J.J. Abrams (for those of you living under a rock the director of Star Wars Episode VII) just gave us a sneak peak at the new X-Wing (as part of a UNICEF fundraiser promo spot). Gotta leave the continued move away from CGI and the beat up look of an actual X-Wing mock up (plus a few other perks in the spot):
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Category: Action / Adventure (page 3 of 3)
For you fantasy fans you probably know the movie “Hercules” is being released next week (July 25th). Dwayne Johnson is playing the titular character, and I for one am quite pleased.
No offense to Kevin Sorbo (who stood a respectable six feet three inches but weighed a somewhat lean 235 pounds)….
….but Dwayne Johnson’s six foot five inch 260 pound frame is the most imposing to play Hercules in quite some time.
In spite of Johnson’s freakish size the great Lou Ferrigno (at an equally imposing six foot five inch height but a weight of anywhere between 275 and 325 pounds during his competitive bodybuilding career and a weight of around 275 plus pounds when he played Hercules in the 1983 film) is still the biggest baddest dude to ever play the Greek hero.
Now, as fit as Johnson is at this time compare him to Ferrigno (perhaps the biggest bodybuilder ever and quite likely a man who would have won multiple Mr. Olympia’s had not Hollywood beckoned in 1976).
You can also compare Johnson to Schwarzenegger….
….(who might have been the greatest bodybuilder ever and packed 240 pounds of pure muscle on his six foot two inch frame) when Arnold played Hercules in 1969.
For that matter 1950’s bodybuilder Steve Reeves was no slouch either (at 215 pounds on a six foot one inch frame) when he played Hercules….
….but as the smallest of the most famous Hercules stars we have to give the edge to Johnson here over Reeves.
In addition, we can’t forget Reg Park (at six foot one inch and 220 to 250 pounds) who would also give Johnson a run for his money….
So as you look over the accompanying images you decide: does Johnson meet the standard created by Reeves, Park, Schwarzenegger and Ferrigno?
Star Wars fans got some good news just prior to the July 4th holiday. Apparently J.J. Abrams invited Kevin Smith (director of Clerks, Chasing Amy, etc… and a notorious Star Wars fan) to the U.K. Pinewood Studios Star Wars set. There Smith was allowed to see what was going on, and since his June 30th visit to the set he has provided further evidence that J.J. Abrams is on the right track with the latest episode in the Star Wars universe.
For instance, Smith hasn’t held back and enthusiastically described walking the set as a “f–king magical” experience. Smith went on to single out not just our old favorite’s wandering around the set but, and just as importantly, the overwhelming lack of CGI usage evident on set:
“What I saw, I absolutely loved. It was tactile — it was real. It wasn’t a series of f–king green screens and blue screens in which later a bunch of digital characters would be added. IT was there, it was happening…. I saw uniforms, I saw artillery I haven’t seen since I was a kid. I saw them shooting an actual sequence in a set that was real. I walked across the set, there were explosions. And it looked like a shot right out of a ‘Star Wars’ movie.”
Sounds very good to me. Keep it up J.J. I have high hopes you will produce something light years better than the wreckage of Episodes I and II (which were dreadful and only marginally redeemed by a slightly better Episode III). In the meantime, here are some oldie but goodie candid shots tweeted out earlier this year from the one and only Peter Mayhew, whom I met at Comic Con a few years back. By the way, other than the first pic (including Carrie Fisher’s stunt double) you should know everyone in these pics (okay I will give you Stuart Freeborn in the Yoda pic) otherwise if you don’t then you should ask yourself; Star Wars fan are you?
T.R. Witcher has a thoughtful new piece up on The Atlantic offering a number of key metrics for a good movie showdown. In particular he keys in upon elements he defines as “Anticipation, The Weight of the Moment, Vulnerability, Tangibility, and The Iconic”. Witcher singles out as especially notable in conveying these elements several great showdowns. These include the light saber fight between Luke and Vader in Empire Strikes Back:
And the first fight between Bane and Batman in the Dark Knight Rises:
In both of the above instances he is most certainly correct. To that end he also offers up several other salient examples, and even contrasts where one fight did well in a particular franchise (for instance Neo’s climactic battle with Agent Smith during the Matrix) against others that missed the mark (Neo’s overdrawn fight against Agent Smith in Matrix Revolutions). Witcher ranges back into the 1960’s and work done by Sergio Leone in his superb Once Upon a Time in the West, or in terms of 2001 A Space Odyssey’s fight between the homicidal computer HAL and astronaut Dave Bowman. And as Witcher continues on, offering up example after example of great fight scenes (Ripley vs. the Xenomorph Queen in Aliens, Paris vs. Menelaus in Troy) he regrettably undermines a key component of his arguments. That being that such exemplary fight scenes are rare.
In point of fact classic showdowns are something that Hollywood actually and regularly does a good job of manufacturing. And yes there are the occasional bombs as rightly pointed out by Witcher vis a vis the final Harry Potter battle against Lord Voldemort, or the lamentable final battle in the Avengers Movie. But overall there are so many more that actually work. Right off the top of my head, and staying within the genres identified by Witcher (i.e. avoiding boxing movies like the classic Rocky I and Rocky II showdowns between Rocky and Apollo Creed), one can single out numerous other examples such as the following:
Qui-Gon Jinn & Obi-Wan Kenobi vs. Darth Maul in The Phantom Menace (just to be clear I despised this movie, but the final light saber fight is one of the best of any Star Wars film):
Sarah Connor/Kyle Reese vs. The Terminator:
Riggs vs. Joshua Lethal Weapon:
Maximus vs. Commodus Gladiator:
William Munny vs. Little Bill Unforgiven:
Brody vs. The Shark in Jaws
Frank Dux vs. Chong Li Bloodsport
And I can go on and on….I could add at least twenty more clips if I did nothing but Clint Eastwood Westerns and Martial Arts films no less 1980’s action films, modern Science Fiction/Fantasy, or even Television such as The Game of Thrones (Brienne vs. The Hound to name just one) Thus, in conclusion I will say Witcher wrote a fun article with some sound metrics for measuring a great movie showdown, but to say that such things are rare….well that is another story.
Check out the original movie trailer of one of the all-time best action-adventure movies ever:
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