It's been a while since my last post, and for this please accept my sincerest apologies, and as always to make amends, I bring to you news fresh off the ovens of cinemadom.
For those of us growing up in the 80s, action movies meant bone-crushing, adrenaline fuelled extrvaganzas starring muscled monoliths such as Stallone, Schwartznegger, Willis and Chuck Norris. Gleefully we watched as our favourite action hero single-handedly ripped apart entire armies of russians/arabs/european villain not before managing to deliver a punch-line such as "Rest in Pieces" or "I'll be back". Sadly with the advent of cinematic technology like CGI and bigger budgets, the realm of the action hero (like the VHS casettes that we watched them on) began to disappear. Fist fights and exploding cars were replaced with transforming robots, and CGI generated badguys. With CGI beginning to rule the roost, larger than life was par for the course and other than a random actioner such as the Bad-Boys series, the escapist action genre had all but vanished. That is, until now....
In the revent past, a surfeit of overblown CGI movies (Transformers, GI Joe) has led to many a fan yearning for the more realistic actioner fare. At the same time, the rise of actual combat related shows such as Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) the varoius wrestling shows ( WWE) have given film houses a sea of talent to pick the next action hero from.
This summer, promises what appears to be a return to the action genre of old, and leading from the front is Stallone's "The Expendables" starring what appears to a reunionof the action stars of the old (Willis, Schwarzenegger, Lundgren) with some newer ones such as Statham and Jet Li. What is also interesting is the use of actual MMA fighters such as Randy Couture, Gary Daniels and the Noriega Brothers in the movie to add a touch of realism to the combat.
extra freeky: It's the return of the man, baby!!!
