Die Hard

[acrow]

I guess I'm specifically referring to a narrow definition of action films. It's easier to list the shit ones. For example mission impossible, lethal weapon, almost all Bond films, most gangster films, Bourne triology, Die Hard.

Anything marketed as "blokey" with explosions and macho nonsense is almost always guaranteed to be shit and the latest reincarnation of Die Hard meets that low expectation. Notice how most of these films are always described as basically collectively shit nonsense by reviewers but they always add "...but it's popcorn entertainment" as if that even means anything.

you said that there were one or two good action movies.

surely it would be easier to list those films than the hundreds and hundreds you have decided are shit?

[Mister Six]

Christ almighty, don't engage with him when he's trolling a good thread.

That said, I do think the Bourne films (except for the first one) are shit. The first is a perfectly self-contained action flick; the sequels are increasingly rickety and desperate, as they try to wring the last drops of plot out of a story that's already been told. The Bourne Supremacy is especially poor:

BOURNE
I've remembered who I am!

AUDIENCE
Yeah? Are you a soldier who
underwent a catastrophic mental
break due to illegal CIA experiments?

BOURNE
No, I'm a soldier who underwent
a catas-- wait, yes, you already
knew that.

AUDIENCE
Anything else?

BOURNE
My name's Dave.

AUDIENCE
Right.

BOURNE
Mmm.

(Something explodes)

There are some really great action scenes, like the bit with the journo at the start of Supremacy, but they're not in service to anything particularly enteraining or edifying.

[Famous Mortimer]

Thanks to this thread, I watched "The Last Boy Scout" last night.

It's pretty good fun, but HD does it no favours at all - there are some ludicrously obvious body doubles used for Willis, including one scene where he's shooting someone and you can clearly it's nothing like ol' Die Hard.

[SteveDave]

Thanks to this thread, I watched "The Last Boy Scout" last night.

It's pretty good fun, but HD does it no favours at all - there are some ludicrously obvious body doubles used for Willis, including one scene where he's shooting someone and you can clearly it's nothing like ol' Die Hard.

If you haven't already follow it up with 16 Blocks. Die Hard looks knackered in it & he has a moustache.

[Egyptian Feast]

The Bourne Supremacy is especially poor.

The film you're describing sounds more like The Bourne Ultimatum, which really was a letdown (and inexplicably, the most critically acclaimed of the series). You're right about the ending though, what a pathetic revelation.

The Bourne Supremacy was much better. If I'm remembering rightly, it's the one where he beats a guy up with a magazine and a bit of plastic, and therefore is my favourite of the series.

[Mister Six]

The film you're describing sounds more like The Bourne Ultimatum, which really was a letdown (and inexplicably, the most critically acclaimed of the series). You're right about the ending though, what a pathetic revelation.

Sorry, yes. The third Matt Damon one.

The Bourne Supremacy was much better. If I'm remembering rightly, it's the one where he beats a guy up with a magazine and a bit of plastic, and therefore is my favourite of the series.

He already beat two fellas up with a newspaper in the first film! The second one's not awful, so it was a bit much of me to call it 'shit', but its plot really is awfully thin, and the basic concept is just too much like The Bourne Identity, minus the romantic subplot and the tension about him remembering his past (ie. the bits of the story that were actually interesting).

[Pube]

I heard this one in a taxi last week. Another awkward Bruce Willis interview. He drops hints that he doesn't think much of the film.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=GyhFjk6f2hU#!

[Thomas]

I heard this one in a taxi last week. Another awkward Bruce Willis interview. He drops hints that he doesn't think much of the film.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=GyhFjk6f2hU#!

Nah, he loves it, you can tell.

'It's not a bad film, it's not a bad film... uh...'

[Dead kate moss]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eDaK3Ppm5IE

I think Charlie Brookers missed what was really going on on that One Show interview - Die Hard nearly revealed his MK-Ultra/Reptilian true self!

[weekender]

Please for the love of the god (or gods) of your choice don't go and see this.  I don't want to spend any more of my life thinking about it, that's how shit it was.

End post.