Movie Thread

[Liar Revealed]

I like the first Die Hard. But, I hate the trend it started. Every action movie for the next 6 or 7 years were Die Hard clones. Die hard on a boat, die hard on a bus, die hard on a plane, etc.

[rabidtictac]

Die Hard (1988)

Christmas came early this year, I rewatched this already. DH is one of those rare films that are "perfect" among Carpenter's The Thing and Verhoeven's Robocop, it's really hard to point out how these films could have been made even better, there is nothing wrong with these movies at all.

I would add Predator, Total Recall and The Warriors to that last, but yeah. Movies so awesome they can't be improved. It wasn't that long ago I saw Total Recall and I already want to watch it again.

Die Hard is the only Bruce Willis action film I like. Bruce Willis strikes me as an actor before an action star, as compared to the likes of Bruce Lee, Gordon Liu, Arnold or Van Damme. So Bruce's action movie attempts tend to leave me cold. Die Hard works for me because it hits on so many levels. It works as a tight thriller, but also an action film. Since McClane is a cop, it doesn't matter if Willis can do martial arts.

SpoilerShow

It's a shame that, for all his physicality, Van Damme never found a partnership with a really talented director. I don't think there's a Van Damme movie of the same quality as Total Recall, Robocop or Enter the Dragon. Bloodsport and Kickboxer are both fine, but have their fair share of absolutely horrible dialogue.

[veris leta facies]

It's indeed a shame Van Damme never got his Commando, Rambo or even his Out for Justice. The guy can act, as proven in JCVD, and kick ass, but he chose poorly his roles during his prime. He turned his role in Predator down and spent his prime years doing garbage like Street Fighter and Nowhere to Run instead.

[Liar Revealed]

Universal Soldier and Time Cop seemed pretty high profile. I never saw UC though.
Van Damme killed his own career, IMHO. He was an egomaniac asshole and he had a cocaine problem. If he would have been easy to work with he would have kept getting work.

[Complicity]

It's indeed a shame Van Damme never got his Commando, Rambo or even his Out for Justice. The guy can act, as proven in JCVD, and kick ass, but he chose poorly his roles during his prime. He turned his role in Predator down and spent his prime years doing garbage like Street Fighter and Nowhere to Run instead.

Van Damme wasn't supposed to be Dutch in Predator, nor one of Arnie's companions.
He was supposed to be the Predator, aka an anonymous guy in a costume.
And his predator costume wasn't the same one that we got in the final product, it looked like a shitty, small, one-eyed lizard-man with a long tail.
According to Jesse Ventura Van Damme didn't turn down the role, but he was kicked out of the set after intentionally hospitalizing another stuntman because of the aforementioned egotism of his.

Van Damme fucking off and being replaced by a black guy as tall as me wearing a completely redesigned costume was the best thing that could have happened to Predator.

[Guest]

I like the first Die Hard. But, I hate the trend it started. Every action movie for the next 6 or 7 years were Die Hard clones. Die hard on a boat, die hard on a bus, die hard on a plane, etc.

guess Old Habits really do 'Die Hard'

[Guest]

Predator is just capeshit with no cgi.

[rabidtictac]

Predator is just capeshit with no cgi.

Bite your tongue you fucking guestfag! How many capeshit movies feature every single character dying and staying dead except for the main guy and some random woman?

1980s action is not the same as capeshit. Capeshit movies did exist back then (Burton Batman) and even the "dark" Tim Buttman didn't kill off Robin.

Van Damme killed his own career, IMHO. He was an egomaniac asshole and he had a cocaine problem. If he would have been easy to work with he would have kept getting work.

Makes sense. I've heard a lot of movie "heroes" were assholes in real life, while the dudes who got typecast as villains tended to be the sweetest, nicest and sometimes most intelligent.

SpoilerShow

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lee_Hoi-sang

Just one example of a dude who was in every kung-fu movie during the Shaws/Golden Harvest era, and often typecast as a bad guy, but was supposedly very nice in real life.

[VoiceOfReasonPast]

That's why villains used to be the best part of movies: They were played by better actors.

[Guest]

It's indeed a shame Van Damme never got his Commando, Rambo or even his Out for Justice. The guy can act, as proven in JCVD, and kick ass, but he chose poorly his roles during his prime. He turned his role in Predator down and spent his prime years doing garbage like Street Fighter and Nowhere to Run instead.

hard target, bloodsport and lionheart say hello perhaps even universal soldier