Why can't they make classic action moves anymore?

EdenHazard

Like Die Hard, Rambo, any of those steve segal movies?
I dunno movies like this just don't seem to come out anymore.

johnny_ultimate

Have you seen The Raid?

You should watch The Raid.

e_e

...and after you've devoured The Raid, Dredd is great schlocky 80s style fun with some surprising beautiful and elegant visuals.

speedboatchase

Die Hard and Rambo were the big budget action movies of their day but nowadays studio tentpole movies are around $200-250m, mostly due to CGI sequences to wow increasingly demanding audiences, so that budget is more likely to be spent on sci-fi, superhero movies or fantasy.

On top of that, with bigger budgets comes greater risk, so Hollywood generally won't greenlit these films unless they have a pre-existing fanbase to fall back on, so the majority of these films are based on comic book, video game or book properties. Straight action movies with completely original ideas and big budgets sadly aren't worth it anymore, so you only end up with cult classics like The Raid or ironic twists on the genre like The Expendables breaking through occasionally.

The only successful big budget straight action movie series (albeit based on a book) I can really recall from the past decade was the Bourne trilogy and even that got ruined by greed. At least Bond movies aren't going anywhere soon.

Sad Professor

Hollywood don't really do R-rated action films anymore. Partially because I don't think there's much of a cinemagoing audience out there for such films. Most of us saw films like Die Hard and First Blood on VHS or television while still in our early teens. It's hard to get these people back into the cinema in large enough numbers to justify an R-rating. Heavily compromised PG-13 kiddie crap like The Expendables is the best they can do. I have high hopes for The Last Stand though, which was recently confirmed as being R-rated.

krudler

Big reason is studios afraid to lose revenue because of R ratings, gotta appeal to that teen demographic.

mike65

Yep its all about the marketplace, R = box office death for expensive films. That's not to say there isn't a market for a lean mean 40 million dollar shoot 'em up. What's needed is an example which makes 150 million in the States which can persuade the the industry. I'm sure there are plenty of "straight to DVD" quality examples being made but Hollywood isn't interested in them.

Lots if great action films being made these days, direct to disc fare such as Ninja, the recebt Universal Soldier sequels, Transit, Dragon Eyes, 6 Bullets, Blood and Bone, etc. there is also a wealth if truly exceptional action cinema coming from foreign countries, The Man From Nowhere, Vengeance, Viral Factor and so on.

mikhail

Statham makes pretty mean action movies, but there's not a lot of room in that niche with him. Check out Crank, the Transporter movies, Safe, The Mechanic, Blitz...

the purple tin

Vin Diesel was making a good go of it but he seems to have dropped off the radar lately.

don ramo

go watch Death Sentence, Taken or Man on Fire, if you like seeing one guy tearing cities apart by himself, From Paris with Love is another great film, there are plenty of films like those films but no film can ever be them films, the 4 films i mentioned are superb,


these days its much harder to push a john mcclane character on people than it was 20 odd years ago, audiences have changed and have gotten more vocal, what was brushed aside years ago as a stupid little plot hole is now torn to pieces like its a hugh black hole that has swallowed the entire film,

like i said the films are there, theyve just changed their appearance

Goldstein

We got Dredd and The Raid in the same year. We should be counting our lucky blessings.

pixelburp

Hmmmm not to be pedantic, but I think the use of the word 'classic' in the thread title betrays the rose tinted spectacles being worn: surely 'classic' implies a film that has been around for ages, and has had time to gestate in our pop-culture consciousness. Die Hard's 24 years old, give the recent stuff time to breath

I actually think we're doing ok for action films all things considered - if anything, it's now fairly mainstream and accepted to be partial to a little ultra-violence - whatever else can be said for films like The Expendables (which isn't a lot), it shows there's an acknowledged appetite for action.