Will try to put up a few reviews, every now and then, of films seen the last couple of weeks/month, as I have not been posting here, since probably before Christmas time, and have som catching up to do, but in the meantime, I start of with this awesome documentary, focusing mostly on the heyday era of the over the top action films of the 80s and early 90s:
In Search of the Last Action Heroes (2019) by Oliver Harper
Finally, and about time I got around to watch this documentary, that I remembered started to show up some rumours of, back in 2017 (I believe), and while the runtime is almost 2 hours and 20 minutes, time rarely felt like it stood "still", and instead I sat most of the time, with a goofy smile on my face, enjoying very much what it had to offer.
It moves rather nicely, the pace is not to "hyperactive" and the editing goes smoothly along with all the people involved, most of the time.
We kind of start up, with a little backstory of how the genre began taking place in the 40s and 50s, with the western genre, then evolved big time, when James Bond and the spy thrillers arrived the scenery, and the once more, with many new macho men starting to dominated in more grittier and sharper written and made crime and revenge thrillers of the early 70s. And again, with the rise of exploitation movies, you all of a sudden have everything from kung-fu and foreign martial arts titles, to blaxploitation, sexploitation and a whole bunch of other explosive movie styles, where all would help pave way for the drastic change in the late 70s and early 1980s, with the blockbuster summer movies.
Sure, I would have loved to see more stuff about legendary badasses like Charles Bronson, Eastwood, Gene Hackman, Lee Marvin and so many other of the 60 and 70s, but of course, the main course was always going to be about the big 1980s names and movies, and where Sly and Arnie dominates, where as other stars like Mel Gibson, Kurt Russell, Van Damme, Bruce Willis, Keaunu Reeves, Chuck Norris, down to maybe a bit more of the "video films" or later on DTV familiars like Eric Roberts, Cynthia Rothrock, Michael Jai White, Scott Adkins and Matthias Hues gets a nice run of time onscreen, and where I think Jai White and Adkins impressed me the most, would have liked to see the both of them, get together and just chat about their careers and all the people and stories they could dig up, but I guess that would take up quite some time as well.
Of course, the real big stars of the show, is now where to be seen, unless in clips or images from their films or behind the scenery, but lots of interesting stories from their co-workers, even though I guess I have heard about several, many time before, it is always nice to hear from classic 80s villains like Bill Duke, Al Leoung and Vernon Wells.
Still, one cannot really complain, as I mean, there is a whole arsenal of familiar names and faces, showing up here, and at times, there is just so damn many, and so little time for all to shine through, but one has to respect and admire the work of those who made this documentary come alive, as it must have taken quite some time, to finish it off, and I can only wonder how many more hours, that got edited out, so it would not last 4-5 hours.
Beside not having greats like Eastwood or Bronson much included in here, I did noticed that the lack of Steven Seagal was kind of a downer (he did get brought up, almost right before it all ended), as while he never reached the same heights or stability as Sly, Arnie or Bruce, back in the late 80s and into the early 90s, the man sure did outgrow his earlier and grittier, urban inner city martial arts films, and for a short while, seemed to be able of moving into bigger budget and more typical 90s blockbusters, like Under Siege (1992), but of course, it was not just that which grew bigger over time, his ego and long list of enemies might also be a reason to why he did not get mentioned as much in this documentary, as one could hope for.
Another name, that I would kind of see get a bit more mentioning, would be Harrison Ford, and while his earlier Indiana Jones days did get included, I thought he was a damn good action movie star, for a long while during the 90s.
Also Wesley Snipes is another, that had a long run of good and enjoyable action titles in the 90s, but where I guess did not make the list of people being brought forward that much.
Would have loved to see a little chapter, dedicated to those, who I think should have done way more action movies, back in their days. Or the ones that kind of felt a bit "underrated" as action leads, like Peter Weller, Rutger Hauer, Michael Biehn, Patrick Swayze and such, but again, who knows, maybe a sequel or follow up to this documentary might be in the making?
The big question, to what really "killed" the 80s and early 90s action scene, is kind of never put down, but several places it is being hinted towards, that more dramatic and serious actors "took" the jobs of the lesser dramatic actors, and also with the arrival of CGI and heavy use of that, made many stuntmen workless.
However, I think it is not that unkown, that with movies like Die Hard (1988) and Batman (1989), the movie business had started to shift away from the muscular one man killing machines, and the endless army of Sly and Arnie b-movie clones, instead the focus of the new action era, seemed to go to more vulnerable and "normal" anti-heroes, who had receding hairlines, where not looking like they lived 24/7 inside a gym, and would not come off as physical threating or larger than life in personality, yet somehow people like Bruce Willis and Michael Keaton (both with a more comedy driven background in movies and tv) managed to do their jobs, with such a convincing style, that it probably did not help out, for guys like Dolph Lundgren, Van Damme and others, to try an keep up, even though both of the mentioned b-movie action stars, would enjoy some big sucess into the 90s as well.
Anyway, I really liked this documentary, and one thing I notice getting brought up several times, is how many of the people being interviewed wishes that guys like Dwayne Jonhson, would do more r-rated and bad ass action movies, not just stuff where the constant use of CGI special effects and watered down fights, is dominating.
Well, I am still damn glad we have Arnie, Sly and even Bruce with us, even though I am not nearly as excited everytime I learn they have a new movie out, as I once used to be. In fact, I am probably the opposite, sadly. But hopefully we might get something to look forward to, and if not, these action guys have delivered so much joy and entertainment, so, it is about time for someone else to take over, and I think that is easier said than done.
I had plans of watching 1 part and saving the rest for today, but had so much fun, that I ended up seeing it all the way through.
Not sure if that is gonna happen, with In Search of Darkness (2019), which is about the horror films genre, and I think has a runtime of over 4 hours, and there is even a second part being made.
8/10