We truly feel the fear and abject hunger of vulnerable farmers, so desperate to protect their new crop that they’re paying hired samurai with their last grains of rice. Running over 200 minutes, it’s also a textbook example of making action mean more, because we’re totally engrossed in the lives of the characters. If you’ve never seen a Kurosawa film and wonder why he’s held in such high regard, this all-time classic is all the evidence you need-not least because it inspired Hollywood’s much-loved, if slightly simplistic, remake, The Magnificent Seven. The killer scene: The villagers’ rain-lashed last stand against the rampaging bandits-the very definition of iconic And that’s awesome.- Eddy FrankelĬast: Toshiro Mifune, Takashi Shimura, Seiji Miyaguchiīest quote: “If we only defend, we lose the war.” Yeah, it’s kind of a metaphor for the evils of big business, and sure, it’s an empowering fable about the strength of the female voice in a male world, but we all know what you’re here for: to watch Ripley stomp around in a huge mechanical suit and destroy some shockingly phallic alien bastards.
As in Alien, the plot centers around a male-dominated corporation’s obsession with developing bioweaponry, no matter what the human price may be. Sigourney Weaver is pitted yet again against a vicious many-toothed foe, this time in an abandoned space colony, but now she’s surrounded by weapon-heavy Marines, hell-bent on kicking ass and taking no names. Cameron was a relative newbie at the time, having previously only directed The Terminator, but he took to big-budget work with gusto. Where before there was endless deep-space dread and grimness, now there was fully fledged big-screen action. He just said “Screw that subtlety shit” and went big on explosions, big on aliens, and let the guns (and mech-robots) do the talking.
When James Cameron stepped into Ridley Scott’s space-horror boots to direct the sequel to the brilliant Alien, he didn’t try to ape the sickening, paranoid, slow creep of the original. The killer scene: Ripley straps into a Power Loader suit to destroy the alien queen. RECOMMENDED: Full guide to the 100 best movies of all timeĬast: Sigourney Weaver, Michael Biehn, Bill Paxton Written by Eddy Frankel, Eddy Frankel, Joshua Rothkopf, Trevor Johnston, Ashley Clark, Grady Hendrix, Tom Huddleston, Keith Uhlich, Dave Calhoun, Phil de Semlyen & Dave Calhoun
And if we’ve missed something, drop a bomb in our comments. Critics and experts have weighed in, too. We’ve polled over 50 experts in the field, from essential directors like Die Hard’s John McTiernan to the actual folks in the line of fire, such as Machete himself, Danny Trejo. And when we arrived at action’s ’80s movies heyday, when Hollywood stars ruled the roost, our research was euphoric. With crucial contributions from Hong Kong and France, the genre has a global richness that sneaks up on you like a swarthy henchman with a knife clenched between his teeth. Preferably accompanied by catchphrases and squealing electric guitars. Truth be told, no one can live solely on Martin Scorsese movies or animation alone. They get a bad rap from snobs, but don’t mess with action movies-they’re pumped up, loaded with ammo and in your face like Arnold Schwarzenegger on a bad day.
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