I saw this thread at another message board, and I thought I bring it over to this one, to see if the responses are the same at both boards.
Basically, does anyone hve any action sequences that they feel are over-rated? Action sequences that you presently feel are not so great. Not so great, as you thought they once were.
I'll hold my comments, if any, to the end.
Hmmmmmm. That's a tough one.
I love The Road Warrior however I think the entire insane car chase seen as the films climaxe is just a TAD overrated. I think it is very exciting and well executed but I thought I'd mention it.
daveblackeye15 Wrote:
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> Hmmmmmm. That's a tough one.
>
> I love The Road Warrior however I think the entire
> insane car chase seen as the films climaxe is just
> a TAD overrated. I think it is very exciting and
> well executed but I thought I'd mention it.
BLASPHEMY! You shall burn for this noone goes against the ROAD WARRIOR and lives to tell :)
rich andrini Wrote:
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> daveblackeye15 Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > Hmmmmmm. That's a tough one.
> >
> > I love The Road Warrior however I think the
> entire
> > insane car chase seen as the films climaxe is
> just
> > a TAD overrated. I think it is very exciting
> and
> > well executed but I thought I'd mention it.
>
>
> BLASPHEMY! You shall burn for this noone goes
> against the ROAD WARRIOR and lives to tell :)
Tell him Rich!!!!!!!! Burn the little bastard! How dare you talk sh*t about anything in Road Warrior...be gone heathen!
odinn7 Wrote:
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> rich andrini Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > daveblackeye15 Wrote:
> >
> --------------------------------------------------
>
> > -----
> > > Hmmmmmm. That's a tough one.
> > >
> > > I love The Road Warrior however I think the
> > entire
> > > insane car chase seen as the films climaxe is
> > just
> > > a TAD overrated. I think it is very exciting
> > and
> > > well executed but I thought I'd mention it.
> >
> >
> > BLASPHEMY! You shall burn for this noone goes
> > against the ROAD WARRIOR and lives to tell :)
>
>
> Tell him Rich!!!!!!!! Burn the little bastard! How
> dare you talk sh*t about anything in Road
> Warrior...be gone heathen!
Uh... I'm gonna have to go with daveblackeye15 on this one.
That final battle was just a teensie weensie bit too long.
The Road Warrior also grossely misrepresents necrophiles & bisexual punk rockers.
And to have another car faster than the Black Interceptor... How blasphemous is that?
And what Max does to that car - Too sad - I can't go on!
Well, I guess I'd better go get my helmet.
lilcerberus: That final battle was just a teensie weensie bit too long.
BLASPHEMY! The finale was NOT too long! It's not it's fault people overrave about it a teensie bit too much. It's still excellent and one of the most exciting things I've ever seen but still...
daveblackeye15 Wrote:
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> lilcerberus: That final battle was just a teensie
> weensie bit too long.
>
> BLASPHEMY! The finale was NOT too long! It's not
> it's fault people overrave about it a teensie bit
> too much. It's still excellent and one of the most
> exciting things I've ever seen but still...
What's going on here?
Is everybody saying that it's okay for another car to be faster than the Black Interceptor? Particularly, a beach buggy covered in corugated tin?
Are you saying that there's nothing wrong with Max wanting trash the front end of the Black Interceptor?
That the Black Interceptor getting the front end trashed, the windsheild smashed, run off the road & blown up is morally apropriate?
WHAT ARE YOU PEOPLE, A BUNCH OF ANTI- INTERCPTORISTS?
Speaking of the Interceptor, what kind of turbo did that thing have? Seemed like it had ram air mounted on the front and some kind of spare engine in the back. What was that thing made out of? As for overrated action scenes: The Lobby in The Matrix. Honestly watching columns break apart in slow motion is kind of dumb. I preferred the quick Morpheus vs Agent Smith scene myself. Not really an action scene but everyone is always saying how cool it was when that little guy pulled out two tommy guns. No it wasn't.
2xSlick Wrote:
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> Speaking of the Interceptor, what kind of turbo
> did that thing have? Seemed like it had ram air
> mounted on the front and some kind of spare engine
> in the back. What was that thing made out of?
Super Charger...it is up for debate as to whether or not it was a real one. Supposedly it was a non-functioning piece just added to make the car look better. I had read years ago in Car Craft magazine the the super charger was made in Perth Amboy NJ for the movie by some specialty shop. I don't know either way but it was tres cool.
Slick,
The lobby scene is the first thing that came to my mind as well. I love The Matrix but something always felt off about that scene. Probably the lack of blood. I don't care if you are actually in a computer program, being as the program would have been real-life of sorts, then there would have been blood. Took me out of the movie.
If anyone here is a big fan of the Half-Life gaming franchise, then check out http://www.specialistsmod.net/. It's a great HL mod that has a fantastic recreation of the lobby/building fight from the original Matrix that's a hell of a lot more fun than watching the film.
Every action scene in The Matrix.
The blower on Max's car was fake. It was just an electric motor turning a dummy pulley.
For the Humungus's truck/tractor thing to run down Max's car ... it must have had an ungodly amount of power. I love the big "WTF?" look on Max's face when it catches him.
akiratubo Wrote:
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> The blower on Max's car was fake. It was just an
> electric motor turning a dummy pulley.
>
> For the Humungus's truck/tractor thing to run down
> Max's car ... it must have had an ungodly amount
> of power. I love the big "WTF?" look on Max's
> face when it catches him.
That is the story but there was an article in Car Craft magazine about 20 years ago that was about that car. They claimed the super charger and engine were made by a comapny in Perth Amboy NJ. They had the name and address but I can't recall it now. In theory, a blower could be made to work like that with magnetic clutches although it probably wouldn't run all that well when the impellers are disengaged. I lean towards that it wasn't real based on the fact that there wasn't much money involved in either film that had that car and I would also need to wonder why it would really be needed just for a film. Perhaps CC was mislead and never did proper research before doing the article.
The Humngus truck had NOS (the bottle that Wes was turning the knob on) but I do think they somewhat exaggerated how much extra power it would give that hunk of s**t compared to the Falcon with a blower and all.
Now that I think about it, that whole scene kind of bothers me...it is obviosuly speeded up and I can't stand when that is done in a film. Also, I think back to the opening chase scene where Max has Wes on one side and a car on the other and hits the brakes and they fly past him. I fail to see why he wouldn't have done this same thing when the Humungus vehicle came up on him like that. You are made to understand that since Max is the Road Warrior, he is apparently good at what he does and you see that from the previous chase scenes in the film...yet this hunk of s**t car with Wes on it easily beats him in a situation that even I could probably have gotten out of.
I think car chases in both "The French Connection" and "To live and Die in L.A." are overrated. In the first case, although I welcome the adrenaline rush, I even think it could be cut and the film would be more coherent. It's a scene so different in tone ewth the rest of the movie that's almost distracting.
The one in "To live..." is better, not only that it is placed in the right place, just when pace is starting to flag, and that it confronts the viewer with the ultimate evidence that William Petersen's character is nuts.
Fight scenes in anime. Almost all of them. Not that some aren't good, but yeah...
Also, all the scenes in Final Fantasy: Advent Children. Just not very good. Flashy but no substance.
Anything in either of the Fast and Furious movies. No matter how bad you say they are, they are STILL over-rated.
Thank-you for all the responses.
Some of the films with over-rated action sequences, some I agree with, some I don't, brought up at the other board, include . . .
The French Connection
The Lord of the Rings: the Two Towers
The Matrix
Raiders of the Lost Ark
Star Wars: a New Hope
As I said before, thank-you for all the responses.
Boy Scout Kevin: Raiders of the Lost Ark
Star Wars: a New Hope
blasphemy!
&
Double blasphemy!
On an interesting side note to the 'Matrix Trilogy' and it's over-used action scenes, I was watching Reloaded the other day with one of the commentary tracks on. Commentary track one has a couple of philosophers [or that type at least] who are outlining how 'good' the film is in terms of a philosophical message etc. The other track is from a couple of film studies types who basically outline the bad and the good moments [with a focus on the bad].
I listened to the latter, and it was pretty interesting. They pretty much shredded the big freeway chase scene for instance, since they said it has no point: we know that they are all going to get away and intact so why bother wasting all that money on something that has no narrative purpose?
So all in all if you want a lesson in pointless action scenes watch the matrix trilogy with that commentary track, it's quite interesting.
"They pretty much shredded the big freeway chase scene for instance, since they said it has no point: we know that they are all going to get away and intact so why bother wasting all that money on something that has no narrative purpose?"
It was entertaining. As far as I'm concerned, it's perfectly OK for movies to be driven by action sequences rather than plot - it is just that in most cases in Hollywood films, the action sequences aren't good enough to carry the film. Reloaded has some decent action, but it wasn't enough IMO.
There's nothing wrong with a good action sequence, and I also really enjoyed the freeway chase scene up to a point [it dragged on too long for my liking] and the love the Matrix movies in general [why else would I have them on DVD?]
But I do see the point being made by those commentators that if you're going to drive your movie via action, which is great since I love action films, at least make that action have some sort of point. The freeway chase scene could have done with a trim perhaps, but as it stands is a fun scene. It just doesn't do anything for the rest of the film really.
odinn7 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> 2xSlick Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > Speaking of the Interceptor, what kind of turbo
> > did that thing have? Seemed like it had ram air
> > mounted on the front and some kind of spare
> engine
> > in the back. What was that thing made out of?
>
>
> Super Charger...it is up for debate as to whether
> or not it was a real one. Supposedly it was a
> non-functioning piece just added to make the car
> look better. I had read years ago in Car Craft
> magazine the the super charger was made in Perth
> Amboy NJ for the movie by some specialty shop. I
> don't know either way but it was tres cool.
A pretty thorough history of the black interceptor, as well as tips on how to build one of your own can be found at http://madmaxmovies.com