Your favorite Action Star

[Snake Plissken]

Sly's best action film was probably Rambo IV.

 

[thenammagazine]

Raging Bull and Ali were both dramas and both incredibly boring. Rocky is a great story about a lovable loser that gets to redeem himself in life and love through what? A boxing match with the Heavyweight champion of the world. The movie starts off with Rocky boxing, he is a collector for a loan shark where his job is supposed to be about beating money out of people. He boxes at a gym, he gets the fight with Apollo and the rest of the movie is him training and eventually going the distance with the champ in a 15 round fight. He finds love, finds a mentor (Mick) and redeems himself as a human being but essentially it is a action movie. The action genre is not specific to blowing **** up with guns and winning the hearts of easy women.

The sequels are about the situations successful fighters go through but they include scenes with heavy doses of blood and dudes getting beat up in the ring.

First Blood is an action film. It is a smart action film that conveys the message that American society mistreated veterans of Vietnam because they fought in a war they disagreed with. But it does contain all of the situations you claim to be necessary for a true action film. Stallone goes through the ringer in that movie and it contains some heavy action scenes. **** gets blown up, people get hurt and one guy dies. It is an action film that has a good story to it, which is why I like Stallone because he normally adds a bit of meat to his action flicks. The movies aren't completely transparent like a lot of Arnold's movies. He gets arrested at the end instead of being shot by Trautman like the book because Stallone saw some kind of redeemable characteristics with John Rambo. He thought he could add some heart into this obviously troubled, war-hardened individual. Hence the sequels.

I have never seen Oscar sadly, but I bet I would like it. I caught some of it on T.V. once and it wasn't that bad.

We'll agree to disagree then. I think pigeonholing them into the action genre is discrediting the films for what they are. The Rocky films aren't "beat-em-up" films, there's a deeper message about overcoming adversity. It's one of the reasons Rocky 5 didn't work. First Blood falls in the same category. There's a considerably deeper message there than just mindless action which is why the cast is made up of dramatic actors vs. action stars. A shame you didn't get that.

As to your point about the death of Rambo, you're wrong. It wasn't Stallone's decision to keep Rambo alive.

 

[jasonv808]

We'll agree to disagree then. I think pigeonholing them into the action genre is discrediting the films for what they are. The Rocky films aren't "beat-em-up" films, there's a deeper message about overcoming adversity. It's one of the reasons Rocky 5 didn't work. First Blood falls in the same category. There's a considerably deeper message there than just mindless action which is why the cast is made up of dramatic actors vs. action stars. A shame you didn't get that.

As to your point about the death of Rambo, you're wrong. It wasn't Stallone's decision to keep Rambo alive.

I wouldn't pigeonhole them into the action genre but I won't agree with you that they are strictly dramas either. They would have to be Action/Dramas or action movies that have great stories. Rocky 5 was alright, I would classify that movie and Rocky Balboa as dramas. Well, I have no idea what Rocky 5 was. Besides a few scenes that movie wasn't very good. Rocky Balboa is a drama because the entire movie is about Rocky grieving over Adrian, trying to re-establish a relationship with his son and still trying to eek out some self worth.

Rocky is my favorite film, so I understand everything it is meant to be. I just don't consider it a straight drama film. I realize the story carries a lot more significance than the actually fight but still the fight is at the center of the movie's plot.

Who's decision was it to keep Rambo alive? I thought Stallone and the studio were interested in sequels and that is why they kept him alive.

 

[Magpie 7]

When the audience saw the test screenings of First Blood the reaction the studio got was of a depressing movie. So they got Sly to rewrite the ending and have Rambo's emotional breakdown and sort of have Trautman absolve his sins.

Both Sly and Richard Crenna were very opposed to this new ending at first, no doubt the financial gain of doing the sequels motivated their change of mind