Action! Reaction! A film blog covering the banished and ever-lowly genre of action movies.

Friday, November 28, 2008

The Expendables gets another!

I've been really busy the last few days with Thanksgiving and all (check that link, trust me), but this is news better late than never, for those who haven't seen it already.




Sylvester Stallone's upcoming mercenary flick, The Expendables, which already features Jet Li, Jason Statham, as well as Stallone himself, will now have another actioner on board. Old Rocky rival Dolph Lundgren has now officially joined the cast, in what may be the great action ensemble of the new millenium.

My enthusiam for this project is already well known amongst whatever community this blog actually has, but now it's going through the frickin' roof. By casting what are essentially are B+ action stars, there won't be too many ego trips going on, and I feel this cast will gel to perfection. The addition of Lundgren makes sense on so many levels, and the next question is, of course, who else will be expendable? Another rumored is addition is Forest Whitaker, which would be badass in every respect (see this clip). If Wesley Snipes wasn't going to jail, I think he'd be worth something, or maybe someone like Mark Dacascos, I don't know. Either way, I think it's safe to say that we got one helluva action movie on tap for 2010.

Who do you think should be 'expendable?' Leave your comments below.

Photo Credit: Dolph: The Ultimate Guide

Tuesday, November 25, 2008

Terminator Salvation motion poster(?)

Sony has released a new motion poster for its upcoming Terminator Salvation. A motion poster? Did I miss out on some fad? Seems so, but either way, it's pretty damn cool, and be sure to check it out here.

It's almost too cool to fool.



Gotta have some randomness!

Sunday, November 23, 2008

Black Dynamite trailer #2 released!

An even more awesome trailer for Scott Sanders and Michael Jai White's upcoming Black Dynamite has been released! If you never caught the original, you can find it here.




Source: Twitch

New Videos Added, 11/23/2008

New videos have been added to the YouTube page, including clips from the following movies:

The Birth of a Nation
The Bourne Identity
The Bourne Supremacy [blocked]
The Bourne Ultimatum
Fire Down Below
Johnny Mnemonic
Kiss of the Dragon
Lionheart
Lone Wolf McQuade
Mean Guns
Mission: Impossible

Check them out, along with the rest of the collection, and, as always, more on the way!

Monday, November 17, 2008

"This is what happens when the cast of the Dark Knight, meets an inevitable oscar win"

I'm having some trouble posting it directly, but trust me, this is worth checking out.

Found on some forum by the Playlist.

I will repost this if, or rather, when, it comes true.

Friday, November 14, 2008

Street Preacher op-ed, 11/14/2008

Due to the lack of action-worthy news this week, and also because I can't post any videos (my main computer's in the shop), I've decided to start what will probably end up being an infrequent, stop-gap filler feature, much as I am in need of now. So, without further ado, I present to you, the Street Preacher Op-Ed!: a feature in which I reiterate my opinions on varied film news tidbits through the personage of the Street Preacher from Johnny Mnemonic, played by Dolph Lundgren, and for no reason at all! Here goes!






As I usually do, I was jumping around looking for pertinent news on the interwebs and I came across a supposedly 'new' (I didn't know there was even an old) trailer for the upcoming Sam Mendes film Revolutionary Road. Even though, thus so far, I've thought the film had looked pretty mediocre, I gave in decided to watch it anyway, as is the custom in the world of film-wannabes like myself. Oddly enough, I soon learned through some poking around that it was in fact the 'old' international trailer, and that it had been posted in conjunction with a link to the new one. But regardless--let me get to the point--it was more or less an American-Beauty-ish, 1950s marriage troubles movie with the unfit and unbelievable Leo as the befuddled husband of fellow Titanic alum Kate Winslet, who, despite her reasonable talent, seems to be their for the sake of a Titanic reunion and nothing else (okay, I'm getting a little harsh, but think about it). The most interesting thing I found in the trailer, which you can watch here, was funny and almost ironic connection to everybody's new favorite movie The Dark Knight. When Winslet says "We had plans, you had plans," to Leo, I immediately thought of the Joker's second speech, or, the "It's all part of the plan" speech. In it, he says, "The mob has plans, the cops have plans, Gordon's got plans, you know, they're schemers, schemers trying to control their little worlds." Isn't it funny, how the Joker's words could possibly sum up the whole of Revolutionary Road? Not to dump on Sam Mendes, well, actually to dump on Sam Mendes, I turn to the Joker yet again: "You were a schemer, you had plans, and uh, look where that got ya."

On a very loosely-related note, am I the only one who's not excited for the CROTCHMEN (okay, bad joke). I'm really getting sick of the hyper-emo and 'ooooh, we're dark' atmosphere of the trailers. Granted, I haven't read the graphic novel, but I don't read much these days, now I do I? And I'm also not down on director Zack Snyder or his previous 300. Yes, I didn't like 300 and I never will. For me, it was just an allegory for the similarly retarded Ewok victory over the Stormtroopers, complete with the incompetent writing and wtf uncoolness. The Watchmen feels like some strange mashup of the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen with Fantastic Four, thrown into the world of Sin City to make it legitimately cool. I know that's a low blow, but 'watch me' as I go even lower: I will say now, that Fantastic Four is and will be a better movie than the Watchmen. There, I said it.

Speaking of trailers, a new, full-length edition recently came out for perpetually-delayed Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. Less-action packed, less awesomeness, more force-fed epic, more lame. I still have a lot of faith in this film, both relative to the other Potter entries and on its own, but come on, let's not become a muted grey sorrow-pit like every other movie this decade.

Also, Quantum of Solace (or Suantum of Qolace, or Something of Boris?) is coming to a theater near you. I plan to check it out soon, and you should too. I've really fallen for Daniel Craig as Bond, but I still hate the anti-James Bond vibes around him; in other words, he's really not playing James Bond, but James Bourne. Many incoming reviews seem to correlate this, which, as much as I've also fallen for the Bourne films, is fairly disappointing. I guess we'll just have to see, and indeed see the film, sometime soon.

And if I may say one more thing, TWILIGHT WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA (Twilight will not be dark enough to trump the Knight, oh no).


Feel free to leave your comments, but just remember that the Street Preacher might break you and help you find Jesus.

Thursday, November 6, 2008

New Videos Added, 11/07/2008

New videos have been added to the YouTube page, including clips from the following movies:

Demolition Man
Face/Off
Hard Cash
Kickboxer
The Specialist
Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones
Under Siege

Check them out, along with the rest of the collection. And, as always, more on the way!

Universal Soldier III: A New Beginning(?)



Universal Soldier III (or V, if you count the ultra-trashy TV in-betweens), seems to finally have gotten the green light. In an interview with MTV, Jean-Claude Van Damme says he's "just going to do ten days" and that "I don't know if they want to make it a video release or theatrical." As to the rumored reunion with Dolph Lundgren, Van Damme said, "I told them, guys bring in Dolph! They said there's no more value. I said, 'it will have value with me!'

So it looks like it's going to Van Damme's show (maybe cameo-show), which, while fairly disappointing, makes sense considering that two former Van-Damage directors are on board for the project, Simon Fellows (Second-in-Command, Until Death), and Peter Hyams (Timecop, Sudden Death), who will fill the role of DP, and who, according to Van Damme, is very important to him: "He was the only one who visited me in the clinic when I was there years ago. All the agents and managers who made a fortune with me never came."

If third entries in the Under Siege and Universal Soldier series come out at once, it may just be heaven on earth. The B action stars will have truly risen from the dead in a truly B-action way. My only request is that Lundgren do be brought back, even if it makes no sense in terms of the plot, because how could you have Universal Soldier without two action stars (Universal Soldier: The Return at least had Michael Jai White). Either way, I'm excited at the prospect of having a Van Damage team on board, because they may just get it right.

Your thoughts?

The Expendables brings action stars young and old together for the first time!


Notice the titles, Rambo-War

According THR, Sylvester Stallone will bring Jet Li and Jason Statham together again in a film in which he too will star and even direct, entitled The Expendables. They are, of course, a team of mercenaries sent in to a job that no one else can do, thus being "expendable." The job in this case will be the Rambo-esque mission into a South American country to eliminate the tyrannical government and "liberate" the people. Does it really even matter?

This is the kind of movie I've been waiting for. It's not just a action star pair-up (Tango & Cash, Universal Soldier, Demolition Man, War, etc), but a full-blown three-way! /Film mentioned how it resembles the original goal of Quentin Tarantino's upcoming Inglourious Basterds, but as we've seen he hasn't really followed the route--but I'm glad someone has! I really hope it pays off when it comes around. I'll be keeping tabs on this one for sure.

What do you think? Expendable?

Wednesday, November 5, 2008

The votes are in!

Election? What election? For the poll, silly! Yes the action-star poll has come to an end. The results:

1st place: Steven Seagal, with 5 votes
2nd place: Sylvester Stallone, with 4 votes
3rd place tie, Jackie Chan and Arnold Schwarzenegger, with 3 votes

The rest:

Jason Statham, with 2 votes
James Bond actor (Connery, Lazenby, Moore, Dalton, Brosnan, Craig), Jet Li, Dolph Lundgren, Kurt Russell, Wesley Snipes, Jean-Claude Van Damme all with one vote apiece.

It looks like Seagal has taken home the gold. That being said, I didn't get access to the FanDamme forums in time for this, so things could've been different if you know what I mean. Regardless, like the election, we have a winner, and I'll try to get a new poll up with the next few days.

In the meantime, here's one last fun reminder of all the political ads we've had to endure for so long:

See more funny videos at Funny or Die



Thanks for visiting!