LISTMAS—9 Observations From An Action Movie Watchlist
I recently began watching or rewatching several action movies since besides the films of Sylvester Stallone and Arnold Schwarzenegger, I haven’t really watched those of other action stars like Chuck Norris, Steven Seagal and Jean-Claude Van Damme (I’ve seen Van Damme’s TIMECOP (1994) and STREET FIGHTER (1994) beforehand though). I chose to focus on films made in the ‘80s and ‘90s as that was when these actors' filmographies were at their peaks. I also want to shine a spotlight on lesser known action films from the time period. The mix of sheer awesomeness and corniness made watching each of these films extremely enjoyable.
*Spoilers Ahead for 30-Year Old Movies*
1. CYBORG (1989): A Split Can Be The Most Stealthy Attack Method.
Van Damme doing perfect splits is his trademark move, besides kicking people a lot. The way the late director Albert Pyun’s CYBORG incorporates a split is Van Damme’s best demonstration of it. I love the scene’s building up of where Gibson Rickenbacker (Van Damme) is by just showing his shadowed face, as Fender’s (Vincent Klyn) goon is walking around the sewer. The inevitable reveal that Rickenbacker is doing a split right above the goon, like he’s a crazed Patrick The Star, before attacking him with the knife is just epic. It’s a brief and underrated moment in a great little Cannon film.
2. RAMBO: FIRST BLOOD PART 2 (1985): Y’Know, Murdock…Maybe It Wasn’t a Good Idea to Bring The Vietnam Veteran Back To Vietnam.
I couldn’t do a list like this without mentioning one of Rambo's (Stallone) assortment of great moments in RAMBO: FIRST BLOOD PART 2. In the scene where the Russians torture Rambo and force him to communicate with Murdock (Charles Napier) and Trautman (Richard Crenna), I love the look on Murdock’s face when Rambo says “Murdock… I’m coming to get you!”. Murdock’s face is the perfect mix of fear and complete surprise at how angry Rambo is. The immediate awesome fight scene punctuates Rambo’s determination to get back to the base.
3. MARKED FOR DEATH (1990): When You’re A Crime Lord, Backup Twins Are A Must.
Screwface (Basil Wallace) from Seagal’s MARKED FOR DEATH is the epitome of a typical action movie villain of color. After Screwface is beheaded by John Hatcher (Seagal), Screwface keeps up the illusion that he is a supernatural being to his followers by his twin’s presence being unveiled in a meeting. Hatcher wants to make sure Screwface is dead for good, so Hatcher gouges Screwface’s eyes, breaks his back and drops him down an elevator shaft to his death by impalement. Hatcher closes this over-the-top death scene with a cool one-liner hoping Screwface wasn’t part of a set of triplets. I find it curious how the film never foreshadows Screwface having a twin, so it comes across like a deus ex machina to help Screwface.
4. HERO AND THE TERROR (1988): A Michael Myers-Clone Can’t Beat The Real Deal.
In HERO AND THE TERROR, Norris’ usual moments of awesomeness are spaced out to the film’s detriment, in favor of the Michael Myers-clone’s escapades. Simon Moon’s (Jack O’ Halloran) resemblance to Myers was really distracting since he also broke out of the institution, has a psychologist convinced he’s pure evil, etc. A death scene from HALLOWEEN (1978) is basically lifted when Moon kills an unsuspecting woman in her car. The coolest moment with Moon is when Jack O’Brien (Norris) resorts to throwing Moon all the way down from the Wiltern Theatre’s roof to its main stage just to kill him. The death scene felt really worthy of the character’s indestructible slasher villain roots. All of Moon’s scenes made me want to watch the other “Norris fights an unstoppable killer” movie, SILENT RAGE (1982).
5. BLIND FURY (1989): Katanas, Extremely Effective When Performing Circumcisions.
BLIND FURY is an American adaptation of the Zaitoichi films, where Rutger Hauer is a blind Vietnam veteran armed with a katana named Nick Parker. It’s cut from the same cloth as Cannon’s ENTER THE NINJA (1981), Sho Kosugi even appears in both. While the movie has a lot of great action sequences, the best is in the climax when Parker sneaks up on the henchmen in complete darkness, tearing them down in a well-choreographed scene. The scene even pays off an earlier circumcision joke by Parker slicing one guy from the bottom to the top. Props to the late Hauer for being able to do this scene and others while mimicking a blind man’s mannerisms.
6. COBRA (1986): As An ‘80s Action Hero, Always Fight The Villain At An Industrial Plant.
COBRA’s another Stallone vehicle and a decent Dirty Harry-inspired movie, but what caught my eye towards the film’s conclusion was how the final fight takes place in the heat of some kind of factory or industrial plant. Reminds me of how the Terminator films like setting their finales in industrial settings to really sell the villain’s mechanical nature. It's symbolic here, with the raging fire and the anti-christ dynamic the Night Slasher has with his followers. The imagery’s meant to seem as satanic as possible to ramp up the villain’s downright evil nature. The sequence’s only downside is the obvious toning down of the violence for an R-rating.
7. UNIVERSAL SOLDIER (1992): Is The UniSols’ Need To Cool Down a Necessary Plot Device Or Shameless Fanservice?
I love how the original UNIVERSAL SOLDIER built up the lore regarding The UniSol program and the methods involved to bring the dead soldiers back to life. Though, I found it to be silly how the UniSols can’t be active for long or they will overheat. It feels like a plot device to amp up the danger in several scenes like the motel fight scene. That whole joke with a naked Luc Deveraux (Van Damme) and Veronica (Ally Walker) in the gas station was also really funny. At least, it seemingly had a nice payoff when the two hide in ice bag-filled car trunks as the gas station explodes.
8. FORTRESS (1992): Robots Can Explode Into Globs of Literal Blue Blood In This Future, But At Least You Get A Cool Weapon.
If one’s familiar with my other work, they can understand why I wanted to watch the later director Stuart Gordon’s FORTRESS. Gordon definitely enjoyed taking advantage of the whole future setting, with appearances by other character actors like Jeffrey Combs really adding to the fun atmosphere. As John Henry Brennick (Christopher Lambert) and the other prisoners attempt to escape the prison in the film’s third act, they’re confronted by robot guards that look like rejects from an Orion film. The robots were clearly an opportunity to get some nice genre action in there, and give Lambert another excuse to be cool as he uses one of the robot’s guns to blow things up.
9. CODE OF SILENCE (1985): Did Action Films In 1985 Just Have An Inexplicable Obsession With Robots?
Speaking of rejects from an Orion film, CODE OF SILENCE has one of the most ingenious uses of a robot I’ve ever seen in an action film. The film sets up a police robot named the Prowler in a single scene. Eddie Cusack (Norris) later uses the Prowler to absolutely decimate Camacho (Henry Silva) and his gang in the climax. Many exhilarating explosions ensue and dead gang members become the order of the day. It’s wild because the whole movie up until the final battle tries to be a gritty cop action film, with Cusack’s crusade to stop the gang war and police corruption. It’s like Norris was trying to compete with the robot featured in ROCKY IV (1985).
I have multiple current watchlists, so this could be a recurring series of mine, going through films from each of them. It’s intriguing how most of these films had a pattern regarding their characters having a connection to the Vietnam War, defining their entire characterization and skill set. It really makes them a product of their time, compared to most action heroes today having spy-based backgrounds. Also, watching the majority of these films made me realize I prefer when these movies introduce some insane concept, especially in their third acts. All of these chaotic ideas are why this era of action films is deeply iconic.
