, no one I know is really lujkewarm about it... it has some damn amazing acting, and not just from Antonio Banderas and Johnny Depp

 

@Ara

I wouldn't go that far <starts dodging> I'd say that it was trying to top Desperado and failed quite miserably I'm afraid. Johnny Depp played a pretty cool role but that was it. It wasn't even half as funny as Desperado.

@Newfie

I'm with Fabius on "Crying Freeman". Definitely check that one out. It has some killer scenes that I don't recall being used in other movies. Also, it's actually not really a martial arts movie. It's more about Assassins and hitmen.

 

Hmmm, I can think of a few good ones along with the main stars if I can remember them...

War type movies:
Braveheart (Mel Gibson)
The Patriot (Mel Gibson, Heath Ledger)
We Were Soldiers (Mel Gibson)
Blackhawk Down (Ewan McGregor, Tom Sizemore)
Saving Private Ryan (Tom Hanks, Tom Sizemore, and Matt Damon)
Behind Enemy Lines (Gene Hackman, Owen Wilson)
Enemy at the Gate (Russian Sniper vs German Sniper)
The Windtalkers (Nicolas Cage)
Pearl Harbor (Ben Afleck really kills it though and the romance could have been left out)
Glory - (Matthew Broderick, Denzel Washington, Morgan Freeman)

Vanilla action:
Air Force One (Harrison Ford, Glenn Close)
The Fugitive (Harrison Ford, Tommy Lee Jones, Julianne Moore)
The Indiana Jones Movies (Harrison Ford, Sean Connery)
Entrapment (Sean Connery, Catherine Zeta-Jones)
Heat (Robber DeNeiro, Tom Sizemore, Val Kilmer, Al Pacino, Ashley Judd, Jon Voight, Natalie Portman)
Die Hard (Bruce Willis)
Pulp Fiction (Samuel L. Jackson, Bruce Willis, John Travolta, Uma Thurman)

Action/comedy:
Airplane
Airplane 2
Hot Shots (Charlie Sheen)
Hot Shots 2 (Charlie Sheen)
Army of Darkness (Bruce Campell)
Johnny English (Mr. Bean dude)

I can name a lot more if I could find the boxes with all my DVDs in them. War movies and action/comedy are my favorite types of movies!

[ January 30, 2006, 12:47: Message edited by: Kitrax ]

 

@Newfie Once upon a time in the West is Leone's masterpiece imho, it's slow-paced but beautifully cinematographed, enjoy. IMO I think you're missing some of the best films by not watching foreign language films (flf), unless you're a "hollywood happy ending" type person they (flf) are usually the most realistic. Chinese martial arts films are an acquired taste so I'll let you off those.

 

@Ena: Yeah, Crying Freeman is more like a drama. But the martial arts sequence in the end justifies the categorization.

 

I wouldn't call 'Seven Samurai' an action movie. Its more of a drama. Yojimbo had far more action.

Some additions:

Save the green planet (Ha-kyun Shin)
Ong Bak (Tony Jaa)
Ichi the Killer (Tadanobu Asano)
Taboo - (Tadanobu Asano)

[ January 31, 2006, 09:53: Message edited by: Cúchulainn ]