So with Transformers 2 and G.I. Joe out, I was wondering if there are movies that have all the qualities of a summer blockbuster action movie, but doesn’t snap your sense of disbelief or score less than 3 roll-eyes throughout.
My first pick is Iron Man. The storyline isn’t that contrived (as in 'right, we need a scene for fanciful explosions, work this into the script somehow) and the action is controlled. An enjoyable action movie which isn’t ‘dumb’. What’s your pick?
Ronin. One of my favorite movies.
Full Metal Jacket
Ronin for sure, and also the first Bourne movie. It is a small, but interesting genre: action movies that don’t assume the audience is stupid.
I don’t know, a lot of the really BIG ones seem fairly intelligent; Aliens, Terminator 1 & 2, Predator, Robocop… Can’t think of that many widely popular action movies that are really insultingly stupid.
Excalibur. It was an eye-opener for me as an adolescent. I had grown up with idealized imagery of noble knights in shiny armour galloping around with the sunlight glinting from their perfectly mirrored blades, all in bright primary colours. The dirty-brown palette and the ugly, brutal, blood-drenched combat with people screaming in the mud as their guts spill into the writhing piles of dying knights completely changed my personal aesthetic virtually overnight.
So you got over knights overnight?
Children of Men isn’t an action movie per se, but it has two of the most breathtaking action sequences I’ve ever seen. And the effectiveness comes from the realistic treatment. The first one I’m thinking of is a car chase - that takes place at 5mph. But no Fast & Furious or Speed Racer sequence could have you at the edge of your seat the way this one does.
I came in here to say that, as well, and I see that I’m already third. It’s one of my favorite overlooked movies.
I like the Bourne movies a lot, but I think they’re set in the “movie world” version of the CIA, where they have a seemingly endless network of assassins ready to jump out of the shadows anywhere in the world, and they can’t seem to go 15 minutes without murdering someone because they Know Too Much. Ronin, however, seems much more like a plausible account of something the CIA might actually do.
Forget Merlin and Morgana and the Lady of the Lake. The fact that in the first 10 minutes we see a knight rape a woman while still in full body armor firmly puts this movie squarely in the world of Fantasy.
A fourth (or whatever number we’re on) vote for Ronin. I saw it again a couple of weeks ago, and it’s held up amazingly well in a time in which Bourne and Bond movies have taken action movies up a notch or 12 (and I appreciate the latter films for what they are, and while the last two Bond films since the reboot have been much more realistic than their predecessors, they still tip toward unbelievability).
David Mamet’s Spartan is a realistic and woefully underwatched movie (and if more people watched it, I’d be able to drop the line “You need to set your motherf*cker to receive” with much fewer blank stares as a response).
The Hurt Locker is very realistic. Not sure if it counts as an action movie per se, though there’s plenty of action in it.
The original Getaway with Steve McQueen might fit the bill. It’s hard to come up with one that’s been made in recent years that’s not just embarassingly stupid. GI Joe and Transformers are based on toys, for pete’s sake.
I came in here to say this one. One of my favorite movies.
I’m surprised the movie has had more of a DVD afterlife since it features a pre-Veronica Mars Kristen Bell.
My favorite exchange from the movie:
Scott: How you fake the DNA?
Donny: You don’t fake the DNA. You issue a press release.
My favorite Thriller (not sure if it counts as an “action movie”, although it has plenty of action) is Fred Zinneman’s film of Frederick Forsyth’s Day of the Jackal. It doesn’t dewell on standard Cold War themes, but covers something that’s more out-of-the-way to us in the U.S. – political assassination in France . The assassin meticulously plans his task – no conjuring wonder-devices from thin air. There are no gratuitous confrontations between him and the Commisair hunting him, no taunting. It’s wholly believable*, and satisfying nonetheless.
*except, as I’ve learned here, that Forsyth bobbled the details of explosive bullets. Although even that doesn’t affect the film all that much.
I like The Getaway. My memory is that it got mediocre reviews when it came out, but when I finally saw it on TV decades later it was very impressive.
I came in to say Children of Men. Fully believable action scenes and a great film overall.
Seconding “Children of Men”. If anything, it is SO realistic and so grim that it’s actually a depressing movie experience. The camerawork is undeniable though, it brings you right into the film like no other I’ve ever seen. If there was any kind of satisfactory conclusion at the end it would be among my all time best. Also, I guess I don’t have to mention Die Hard but it’s really the pefect example of what the OP is looking for.
(Adding Spartan to my Blockbuster queue, I had never heard of it, so thanks for that!)
Fantastic film. Especially sinceeven though we know from historical fact that Charles de Gaulle was never assassinated, even up to the very last seconds, it’s hard to understand how the Jackal is not going to get away with it.And there isn’t a single cheat or stupid move by either the villain or the police chief. It’s well-played cat & mouse all the way.
The first Bourne movie? The one where he jumps over the railing in a stairwell on top of another guy, rides the body down five flights of stairs, shoots bad guys on his way down, and gets up with a slight limp after hitting the ground?