Right on. You can't salvage a drama or any movie with a serious premise when it goes bad, but it's really easy to salvage a non-serious movie to invoke So Bad, It's Good. Also, I think that what genre you place a movie in and what the expectations are can greatly change how someone views it. For instance, Inception is not that great as an introspective, intelligent drama, but as an action movie it is pure awesome.
edited 25th Jan '12 10:48:21 AM by shiro_okami
I think that to find what makes a bad action movie, you only have to follow the route in which the Die Hard sequels went in.
![]()
I liked Last Action Hero and I was honestly surprised to learn that some people might not have caught on to the joke. It's like Commando (which does broadly the same thing and is also awesome) but more obvious.
edited 26th Jan '12 8:01:56 PM by TheBatPencil
And let us pray that come it may (As come it will for a' that)![]()
![]()
EXACTLY!!! For me, The Three Musketeers (2011) is a prime example of that principle for me. The critics hated it (something about a poor script or some other snooty bullcrap), but it was truly ACTION-PACKED and it had great villains in the form of Milady, Cardinal Richelieu, and the Duke of Buckingham.
For me, the ideal action film should be a series of actions sequences (chases, explosions, fights, etc.) held together/justified by the heroes reacting to a cunning Big Bad running a brilliant Evil Plan while playing a mean game of Xanatos Speed Chess to keep the before-mentioned Evil Plan more or less on track.
Any opinions of my ideal action movie or does anyone else have an idea for their ideal action flick?
edited 27th Jan '12 3:20:05 PM by Kersey475
I don't know about that. I like movies with good, intelligent plots, and that includes action movies. I don't like action just for the sake of action; action alone cannot make a movie good. A good villain may at least make the movie interesting, and can make a good plot, but it isn't guaranteed.
A truly good action movie has a good plot at its core, competent Genre Savvy heroes and villains, and an adequate amount of interesting action scenes. Also, a movie's premise and action scenes should only stretch the Willing Suspension of Disbelief so far until Lampshade Hanging by the characters should become a requirement.
edited 27th Jan '12 4:42:48 PM by shiro_okami

When I was in law school I acted as an associate producer for a student film maker doing a feature length movie as his thesis. At one point he asked me what type of movies I liked and when I told him mostly action flics then he asked me why. As someone who had studied the art and craft for 6 years or more he was taken aback when I said it was about low expectations. Most movies suck, but at least when an big budget action movie sucks then you get the eye candy of the action sequences, explosions, other special effects, gun fights, hand-to-hand fights, and perhaps some T&A. A straight drama tends to fall apart completely when it sucks, which is often. Mind you, the best movies are so because of the non-action elements, but they usually have action built into the plot. A solid film with pure drama is much harder to find.
I think that the most underrated movie in recent history is The Last Action Hero. It bombed at the box office and was savaged by the critics. One reason could be that it sucked. However, I think that viewers and reviewers simply took it too seriously. Perhaps the American public was even offended or insulted by the suggestion that the entire genre - that they love so much - is in fact that cheesy. However, if you view it as a caring send up of action movies, their tropes, and some of the underlying themes about reality, fantasy, heroism, and how to approach life, then it was awesome.
Whether you think you can, or you think you can't, you are probably right.