I love action movies, always have. Watching amazingly athletic actors take apart the hoodlums and riff-raff is immensely enjoyable. The "Remo Williams" books have hilariously fun action scenes with all sorts of craziness going on. There are all kinds of John Wayne movies to enjoy, the various martial arts heroes, and of course Anime of every breed.
Probably there is a course taught somewhere about these action heroes, but I think it's safe to say they aren't the most complex characters. It doesn't matter. What we're after is seeing the carnage and destruction they bring upon the bad guys. It's a kind of visceral payback for all the wrongs we've suffered at the hands of people we wish we could deal with but can't. A sort of catharsis; it makes us feel better.
Anyway, one of the great box office successes is Jean-Claude Van Damme, the "Muscles from Brussles." His career hit amazing highs, then went to a lot of straight to DVD movies. However, there is a newer one called "JCVD" which is a deep introspection on himself but through the action hero setting. It's about a guy trying to do right, but messing up and getting caught up in a bank robbery, and then due to his stardom he becomes the flashpoint that drives the scenario into overdrive. At one point, he faces the camera, rises into an attic (a neat transition as he's sitting on a chair and it's pulled up) and does a monologue emptying his soul right at the viewer. It's a startling movie, and incredibly well done. I applaud the effort. He took a big risk, and it worked. Check it out, it's well worth it.
- M
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