Judge Dredd (Karl Urban) is responsible for both convicting and punishing the criminals of Mega-City One.
Stallone’s legacy remains, but the 2012 Dredd is a rare follow-up that can equal its 90s original.
If you like movies that deliver non-stop action in the truest sense of the word, you may be surprised how few there are, especially when looking for films that made it to the big screen. I’ll be honest, movies that reduce plot, dialogues and drama to the absolute minimum, with their only ambition to put as much bloody mayhem as possible on the screen, are my favorite kind.
Some examples that perfected this style over the course of four decades of action movie history are Predator (1980s), Speed (1990s) and Crank (2000s). So every once in a while, we’re treated with a gem like these, and the 2010s were not the worst decade either with the John Wick Saga as another example, and of course Dredd.
Dredd is the second film adaptation of the popular comic book series. The first one was Stallone’s Judge Dredd, a solid Sci-Fi actioner that managed to strikingly recreate the bizarre world of Megacity One in all its dystopic glory. It was not a full success, though, and its appeal to action fans may have been diminished by too much daft humor (Rob Schneider, nuff said) and out-of-place drama. In 2012 Judge Dredd returned, and Karl Urban took the helm from Stallone. Urban is a charismatic actor that almost always manages to impress in his roles, but never broke into the top tier of action movie actors so far. So it was great to see that he finally was offered the opportunity to take a lead role in a first-grade actioner.
We return to Megacity One, an urban nightmare with 800 million inhabitants, shielded by giant walls from a post-apocalyptic wasteland. The judges are the only force holding up public order. Judge Dredd and his trainee Anderson are called to investigate a murder in the giant apartment building Peach Trees, which is also the holdout of psychopathic drug lord Ma-Ma. She locks up the tower, and sends her gang to kill the two judges that are interfering with her business.
As opposed to the first movie, Dredd drops almost all of the world-building, and takes place exclusively in a run-down skyscraper. The makers of Dredd were accused of plagiarizing the Indonesian action masterpiece The Raid: Redemption, that came out a few months earlier, and the premise and overall course of both movies are very similar indeed. By account of the Dredd production team, the script was in the making for several years, though. In any case, this question does not really matter, because both movies are so awesome that all can be forgiven.
More similarities can be found between Dredd and another action classic, Robocop. There are even rumors that the script for Robocop was originally intended for a Judge Dredd movie. Paul Verhoeven also admitted that the phrase “Come quietly, or there will be trouble” was taken from a Dredd comic. The movie returns the nod by having Dredd also utter that phrase, and even adding “You have 20 seconds to comply” as a reference to Robocop’s ED-209. Fun times for action movie nerds.
Dredd sketches a simple scenario that is exploited to the fullest. Two judges are locked up in a skyscraper housing a small army of cartel hitmen, with both parties armed to the teeth. Dredd is judge, jury and executioner (mostly executioner), and as soon as he enters the building, it’s judgment time. There’s no idle moments in Dredd, it’s one and a half hours of relentless chases and firefights in hallways and staircases.
The presentation of the action scenes is pleasantly old-school for the most part. There’s no attempt to be fancy, it’s just shootouts, brawls and explosions with some heavy weapons such as mini-guns and napalm bombs added to the mix. Dredd is also one of the most brutal representatives of its kind, with a level of gory violence we’ve been rarely treated with on the big screen in action flicks since the 1980s.
Dredd is cynical and trigger-happy, and Urban plays him completely straight without any intended comic relief, and with an almost demonic voice. In doing so, he does go over the top a couple of times, and produces many memorable one-liners, usually right before or after someone gets killed (“The crime is life, the sentence is death!”). Lena Headey of Game of Thrones fame stays firmly in character as Dredd’s nemesis Ma-Ma, and instead of a wrathful and sadistic queen she takes the role of a wrathful and sadistic drug pusher.
Dredd is straightforward and perfect old-school mayhem. It is a bloody and uncompromising spectacle, and one of the great action flicks of the 21st Century.
The best action adventure flicks for kiddos aged 9 or above!
We return with another list for the best kids action movies. Our last article featured the most exciting films for the youngest action fans 6-8 years old. This time we’re looking at the masterpieces aimed at a slightly slightly older audience with ages 9-11.
For this age group there are plenty of PG-13 movies that could be recommended for children when watching them together with their parents, but we still make the cut at the PG-rating, as this leaves no ambiguity whether the movies on our list can be unconditionally approved for everyone.
Action-packed movies like Star Wars and Ghostbusters are not included, as we’re only looking for films that convey the vibe of to the pure and relentless action classics. The films we’re discussing in this article crank up the intensity of the action to the absolute maximum, while remaining harmless fun. So let’s start our countdown!
Masters of the Universe has become a classic of the legendary Cannon studios, but is more considered a trashy cult flick these days rather than an accomplished action movie. In any case, it is a truly innocent and goofy production, and thus perfect entertainment for kids! While fighting the evil sorcerer Skeletor and his minions on their home planet Eternia, He-Man and his companions accidentally teleport to present-day Earth. They try to find a way back home, but also need to keep battling Skeletor who found a way to come after them. Masters of the Universe has a fluffy look, colorful costumes, and cheesy humor, so spiritually it’s very much in line with the TV cartoon series it’s based on.
Lets skip talking about the quality of the plot and acting for the sake of staying polite, where the movie delivers instead is on the action front. But while we get many shootouts, brawls, and explosions, there’s rarely anything worth remembering, and this lack of originality is what prevents Masters of the Universe from becoming a truly great film. It’s all entertaining enough to warrant inclusion in our list, and a great example if you want to let your kids experience the vibe of an old-school action movie.
Hulk Hogan, like other wrestlers before and after him, used his popularity to embark on a film career after leaving the wrestling arena. His success as a movie actor was limited, though, and he ended up doing mostly C-grade action movies and some terrible comedies. A positive exception is his second movie Suburban Commando. Space hero Shep Ramsay takes a vacation on earth after his last stressful mission, and moves in as a subtenant with the neurotic architect Charlie and his family. While navigating through the daily madness of Suburbia, he also needs to deal with two cosmic bounty hunters coming after him.
Suburban Commando takes a standard comedy template and adds plenty of slapstick action to the mix. Sheps well-meaning attitude combined with his ignorance of the local customs usually are the frequent cause of (harmless) violence and/or destruction. Corny jokes are abundant, such as Shep drinking anti-freeze to counter the effects of a high-tech freeze gun, or “helping” a pantomime who seems to be trapped inside a force field. The film is a quite mellow affair, and Hogan radiates a relaxed vibe in his role. All in all we get a nice package of cheesy action-comedy with the Hulkster in one of his best movies.
Surviving high school can be hard, and who wouldn’t wish to have superpowers to ease their way through this minefield for adolescents. If everyone at your school has superpowers, the playing field is leveled again, though, and things can get even more troublesome. Will’s parents are both superheros, and have high expectations for him as their successor. He joins Sky High, a high school for superheroes, but his superpowers are nowhere to be seen. To make things worse, an unknown menace is plotting the demise of all superheroes, old and young alike.
The first X-Men movie trilogy included superhero education and training in its story, but that school was not really a fun place, if you ask me. Sky High is a very different beast, a light-hearted comedy that pokes a lot of fun at the uncountable number of superheroes existing in popular culture these days. Sky High even has “loser” class for kids with useless superpowers such as being able to turn into a puddle of slime, or glowing faintly in the dark. And kids running high on hormones, who also need to learn how to control their powers, is the cause of plenty explosive fights and demolitions. As with almost all Disney live-action movies, there are no rough edges, we’ve seen it all before, but Sky High is still a fun watch for the whole family with plenty of hilarious action sequences.
if you think The Karate Kid needed to have more action and more Chuck Norris, Sidekicks comes to the rescue! Directed by Chuck’s brother Aaron, the movie is a real family affair. Barry has a somewhat troubled life, and regularly drifts off into day dreams, where he finds himself as the sidekick to Chuck Norris in various action movie settings. He gets trained in Karate by Chinese restaurant owner Mr. Lee, and prepares for an upcoming karate tournament. Even more than the original Karate Kid, the plot of Sidekicks is like a fantasy movie, with Barry undergoing an almost magical transformation from frail asthmatic to unstoppable martial arts master.
The film oscillates between goofy comedy and kitschy drama, but the action scenes are all fun to watch with their parodies of classic action tropes, among them an appearance of Lone Wolf McQuade himself! The Norris brothers also show that they know their movies, and manage to put in a terrific homage to the classic Spaghetti Western My Name is Nobody. From the rest of the cast, Joe Piscopo sticks out as bullying and testosterone-inebriated martial arts teacher who has a proper beating by Chuck coming at him big time. Sidekicks is a slightly weird and uneven action comedy, but in any case one of the better Karate Kid ripoffs, and shows us that Chuck Norris is absolutely able to poke fun at himself.
The cyborg Mandroid escapes from his evil creator Reeves who wants to dispose of him. Reeves is up to more sinister stuff, so the Mandroid goes after him and assembles an unlikely team that includes a scientist, a ninja and a mercenary. Eliminators seems to be like every kid’s and B-movie fan’s dream with a cyborg, a ninja, cannibals, and a whole bunch of Sci-Fi nonsense all in the same movie! While this almost sounds like the ingredients for a contemporary parody on the genre, Eliminators can actually claim to be one of the first movies to plunder the repository of modern B-movies and throw them all together into a fairly chaotic mix.
The script has a logic that really only a child would find satisfactory, and the overarching plot is fairly bonkers, too. There’s rarely a dull moment, though, either we’re treated with cheesy dialogues or cheesy action. Eliminators never descends into trash territory, however, the special effects and action sequences are not embarrassing, and the overall production quality is quite okay. And the Mandroid himself is certainly the most gentle and polite cyborg in all of movie history. Eliminators is upbeat and silly, and is a nostalgic throwback into kid-friendly 1980s action movie madness.
5) Spacehunter: Adventures in the Forbidden Zone (1983)
A long time before Firefly and The Mandalorian came along, a great Space Action Western was made in 1983. Spacehunter: Adventures in the Forbidden Zone can be considered a spiritual predecessor to other goofy Sci-Fi comedy classics such as The Ice Pirates and Buckaroo Banzai that came out shortly after. Unlike its peers, Spacehunter puts all its focus on the action, but features just as much campy humor. Three women are the only survivors of a spaceship explosion, and their escape pod crashes on a desolate planet. The women are abducted by the minions of the evil cyborg Overdog, and it is up to Mercenary Wolff to rescue them.
The film really is just a sequence of action-packed sets, as Wolff and his companions traverse a contaminated wasteland inhabited by violent mutants and other dangers. Spacehunter has a serious Mad Max feel to it with its desolate setting and multitude of eccentric giant vehicles. There’s dirt and filth everywhere, and monsters lurking around every corner. It’s all harmless fun, though, with plenty of comic relief and silly jokes. An almost unrecognizable Michael Ironside leads the bad guy team in one of his early villain roles as ugly cyborg tyrant with two enormous creepy claws. Spacehunter: Adventures in the Forbidden Zone is tons of fun, and one of the few movies with a post-apocalyptic vibe that can be recommended for kids.
In 1990, Disney’s Dick Tracy started a short-lived streak of colorful movies inspired by pulp and superhero comics from the 1930s and 1940s. Films like The Phantom and The Shadow were pretty awesome, but another Disney production, The Rocketeer stands out as far as easygoing action-packed entertainment for kids is concerned. A secret prototype for a jetpack falls into the hands of stunt pilot Cliff. He becomes The Rocketeer, a show attraction, but soon needs to put his new gadget to use to fend off a conspiracy involving mafia mobsters and Nazi spies. The whole setup is pretty awesome, and there’s enough twists and turns to keep things interesting.
The movie is a big spectacle with a cheerful vibe, and we get a load of awesome action sequences. There’s oldtimer car chases, propeller plane stunts and crashes, and a showdown on, in and around a Nazi Zeppelin. The cast includes Bill Campbell, Alan Arkin and ex-James Bond Timothy Dalton, and they all contribute a lot to the fun with a perfect balance of portraying believable characters and just the right amount of campiness. The Rocketeer is an action-adventure with a lot of heart, and makes for perfect family entertainment.
Welcome to the world of Tron, the mystical realm of a computer circuit board inhabited by good and evil programs. Ex-Encom programmer Kevin breaks into the building of his former employer to collect evidence that some code of his was stolen by a former colleague. He gets caught by the Master Control Program, an artificial intelligence, and is digitized into a computer program. Trapped inside the Encom network, he needs to fight for his survival in a deadly tournament. Tron cleverly picked up on the arcade hype and advent of home computers that for many people still were an new and exciting world at the time.
The film is not a sophisticated Sci-Fi thriller, but a pure popcorn action movie, a spectacle from the first minute in a unique and captivating setting. The digital world is just a playground for Flynn to race, shoot and punch his way towards an escape from the evil AI. The visual effects were revolutionary at the time, and even today are still strangely captivating.Jeff Bridges in one of his many great roles plays Flynn, a charming smart-ass who is constantly on the brink of getting “derezzed”, but always finds the time to crack a joke. Tron is an absolute 1980s classic, and should be a great time for really everyone who loves action movies.
Speed Racer. The name of the movie. The name of the main character. The name of a comic book. Made by the Wachowskis. Better than The Matrix. Better cars. Better jokes. Better colors. Color explosions. Car explosions. Car stunts. Car weapons. Cars bouncing around like ping-pong balls. Car insanity. Insane special effects. Insane costumes. Insane race tracks. Insanity and genius. Ingenious cinematography and editing. Speed Racer, the best race driver who ever lived. Speed Racer competing against psychopathic opponents. Speed Racer fighting against evil corporations. So many awesome villains. So many terrible suits and ties. So many German accents. John Goodman wrestling ninjas. John Goodman wrestling mafia mobsters. John Goodman, the head of the Racer family. A family with a monkey. A great family. A great family movie. A perfect movie. Speed Racer.
Maybe the most famous action movie for young audiences ever, The Karate Kid is as great as it can get. It tells the story of uprooted teenager Daniel who tries to find his way in a new city. He falls in love with a girl, gets bullied by the members of the nasty Cobra Kai Karate school, and befriends the old Mr. Miyagi, who trains him to become a martial arts master. A perfect balance of action, comedy and drama, The Karate Kid tells a simple tale with an incredible amount of positive energy.
Daniel and Miyagi make a perfect team, a wise-ass teenager and an odd-ball caretaker. Both are struggling with their life, and learn to help and care for each other. Featuring one of the greatest finishes you’ll ever see, the big karate tournament even relegates the showdown of Rocky IV to second place. The Karate Kid is a movie every action movie fan young or old will be able to appreciate, I believe, and if you’re in the mood for a full load of 1980s action cinema to watch with your kids, The Karate Kid is the go-to movie No. 1.
The answer is a hard Chuck Norris-approved “No” it seems.
After watching and reviewing the first two episodes so far of the Walker, Texas Ranger reboot – which, again, is just called Walker, is on the CW and does NOT include Chuck Norris – I’ve finally done a little more research. Firstly, the show is apparently a hit. It’s first two episodes both drew over 2 million views (either on TV or same day streams). Which is a lot of people for a CW program. As such, it’s already been picked up for a second season.
Secondly, star/executive producer Jared Padalecki also apparently sought out – and received – Chuck Norris’ blessing (watch the video below). So, try as I might to take this show down from the outside. I’m resigning myself to defeat. Walker will be a program on television, possibly for multiple seasons. And a whole new generation will grow up thinking tall, drunk Padalecki is Cordell Walker and Chuck Norris’ portrayal will soon slip from memory.
So, in defeat, I only have one request. Can Walker please at least do one goddamn roundhouse!?
As you can see in the clip above from Good Morning America, Padalecki claims that he received the blessing of the great Chuck Norris to reboot Walker, Texas Ranger. As far as how in-depth this conversation was, or if anything concrete about the show was discussed, it remains unclear. Here are some questions that arise:
Was Chuck Norris aware that this would be on the CW?
Did he know the setting was going to be moved to Austin?
Were any of the character changes discussed?
Did Jared tell Chuck that Walker’s dad would be bald and named Bonham?
Was Chuck told that the new Walker would never roundhouse anyone… ever?
I’m going to go out on a limb here and say that probably not. While I’d imagine that Chuck is quite proud of Walker, Texas Ranger and the success it brought to him and his family, I’d be willing to guess that he probably didn’t want to be bothered with the particulars of how the show might be rebooted or reimagined.
This little interview does say quite a bit though about how Padalecki appears to think of Chuck and the original program. To the GMA hosts it sounds like a bit of a joke to even reach out to Chuck, and while Padalecki isn’t going that far, it also doesn’t quite sound like he was a big fan of the original show or anything.
It’s interesting to me just how much of a divide has developed between the audiences of these two shows though. If I’m being honest, the original Walker, Texas Ranger really always felt like it was targeted at the baby boomer 55+ demographic and I’d imagine skewed towards people who don’t live in Texas or the south. The way it treated much of its characters and plot were very “this is how it’s done in Texas, isn’t that funny” a bit.
The secondary audience for Walker, Texas Ranger of course, was the kids of the baby boomers who experienced Walker through reruns, Conan O’Brien’s Walker, Texas Ranger lever and Chuck Norris jokes. However, for many of us fit into this catagory, we also generally really loved the show. It’s a perfect mix of outlandish stories and even more over-the-top action sequences which, I dare say, were some of the most ultimate in television history.
In contrast, this new show seems to be aiming clearly at teenagers and the rest of the usual CW audience. The focus is on melodramatics and coming-of-age narratives so far.
So, here we are now. Episode 3 of the new Walker and it looks like this is what we’re going to get. Sappy romance between Padalecki and his real wife / fictional dead wife, Seventh Heaven family drama (x2 because we have kids and grandparents involved), and very little fighting or action.
Walker is also apparently a Texas Rangers fan. Which is funny, because – you know – Texas Rangers. Also weird because they’re no longer in Dallas/Ft. Worth, they’re in Austin, which is closer to Houston so he could have been an Astros fan too. But whatever.
Walker drinks less in this episode. He does a little bit more Ranger-work. He also has a comedic relief “adopted” brother named Hoyt Rawlins (played by Matt Barr, best known for the Hatfields & McCoys and other CW shows). Ranger Ramirez’s character is developed a bit more. Walker’s kids get into more trouble. And everything works out nicely in the end.
But… no roundhouses. A quick shootout. But, nope. Not a single kick. Sigh.
Looking back at the acclaimed war series now 20 years later…
Phenomenally put together and necessarily graphic, Band of Brothers is one of the highest rated TV shows of all time for a reason.
For those who don’t know, Band of Brothers is an HBO miniseries based on the book Band of Brothers by Stephen E. Ambrose, which itself is based on the real-life events of US soldiers in World War 2.
It’s coming up to its 20-year anniversary and it still holds up. Here are five reasons why Band of Brothers is still brilliant:
1) The Acting
The acting in the show is phenomenal. The main cast were so well cast, especially when you compare them to the real people they’re portraying from the opening conversations. It’s almost too good from some of the actors, to the point that you can almost tell who survives based on the opening conversations and the actors who portraying them. One particular one comes to mind, where I was thinking that actor couldn’t be playing anyone other than that guy.
All of the acting is excellent, even if it is difficult to take Ross from Friends seriously. Although, him being in it and constantly yelling, “EASY COMPANY” adds to the fun if anything. Damien Lewis (Dick Winters), Ron Livingston (Lewis Nixon) and Neal McDonough (Buck Compton) all give career-high performances.
As well as the main cast, we have the Easter Egg of spotting smaller background characters who were played by younger actorsat the time who just so happen to be some of the biggest actors working today, e.g. Tom Hardy, Michael Fassbender, James McAvoy, and Jimmy Fallon for some reason.
2) Props and Sets
Now that we’ve given the actors props it’s time to talk about the props themselves. And the sets.
The set design in Band of Brothers is so well done that I genuinely didn’t know whether it was filmed on location or all in the same place. It would have made no sense, economically, for them to go to each country just to shoot on a set, yet for some reason, I thought they did. That’s either a sign that the replica sets they used were incredibly detailed and authentic or that I’m a bit of an idiot. To be clear, it was a mix. Many of the episodes were shot in the UK, while the scenes in Germany and Austria were shot in Switzerland.
Despite shooting many of the episodes on sets in the UK, they manage to create a unique, specific feel for each location. The scenes set in France feel French and the scenes set in the Netherlands feel Dutch. It’s not just generic Europe for each set. It’s also not just a signpost and flag that differentiates the sets, it’s the attention to detail of the buildings, the walls, and everything in between. It really adds to the immersion.
As I said, the ending in Austria was shot in Switzerland, which you can sort of tell, because not even Disney’s new virtual set can make the UK look like that.
3) Unbiased Portrayal
What the Nazis and Japanese did in World War 2 was so atrocious that it’s not difficult to spot the good guys from the bad guys. Throughout other wars in history, it can be more difficult to do this. And the problem is: life is a little less black and white than that. It’s very easy for filmmakers to turn the Nazis into caricatures of evil (which, to be fair, many of them were) and some of the best movies ever made have done that e.g., Schindler’s List and Come and See.
And it’s one of those things that I wouldn’t argue with. However, it’s refreshing to see them not go down that road here. And at no stage do they suggest what the Nazis did wasn’t horrific, they don’t suggest that they were good by any means, but it makes the case that many of these soldiers were just that – soldiers. Some didn’t even know what it was they were fighting for. Many were simply fighting for each other, the same as Easy Company.
That’s why the comparison between Easy Company and the German soldiers near the end is such an important scene. It’s also worth appreciating that it doesn’t shy away from what the Allies did. It shows US soldiers executing prisoners of war. It shows the Dutch shaving the heads of the women who were with the Nazis. It doesn’t try to make them out as caricatures of good guys.
Too often war films will have a cheesy added part where the Allies soldier is about to execute a POW, but then another soldier puts his hand on their shoulder and says, “No, don’t do it. We are not them.” And then they salute each other, while the American National Anthem plays over the credits. And I appreciate that there isn’t too much of that nonsense.
4) The Action
The shaky camera in the middle of the action adds a documentary style that makes the action feel more real. It’s brutal, bloody, and uncertain. Again, it’s historically accurate. From the sounds of gunfire and bombs to the tactics, the combat scenes were made to seem as real-to-life as possible. They did this by flying over World War 2 veterans to advise on the tactics, the weaponry used, and the combat scenes.
Nobody lifts a dead soldier up with one hand and runs across an open battlefield with him Rambo style (Hacksaw Ridge). The American soldiers don’t all die in slow motion to piano music while their enemies are destroyed and blown away (Black Hawk Down). Maybe the bar is low for authentic war combat, but Band of Brothers does an excellent job capturing it.
And just think about the scale of the combat scenes for a TV series. With a budget of 125 million, they certainly didn’t hold back. And this was before the era of Game of Thrones, when TV shows started getting huge budgets. They used more pyrotechnics in the opening three episodes than they did in all of Saving Private Ryan. And sure, we’re comparing three hours of TV to two hours fifty of film, but keep in mind the first episode of Band of Brothers is not exactly explosive.
5) The Toll of War
Any decent war movie centres around a pretty obvious idea – war is bad. The idea is usually to show the toll it takes on the people involved, that is, the soldiers, the civilians, and just about anyone in the area. Some films do it by having a character look into the camera and say, “War is hell.” Others show it through the deterioration of the characters physical appearance, e.g. Come and See. There’s a nice mixture of this in Band of Brothers.
Episode 7, aptly titled The Breaking Point, Is probably the best example of it in the series. This is where we see the characters – with whom we’ve spent 6 hours with at this stage and have grown to care for – begin to really feel the effects of the war. The loss of friends, limbs, and hope becomes more widespread. It is perhaps best shown through Buck, who becomes a shell of himself by the end.
It adds to it having the real people speaking at the beginning of each episode, reminding us that these are real people and that the effects of what they went through live with them right until the end. It’s an honest showcase of friendship and brotherhood within the army, but it is far from a glorification.
This is where it benefits from being a mini-series, because it is much harder to create this relationship between the viewer and the characters in a single film. Not impossible, but a lot more difficult.
To summarise, as far as I’m concerned, Band of Brothers still lives up to the hype. Is it the best TV series ever made? That’s up for debate. But it’s certainly up there with the best of them.
Article by Seán Dalton | Author Bio: Seán is an Irishman with a love for movies of all genres and styles. He first fell in love with movies after seeing 2014’s Interstellar but grew to truly appreciate them when he first watched 1957’s 12 Angry Men. Despite attempts from Woody Allen movies to make him hate cinema, his enjoyment for movies lives on. In 2018 Seán co-wrote the book Clownbound: Take Me to the Circuits before co-writing The Absolutely USELESS Guide series in 2019. Now, for some reason or another, he’s here to give his opinion on all things movie related. Follow him on Letterboxd.
Following up its pilot EP, the Chuck Norris-less CW reboot fails to get “back into the saddle.”
What a dumb show. I’m not going to call Walker bad just yet, because I’m not really sure what it’s actually trying to accomplish. Nor am I sure if it’s getting good ratings or being well received by critics – but nothing about this show appears to be aimed towards classic Chuck Norris and Walker, Texas Rangers fans – and it’s all just so… dumb.
For those who have ventured to watch it, or the many others who probably didn’t (nay shouldn’t) watch it. Here’s everything that’s wrong with Episode 2 “Back in the Saddle”.
I’m not going to let this die! I don’t understand why this show is even called “Walker” and not just like… “Texas Detective” or “Drunk Dad Guy” or “Supernatural Cowboy”. As far as narrative points that this reboot shares with the original source material the only similarities is that there’s a main character named “Walker” and he’s a Texas Ranger.
Which, again, is fine. I’ve never watched Supernatural or currently any other program on the CW but I’m sure the shows are all fine and have a large audience and it’s all well and good. So why even bother making this a reboot / spinoff at all? So far two episodes in this is clearly a show not targeted at all for anyone who has ever watched a Chuck Norris movie or a single episode of Walker, Texas Ranger ever.
It’s also quite apparent that Chuck Norris is not going to be making a cameo anytime soon. Also it is very doubtful that any other actor, character or plot point from the original will pop up either. Instead, we have Jared Padalecki, his dad Bonham and a whole new, different and much younger family of characters who might have well wandered out of a Seventh Heaven remake for all I’d know.
My guess from episode two now is that Walker is really working hard to develop a redemption narrative for our young Cordell (of no relation to his namesake) Walker. I hope so because this dude sucks. As episode one suggested, ep 2 has slammed home the fact that Walker must be absolutely hammered in every scene. Which, apparently, is not only cool but also totally fine with every other character in the show including his family and fellow law enforcement officers.
But again, even while glossing over the more criminal implications, they’re most probably building up a major breakthrough from sad/drunk Walker to triumphant hero. Still, right now we have some great plot develops which include Walker skipping his daughter’s soccer game to slam some at the bar, and the reveal that Walker’s brother is gay – only for Walker to immediately try to fight him in the next scene.
It’s certainly a far fall from the noble heights of Chuck Norris’ portrayal. And honestly, I don’t think Chuck could play a deadbeat drunk dad even if he wanted to – he was just that kind of action star. I’m still not sure what Padalecki is if not just simply a tall guy who’s good at making faces (loooooots of close ups in this show).
Which brings us to the biggest point as to why this show is not looking to be good. The action is somehow both atrocious and non-existent at the same time. Unlike the pilot which generously had two action sequences mixed in, episode two only has one – and for the life of me I couldn’t figure out what the hell even happened or why.
In small moments between being a crappy parent and crying to himself over housewarming gifts, Walker very occasionally does some Ranger work. In this case, a ranch owner has (I guess?) burned down a neighbor’s ranch to steal a horse. But, instead of stealing the horse, he accidentally sets it free in downtown Austin where NOBODY seems to care at all and Walker has to coo it out of a park tunnel.
Walker’s Ranger gang then suddenly give chase to a fleeing evil rancher on an airstrip where Walker (in the matter of maybe two or three shots), shows up on said horse, jumps into a movie car and punches a guy. No explosions, one gunshot, and absolutely no roundhouses! Overall the scene is a mess and I’d really rather they wouldn’t even try it next time – just have a character explain what happened in the next scene and save everyone the awkwardness.
We’ll see if episode three gets anything better going, but my guess is that we’re going to spend a lot more time with a drunk Walker further messing things up with his family by being a dolt. Then, maybe we’ll get another half-assed fight thrown in – IF WE’RE LUCKY!
After the collapse of the Soviet Union, the Russian film industry gradually recovered, and in 2004 the modern Russian action movie was born with the release of Timur Bekmambetov’sNight Watch. Since then, several high quality genre productions have been created which also left their mark outside of Russia. We’ll probably have a look at more of them in the future, but in this article, we’ll take a dive into the crazy world of Night Watch and its successor Day Watch.
Night Watch and Day Watch are based on novels by Sergei Lukyanenko, and their premise is simple enough. The world is inhabited by beings with supernatural abilities (the Others), who live unbeknownst among humans.Two competing factions (the Light and the Dark) are co-existing bound by a fragile truce, and have instated agents that monitor each other’s activities. Anton is a clairvoyant on the side of the Light in the Night Watch. He discovers a prophecy about a powerful Other that is yet to be found, and whose allegiance to either side may shift the balance of power forever.
The overarching story may not sound that spectacular, and gives the impression of ripping off many epic Sci-Fi and Fantasy sagas that came before. But the movie is far from being a copycat cobbled together from genre cliches. Instead we’re treated with a complex and engaging plot, interesting characters, and a fascinating setting. There’s humor, tragedy, cruelty and kindness, sometimes all at the same time.
The first ten minutes of Night Watch give us a proper impression of the things to come. Anton consults a witch to put a love spell on his ex-girlfriend. The visit does not go as planned, the apartment gets attacked by some agents of the Light (one of them being able to shape shift into a tiger) to take down the witch and her creepy spider doll. From that point on, we’re drawn into the gritty setting of winterly modern-day Moscow where sorcerers, vampires and demons lurk around every corner.
The story is told through the eyes of many different characters, Dark and Light alike, as we’re following their struggles to deal with the circumstances they’re thrown in. And the alleged Russian fatalist attitude versus the hardships and tragedies of life is quite noticeable throughout the movie. The plot is captivating, the story is told with good timing, and almost all characters are all strangely likable. A great ensemble cast is led by Russian star actor Konstantin Khabenskiy in the role of Anton, and everyone gives a sincere and believable performance.
When Night Watch became a commercial success, Bekmambetov got the opportunity to make the sequel Day Watch in 2006. The end of the first movie provided plenty of plot threads to be picked up in a sequel. The truce between the Light and the Dark is on the verge of breaking, and with things going south hard for almost everyone, Anton sets out to find the legendary Chalk of Fate, a magical artifact that allows its bearer to rewrite the past. Night Watch laid the groundwork for the setting and its characters. This permitted Day Watch to increase the action density, and resulted in some spectacular escapades.
Bekmambetov’s direction is perfect, and he structures the movies in a way that despite all the seemingly chaotic things happening, they never get messy. I think it’s not exaggerated to say that he also created a unique visual style for the film. Many sequences look like a mix of a surreal dream and an acid-trip, even the action scenes. Shot from all sorts of wacky angles and edited masterfully, it’s obvious that an incredible amount of energy and creativity went into the production.And unlike with many Hollywood movies of the time, the CGI effects fit perfectly into the setting, and are just as gritty and crazy as everything else.
The action scenes are usually brief and intense, and there’s a lot of them. Supernatural beings going against each other in an urban environment results in plenty of mayhem, such as a car driving up a skyscraper, magically supercharged elevators going through rooftops, and the Dark’s leader Zavulon using train power cables as whips to demolish a row of parked vehicles. And the big finale of Day Watch is just all-out insanity.
Present-day genre cinema can still be great occasionally. One way to achieve this is when familiar tropes are shuffled together in a way that something completely new seems to emerge. Night Watch and Day Watch excel at this and create the ultimate action/horror/fantasy mix. Rarely we come across a movie these days that is visually striking, has tons of action, a captivating plot, and great characters. Night Watch and Day Watch have it all.
Not an action banger, but a surprisingly solid flick with some muay thai action thrown in!
Haymaker is the story of retired muay thai fighter Nick (Nick Sasso), who, while working as a bouncer at a nightclub, stops the assault of singer Nomi (Nomi Ruiz), and in the process, becomes her bodyguard of sorts. And as they travel around the world together, they begin to fall for each other. But Nick’s fighting spirit continues to haunt him, and he must decide what he truly wants from life.
Haymaker was a damn fine surprise of a movie. The work of debuting Actor/Writer/Producer/Director Stasso, I thoroughly enjoyed it from top to bottom.
Stasso as Nick is a well thought out character and he conveys all the right emotions authentically. Maybe too authentically at times. During the first half of the movie, as he’s being whisked around by Nomi, Nick is sort of blank on emotions, and I was beginning to think that Stasso was devoid of energy or charisma in the acting department. But as the movie went along, he kicked things up a notch, becoming more open and emotional, just as the character did. And I was like “Ohhhh, you were doing a thing.” I dug it.
Not to be outdone is Nomi Ruiz in the role of Nomi. A transwoman in the movie as well as real life, Nomi is a firecracker of an actress, hitting all the right emotional beats that pull at the heartstrings quite a bit. Very impressive stuff.
Also, I just wanted to put this out there, the scene where it’s revealed she’s trans is great. Great in that it’s mentioned, then dropped just as fast. They spend about less than 15 seconds on the subject before moving on. I think that’s great, and I wish the rest of the world was as progressive.
Old favorites D.B. Sweeney, Udo Kier, and Zoe Bell show up in small roles throughout the film, although Sweeney is actually more of a supporting role, while Bell and Kier can be counted as cameos. Especially Kier. But they all do great with the time and material they’re given to work with, and that’s perfectly fine.
The story is more of a drama than a through and through action film, so if you’re looking for wall to wall fights, you’re going to be disappointed. The fighting is well done though. Stasso is a fine action performer, and comes off rather well during the fight scenes. I just wish there was a little bit more of him throwing down.
But you want to know something? I wasn’t disappointed. I was thoroughly captivated by the drama of these two people, at the crossroads of their lives, finding each other and giving each other the strength to become who they truly want. Just a simple love story with good characters and a little bit of butt kicking added for good measure. And that’s perfectly fine with me.
Well, after initial reports surfaced which might have seemed to have come from the pages of the Texas Travesty (the University of Texas’ satirical student paper) about a Walker, Texas Ranger reboot starring a CW starlet and set in modern day Austin, Texas, the day of reckoning is finally here.
And, while we’ll have to wait to see how many of our “19 Likely Plot Points for the Walker, Texas Ranger Reboot” indeed do make it into the show (you could argue that several already have), it’s now time for us to report our first thoughts on this first pilot episode of the new reimagining of Walker.
Let’s start with Mr. Cordell Walker himself. Not Chuck Norris mind you, but now a 6’4” Jared Padalecki who appears to be in his mid-to-late 30s, has two teenage children, two spry and doting parents, a kid brother and a murdered wife. Also, Walker apparently has a killer drinking problem. My how the Walker name has fallen.
Honestly though, Padalecki isn’t necessarily a bad actor. And as much as I didn’t want to like him to begin with just because he’s taking on the Walker name so seemingly haphazardly, he’s just fine. However, the character so far appears to be a mess.
The setup is quick, but in an opening scene he’s asked by his wife to bother spending time with his parents and kids while she goes out on a (dangerous I guess) errand. She leaves, Walker gets a call as she gets murdered, then apparently young Walker walks out the door and goes on a 3-to-11 month bender / secret mission?
Regardless, Walker returns after nearly a year and is trying to pick up the broken pieces of his loving family – who, despite him being gone, are quite nicely arranged to take care of him. It’s hard to say what this Walker is all about as he seems to struggle with taking both his family and career seriously.
Still, as it should, the ghost of Chuck Norris’ portrayal of the original Cordell Walker remains strong. There’s a scene early on where the young Cordell gets some sagely advice from his father “Bonham” Walker (played by Mitch Pileggi) that just seems like it would have been perfect for Chuck Norris to play. You know, passing the torch, being there each episode to provide some wisdom from their Native American heritage, but nope. Just Bonham appearing as another minor (and notably much shorter) character in Walker’s listless life.
There’s also not really much action in this pilot episode to speak of. I know this is a CW program and not a “big budget” production backed by CBS, but this version falls well short of its predecessor so far. There’s exactly two “action” sequences. One in which young Walker punches a bad guy (who reaaaaaally goes out of his way to insult the man for no reason), and an ending action sequence where Walker chases some dudes about 20 feet before knocking over some boxes to stop them.
I get it that this is going to be a show more about character drama and the target audience might be more inline with the CW’s pre-teen crowd. BUT, at least have Walker do ONE roundhouse! Dude is 6 foot 4, if he could land one you could easily make it seem like he’s kickin’ guys across the room with that height and power. Sigh, I just don’t get what they’re really trying to do here!
The original Walker, Texas Ranger ostensibly takes place in Dallas, Texas, but in reality is shot across the Dallas-Ft. Worth metroplex to make it appear as if Dallas is both a much smaller, classic Texas town, while also a big enough metropolis for major drug deals to routinely come through.
The reboot Walker makes the bold decision to move from DFW to Austin, where Padalecki and his wife and family reside in real life. Also, as a resident of Austin (and having grown up in Dallas) I can attest, it’s a much more different and modern town than where Walker, Texas Ranger took place.
So far, the show has attempted to quickly gloss over the setting with anything more than a few shots of South Congress mixed in with some remote locations which appear to be a few minutes out of town. However, they’re going to have to embrace the environment sooner or later. I’m still expecting a SXSW episode or now a cross-over cameo with a high-stakes poker game between Walker, Elon Musk and Joe Rogan – but we’ll see.
Overall, I’m going to hold off on giving any hard reviews for this show yet. Pilot episodes are hard to do. (Unless you’re Chuck Norris and Walker, Texas Ranger of course as they produced an absolute banger of a 2-hour movie premiere!) But – as what is basically a Supernatural spinoff show on “The CW” which already has a tall task of reviving a franchise for a much younger generation who’s probably never seen the original – it’s understandably a rocky transition.
However, the crux of the show also appears to be about Walker and his family and kids. We’ll get some solid Ranger work thrown in, plus I like his partnership with his new partner Micki Ramirez (Lindsey Morgan). However, the show is going to have to work fast to streamline all these characters and subplots up against a shakingly developed title character who might have a famous name – but so far has done nothing but get drunk, be a needy family member and look good in a cowboy hat.
The best action adventure flicks for kiddos aged 8 or below!
All of us action movie fans were kids once, and probably many of us have children. So we decided it was about time to have a look at kid-friendly action movies (PG rated only). In this article, we’ll present you the best movies for the youngest action fans aged 6-8, and we’ll put together another article for older children ages 9-11 soon.
While there are many family-friendly action-packed movies like Star Wars and Back to the Future, we’ll only discuss films that manage to convey the style of the great action classics. Creating a kick-ass action flick for small children requires some balance between spectacle and not being scary and too intense, and all movies our list manage to achieve this feat. Even if some entries will make your eyes roll as an adult, they should all be entertaining enough for parents so that you can watch them together with your kids.
An additional qualifier for the movies on this list is that almost all of them have been approved as awesome by my seven-year old daughter. So let’s get started and let us know what your favorite kids action movies are!
Revenge of the Ninja meets Home Alone in this martial arts comedy about three brothers who are trained by their grandfather to become ninjas. Weapons dealer Hugo sees the kids as perfect targets for abduction to force their father, FBI agent Sam, to stop his investigation into Hugo’s criminal activities.3 Ninjas is not a spectacular movie, but a pretty good mix between action, comedy and some minor drama elements. The fight scenes are fun to watch, they’re well-choreographed, and the kids show some pretty good moves. The humor, on the other hand, is so flat I believe only kids will enjoy it, unless this was your favorite movie when you were a child. The antagonist who is smuggling missiles is a bit odd for a children’s movie, but I guess it’s never too early to introduce them to the harsh reality of a choleric villain (“They’re just kids! I want them found, or I’ll tear out your liver!”) with a ponytail and a white suit, who also has an army of ninjas at his disposal. Despite its silliness, 3 Ninjas is a fun and action-packed film that I believe the youngest martial arts fans will enjoy a lot.
The remake of the 1984 classic did not receive a very warm welcome by action movie fans, but this was mostly due to false expectations. While no attempt would have been able to surpass the genius of the first movie, the new Karate Kid is aimed at a younger audience. 12-year old Dre moves with his mother to China. He meets Caretaker Mr. Han (played by Jackie Chan) who teaches him Kung Fu and prepares him for his confrontation with rowdily martial arts student Chang at an upcoming tournament. All in all, the new Karate Kid is a well-done downgrade of the original for children. This includes the martial arts action which looks good but is less intense than that of its predecessor. In line with that, Jayden Smith gives a decent, if slightly reserved performance as main protagonist compared to Daniel’s cocky and rebellious behavior in the original. The Karate Kid is not a masterpiece, but perfectly fine entertainment for children.
The Power Rangers TV series became a successful franchise in the early 1990s with its goofy characters and recycled action sequences from Japanese superhero TV series. The first feature movie did not contain any stock footage, had a reasonable budget to made it look a lot better than the TV series, and is a lot more fun to watch than the lackluster 2010 re-boot. Just like in the TV show, the Power Rangers are battling yet another incarnation of evil, this time the purple sorcerer Ivan Ooze, his ooze monsters, and cans of ooze that turn all adults of the city of Angel Grove’s into apathetic slaves. Mighty Morphin Power Rangers is all about non-stop action, as our crew of heroes is busy beating up bad guys all the time. It’s all staged quite harmlessly and comical, though, with even the colorfully costumed bad guys just having a good time while being evil. The super-flimsy CGI effects during the showdown round off this action-packed pleasure for the young and guilty pleasure for the old.
The icon of the glorious SEGA days of past finally got its moment in the movie spotlight. Sonic is forced to flee from some monsters on his home planet through an interdimensional portal, and lands on Earth where he becomes friends with local town sheriff Tom. His arrival is noticed by the evil genius Doctor Robotnik, who is interested in using Sonic’s superpowers to boost his army of robots. A video game adaptation that is treated with care by Hollywood is a rare thing, and Sonic The Hedgehog is a full success. There’s tons of action as Sonic and his new friends are trying to escape from Robotnik and his minions. We get a ridiculously crazy car chase, one of the funniest bar fights I’ve seen in a while, and a nice demolition sequence of Sheriff Tom’s living room. The CGI-created Sonic looks pretty good, and he really is the good-hearted rascal you remember from the video game. Jim Carrey’s portrayal of Dr. Robotnik is another boon for the movie. He gets to crack the best jokes, and just owns every scene he’s in. And no Top 10 list would be complete without a movie that contains a good fart joke, and we just found our winner!
Inspector Gadget is based on the 1980 animated TV series of the same name and may be the most action-packed movie in this list. Security guard John gets severely injured in a car crash and is turned into a police cyborg with an endless repertoire of powerful gimmicks. His creator Brenda goes on to work for the evil Dr. Claw who wants to create a cyborg army for himself. John’s approach to stop Dr. Claw is not very subtle, which results in fights, explosions, car chases, more fights, and more explosions. Despite all the mayhem, the movie manages to always stay light-hearted and harmless fun. Most jokes are simple, old-school slapstick, and usually involve some malfunction of Gadget’s suit. Matthew Broderick is great as well-meaning and clueless Inspector Gadget, while Rupert Everett found his calling as cultivated psychopath with a terrifying robot hand. Pleasantly short with a little more than 70 minutes, Inspector Gadget is a pretty crazy and charming film that should make your kids jump up and down on the couch with excitement. Go go Gadget!
Vin Diesel stepped in Arnold Schwarzenegger footsteps, not as Kindergarten Cop, but as a Nanny. Schwarzenegger’s take on putting an action hero amidst a bunch of pre-school kids was probably more charming, but The Pacifier is a lot more suited for a younger audience. Diesel’s character Shane is involved in a failed mission to rescue scientist Dr. Plummer, who gets killed instead. After that, Shane is tasked to protect the Plummer family’s children, and to find information about Plummer’s secret research project before the enemy faction gets to it. The Pacifier is your chance to see Vin Diesel change diapers and beat up North Korean ninjas in one and the same movie. And much of the humor is indeed derived from Diesel’s image as a tough action hero who enters virgin territory as he needs to navigate through the minefield of raising children. It’s also one of the few movies where he expands on his repertoire of facial expressions, and adds “desperate” and “confused”to “cool” and “angry”, as he tries to bring order into the chaotic household with five kids and a duck while fending off sinister forces. The Pacifier puts its emphasis on humor rather than all-out action, but still features a couple of pretty good fight scenes, a light car chase, and a showdown worthy of a James Bond movie. All in all, a nice package that makes for perfect family entertainment.
Surf Ninjas has a vibe that could be completely irritating for adults because of its daft humor, and completely perfect for kids because of the same daft humor. What will both age groups will enjoy is the action, of course, and Surf Ninjas fully delivers on that front. The film tells the story of brothers Johnny and Adam, and their friend Iggy, who one day are suddenly attacked by Ninjas in their home. They’re saved by the martial arts master Zatch who reveals to them that Johnny is the righteous heir to the throne of the kingdom of Patusan. An adventurous journey begins to free the country from the grip of evil cyborg Ninjutsu master Chi. Surf Ninjas is a colorful and chaotic affair, nothing makes sense, and the movie is mostly alternating between Rob Schneider’s character Iggy cracking one terrible joke after another, and Johnny beating up enemy ninjas. The main reason why Surf Ninjas is still a great movie are the creative and awesome choreographed action scenes. There’s a couple of small skirmishes that among other things involve a skateboard creatively used as a weapon, pulling enemies noses with chopsticks, and an awesome massive martial arts battle during the surf ninjas’ attack on Chi’s stronghold. Surf Ninjas is a slightly demented feel-good romp from beginning to end.
With Spy Kids, Robert Rodriguez created a movie like maybe no other that molded the spectacle and excitement of classic action movies into a kid-friendly template. And it seems he thought well about how to make a crazy and fun flick for kids that avoids dumb jokes and hysterical characters. Spy Kids follows the adventures of siblings Carmen and Juni, whose parents are master spies. When they don’t return from an assignment, their children set out to rescue them. Their quest puts them on the radar of kid TV show host Fegan Floop, who has big plans for world domination, with an army of Ninja Thumb robots and “Fooglie” mutants at his disposal. Just as with almost all of Rodriguez’ movies, Spy Kids is a vibrant and creative affair, with spectacular set design and cinematography especially for a children’s movie. The humor is great, all the actors seem to be enjoying themselves, and the action is as good as it can get for a PG rated movie. There’s a seemingly endless supply of chases and fights with submarines, jetpacks and planes, and tons of other gadgets and contraptions to spice things up. With Spy Kids, Robert Rodriguez gave us the best spy movie ever made for children.
Get ready for one of the most exciting adventure films for the whole family! An exciting journey with charming humor, great characters, and some of the funniest martial arts scenes you’ll see in your life. The movie is based on the classic Jules Verne novel about inventor Phileas Fog who accepts a bet with the British Academy of Science to traverse the world in 80 days using modern 19th century technology. On their way, Fog and his companions are not only racing against the clock, but also face a clan of martial arts warriors and corrupt British police officers. The film captures the adventurous and open-minded vibe of the book perfectly, and updates it with a good dose of humor and a large dose of Jackie Chan. The whole cast gives a joyful performance, but undoubtedly Jackie Chan as Fog’s aide frequently steals the show from everyone with his comedic talent and martial arts sequences that are a riot to watch. There are many cameos by well-known actors, but especially for action fans Arnold Schwarzenegger appearance as eccentric Turkish prince needs to be mentioned, and his look in the movie can never be unseen. Around the World in 80 Days is a masterpiece of kid-friendly action, and has every right to become a classic, so spread the word!
COWABUNGA! The first movie based on the massively popular comic and animated series is still one of the best action films for kids ever made. The adventures of Leonardo, Raphael, Michelangelo and Donatello in their fight against evil ninja master Shredder and his Foot Clan are a wild ride full of action, humor and heart. Living in a spacious underground apartment, skating through sewer channels, eating pizza every day, and beating up bad guys at night, who wouldn’t want to live like this? The Turtles are a charming bunch of kids with superpowers and an attitude that quarrel all the time, but ultimately care for each other. The movie has aged remarkably well, the turtles costumes still look pretty awesome today, and the fights between our green, three-fingered heroes and the Foot Clan ninjas are quite spectacular with a lot of physical jokes. Add to that plenty of tongue-in-cheek humor that even adults can appreciate, and we get ourselves our No. 1 movie for the youngest action fans! The first film spawned several sequels and reboots, with the direct follow-up The Secret of the Ooze almost being as good as the first one.
After the release of Tomorrow Never Dies in December 1997, Pierce Brosnan frequently observed that the film was overloaded with action sequences and he hoped for something more subdued for his third adventure as James Bond. This sentiment was also shared by producers Michael G Wilson and Barbara Broccoli, who decided to take their first step in what would be their imprint in their Bond saga after the death of legendary producer Albert R Broccoli in 1996: an emotionally complex and romantic Bond film where nothing was so obvious that we immediately knew who the good and the baddies were and what they were up to.
On August 13, 1998, the director for the upcoming Bond film was chosen: Michael Apted, known mostly for dramas or psychological thrillers like Blink (1993), Gorillas in The Mist (1988) and Agatha (1979), all a world apart of the style of the first eighteen James Bond movies. It wasn’t the first time a drama director joined the Bond team: Lewis Gilbert, known for Alfie (1966), was hired to direct You Only Live Twice (1967) and would return for The Spy Who Loved Me (1977) and Moonraker (1979), but all of these adventures were famous for being big action extravaganzas where the emotional side of Bond and Gilbert’s drama experience were pretty much cast aside. The same wouldn’t happen with Apted: his drama background was purposely chosen for this upcoming Bond movie, with a story (the first by regulars Neal Purvis & Robert Wade) that would show us a more fallible action hero that the one we knew before. By November of the same year, Pierce Brosnan revealed on an interview that the film’s title was The World Is Not Enough, which was none other than the Bond family motto as featured in Ian Fleming’s 1963 novel On Her Majesty’s Secret Service, the novel and the film adaptation from 1969.
The World Is Not Enough took much more from On Her Majesty’s Secret Service than its title: both stories place James Bond in a situation where he has to directly or indirectly protect the defiant and adventurous daughter of a wealthy and powerful man to reach the antagonist, and in both occasions, the secret agent has soft feelings for the woman in question: one becomes the short-lived Mrs Bond, the other turns out to be the mastermind behind it all and it’s Bond himself who kills her in cold blood right after she gives her accomplice the order to dive the submarine which will be used to provoke a nuclear meltdown below the Bosphorus in Istanbul.
While Martin Campbell and Roger Spottiswoode donned GoldenEye and Tomorrow Never Dies with an accelerated, somewhat urgent and bombastic pace, Michael Apted opted for a much slower pace. The nineteenth Bond isn’t devoid of explosions, chases, stunts and shootouts –some very imaginative as the moment where the secret agent is stalked by helicopters attached with big buzz-saws that cut the walkways of a caviar factory over the Caspian Sea like butter– but the viewer will feel that the moments preceding every action piece will develop in a sweet, romantic manner: the romance between Bond and Elektra adorned with a calm and mellow post-sex scene where he inquires about her kidnapping, the conversation between M and Bond where she admits that convinced Elektra’s father Sir Robert King not to pay the ransom so that she can get to Renard, the terrorist that kidnapped her; and a brief moment where 007 investigates video archives of the woman’s ordeal, freeze-framing the recording just as she sheds a tear after escaping and being rescued by the police. There is also a tender moment with the “good girl” Christmas Jones (Denise Richards) minutes before the end credits roll as both celebrate Christmas day in Istanbul, clinking glasses as fireworks can be seen in the background – quite fitting for the last James Bond film of the millennium in a season where the world was excited for the arrival of the year 2000.
Apted’s choice wasn’t an exception made by Barbara Broccoli: not counting Martin Campbell’s return in Casino Royale (2006), every other Pierce Brosnan and Daniel Craig movie was characterized by the choice of drama directors like Lee Tamahori, Marc Forster, Sam Mendes and Cary Joji Fukunaga, which has helmed the yet-unreleased No Time To Die. Without doubt, a director like Michael Apted and a film like The World Is Not Enough is much closer to Barbara Broccoli’s idea of a Bond film than GoldenEye and Tomorrow Never Dies, which were much more in line with Cubby Broccoli’s action-oriented style of Bond flick.
The World Is Not Enough features the first female villain in the series, something the audience discovers on par with James Bond as the story progresses: Apted observed on the DVD audio commentary that people would get impatient with the hero if they’d see him flail around in his ignorance long before he discovered who the real enemy was. The director took Elektra’s development seriously, taking advantage of his experience of directing female-lead productions and with the unaccredited collaboration of his then-wife screenwriter Dana Stevens, who added more dimensions to this important character. Sophie Marceau’s character appears before our eyes as a victim whose father dies on an attack inside the MI6 headquarters and both Bond and particularly M (Judi Dench) see her as a victim in need of protection. In reality, Elektra turned her once kidnapper, Renard, into her psychological slave by using her sexuality appealing to the man’s biggest weakness. He uses the terrorist to provoke an attack that would increase King Industries’ oil supply by eradicating the competence and the patriarchal figure of her deceased father, whom she took a disliking for when the man refused to pay the ransom money for her.
Simultaneously, the man we are meant to believe is the main villain, this terrorist Renard, is also shown as a victim of sorts: he’s slowly dying as a consequence of a bullet fired on his head by agent 009 following M’s orders, and he is now willing to kill or die for the only woman that has apparently loved him. The character development is so important in this movie that we not only have a romantic post-coital moment between Bond and Elektra but a de-romanticized post-sex moment between Elektra and Renard, where the woman doesn’t feel sexually pleased by her accomplice as he asks her if Bond was a good lover. Her answer: “What do you think? I wouldn’t feel anything?”
The World Is Not Enough presents us with a smart woman who plays with the emotions of people around her, a villain who is terminal and his biggest cause is the love he feels for that woman, and M making the story move along. Whatever Bond does here is more of a favour to M than an officially-sanctioned mission, from recovering Sir Robert’s money from a murky Swiss banker’s office in Bilbao to protecting Elektra King to reach Renard. During the third act, rescuing M becomes the mission when Elektra and Renard kidnap her before launching their attack to Istanbul, too. The relevance of Elektra and M in the story was so huge at one point that GoldenEye and Tomorrow Never Dies screenwriter Bruce Feirstein had to be brought again to give James Bond more relevance in a story where he seemed to be overshadowed by these female personalities.
Not surprisingly, most of the aforementioned dynamics were resurfaced in 2012’s Skyfall, Daniel Craig’s third James Bond film directed by Sam Mendes and the most lucrative EON production to date: it is M’s past the one that sets the main conflict and she becomes the important woman influencing 007 throughout the story, as MI6 is also under attack and he has to protect her from a villain whom she considered death or missing, someone who has also endured big suffering on his own.
Michael Apted’s recent death strongly affects those who grew up with the Pierce Brosnan movies, since he is the first director of this era to depart and in such a sudden manner. Many critics expressed concern on dwelling on the emotional side of James Bond back in 1999, however in this time and age, many seemed to celebrate every attempt to approach Bond’s human side under the scope of men like Sam Mendes or Marc Forster. While most people seem to regard these recent Bond movies as the real beginning of what we could call “Barbara Broccoli’s stamp on Bond”, the truth is that this drama-oriented change showed its roots two decades ago in The World Is Not Enough, the cradle of most of the topics we saw onwards in the series.And the late Michael Apted was indeed the man chosen to lead the way.
