No Right Answer: Best Action Hero Ever

[killercyclist]

mr. bean.

 

[Johnny Lunchbox]

You should've stipulated "best action star alive", because Bruce Lee wins this argument, hands down for 3 reasons:

1: He kicked *real life* ass. He destroyed a man who was considered to be the best Kung-Fu practitioner in America in an extremely one-sided 3 minutes, and his reaction was disappointment that he didn't kick the dude's ass quicker.

2: His life was an action movie. The reason he had to fight the dude considered to be the best Kung-Fu practitioner in America is because he was teaching kung-fu to white people. He was fighting for equal rights and anti-discrimination and everything you see heroes fighting for in movies--before he even considered becoming an actor.

3: Chuck Norris made his entire career out of getting his ass kicked by Bruce Lee.

4: WHAPAOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOoooooooooooOOOOOooOOoOoOooooo...ooOoooOoOOoooo...

 

[TheEndlessGrey]

I can't help but add to the chorus that this should have been Arnold Schwarzenegger vs Bruce Willis, and then cast my vote for Bruce. Proof that I'm right, at least about the matchup? Next week's No Right Answer: Best Catchphrase from an Action Movie - "I'll Be Back" vs "Yippie Kay Aye"

 

[johnnyLupine]

Statham has to win this one, Arnold can do comedy? take a look at this..

http://youtu.be/mFItXUms05Q

The word bad-ass shouldn't be thrown around lightly and handed to just anyone but Statham? he clearly deserves this title. Just take a look at the ending of this film (which I watched last night and absolutely did not colour my opinion while I watched this weeks no right answer in any way shape or form)

http://youtu.be/sT0SvBOTSww

Long story short the guy in the uniform is a cop killer. He hates Statham because Statham is awesome encarnate.

He removes a bomb from the bottom of his car by flipping it upside down under a crane. Not only that he knew there would be a bomb there that needed to be removed, he has done this so many times that he just has a sixth sense about these things.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b6B9uBaVebk

 

[NortherWolf]

Arnold made Predator. That means he wins. That's one of the goddamn manliest movies ever made.

However...I must say...Where's the Kurt Russel love? Escape from New York? Big Trouble in Little China? Tango & Cash?

 

[Terramax]

The lack of Bruce Willis displeases me immensely.

I'm so glad the first two comments pointed that out.

Also, Statham as best action movie star? Seriously, he's not even in the top 10. All his films are grossly unimaginative and he's just a very unlikeable person in his films.

That being said, to the guy who said it, Statham doesn't have a crazy accent. He comes from the country that invented English. Therefore, it is the commentator who has the unconventional accent.

 

[Terramax]

You should've stipulated "best action star alive", because Bruce Lee wins this argument, hands down...

He's not an action movie star. He a martial arts star. Also, most of his films are unremarkable.

Bruce Lee the reason he is the best, after ten minutes in the Expendables 2 he left.

What a sec... did Bruce Lee come out of retirement from being dead to be in that movie? Or are you confusing him with Jet Lee?

 

[Waddles]

I'm so glad Jason Statham was included here. This guy brought action movies back to 80s style, one dude destroying everyone. There hadn't been one for a long time.

Arnie is iconic, Statham the new hero. Both of them are awesome!

 

[Johnny Lunchbox]

You should've stipulated "best action star alive", because Bruce Lee wins this argument, hands down...

He's not an action movie star. He a martial arts star. Also, most of his films are unremarkable.

If you're going to separate the two, then Jason Statham is a martial arts star, too.

Martial arts flicks are action movies. Just because a flick doesn't use guns, doesn't mean it doesn't qualify as action. Hell, it's pretty standard these days for martial arts movies to include guns (like The Raid), or action movies to feature martial arts (like--well, pretty much every action movie that was made after the 80s).

Bruce Lee the reason he is the best, after ten minutes in the Expendables 2 he left.

What a sec... did Bruce Lee come out of retirement from being dead to be in that movie? Or are you confusing him with Jet Lee?

Jet Li.

BOOYAKASHA! Your credibility is shot. I win!

Jason Statham actually got into 'action movies' because he was in The One with Jet Li (which also featured both martial arts and explosions). And, while he didn't really do any fighting in that, he got Jet Li to teach him a couple strikes and kicks off-camera.

If I reckon correctly, the next thing Statham did was The Transporter. Needless to say, dude had a knack.

Anyways, that's a pointless aside.

Lee's movies weren't spectacular, but they also weren't that big-budget. Hollywood was leery about touching the guy because he was Chinese, and they didn't think he could draw a white crowd (despite his success as Kato in The Green Hornet).

The question was best action hero. Nothing to do with special effects budgets and whatnot, and Bruce Lee was, is, and always will be, the man.

That's all there is to it.

 

[Terramax]

*snip*

I've always seen them classed as 'Martial Arts Action Films', more of a subgenre rather than fully fledged action films. The same as 'Action Adventure'. Indeed, in recent times, western films like The Transporter have incorporated martial arts. Overall, like many thrillers, are often considered to have specific elements of action films, but are not quite. Therefore, a slightly different kettle of fish.

By the way, where did I mention anything about special effects or explosions? Action films are generally films with a variety of, and a high emphasis, on action-eque scenarios. Fair play, this does tend to mean lots of guns and explosions, but the point is that they tend not to degrade into detracting from the main story (good ones, anyway). Or in a martial art movie's case even, stopping the story dead in its tracks, to add pointless scenes of people doing girlie dancing whilst *****-slapping each other for the best part of 10 minutes.

Regarding the spelling of Jet Li's name, my whole comment was a bit of fun. But if I lose credibility to you, then fair enough. But I'm afraid I may lose sleep at night over this.

No, Bruce Lee isn't 'The Man'. He can't act for shit (from what I've seen of his films in the past). His martial arts are enough to give him iconic status, but people like Schwarzenegger and Willis, or Jackie Chan for that matter, are entertaining, charismatic, can act, and play a variety of roles convincingly.

Yes, maybe you could blame Hollywood for not allowing him to spread his wings further, or because at the time the action film was only coming into its own in West, but it still stands he just isn't very good in any scene that doesn't require him to spin around like a merry-go-round whilst frantically squealing.

If my above opinion makes Stathem a martial arts star, then so be it. I've already pointed out he isn't very good. Reason being, he has the charisma of a goldfish dying in the Sahara Desert. Although I will admit there are glimmers of character in The Expendables films. It was because of them that I decided to watch other films of his in the hope of something more. But overall, he just doesn't come off as very likeable in him films.

I can't speak for the world, but pretty much everybody here in the UK that I've spoken to doesn't like him or his films either (although I'm sure he's a nice guy in real life). Perhaps it's his 'foreign accent', according to Americans, that makes him so popular(?).

Anyway, fingers crossed, if he continues to become more successful, he'll choose to take on roles that are more than him just growling and lookin' 'ard. If not, he'll probably fall into the same obscurity as Steven Seagal.

 

[Johnny Lunchbox]

I've already won by grammatical default (you misspelt Statham somewhere in there, btw), so I'll just go over bits that merit discussion instead of beating the dead horse (with many twirly kicks and whatnot).

*snip*

I've always seen them classed as 'Martial Arts Action Films', more of a subgenre rather than fully fledged action films. The same as 'Action Adventure'. Indeed, in recent times, western films like The Transporter have incorporated martial arts. Overall, like many thrillers, are often considered to have specific elements of action films, but are not quite. Therefore, a slightly different kettle of fish.

Unfortuantely, many people have many different ways of classifying movies. What you see listed as Action in one library could show up as Suspense/Thriller in another, Action/Adventure in a third, Drama in a fourth, and Crime in a fifth. Even if the studio itself goes ahead and says "It's action", people will still want to reclassify a film into whatever fits their paradigms.

Now, there's one very different type of movie that you seem to be thinking of: The Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon type of traditional martial arts movies, where ancient masters fly through the treetops and fight using ballet--a specific type of action move that doesn't really have a specific English definition that I've heard. I've seen it classified as "Kung-Fu", but that umbrella covers Jet Li sci-fi, Jackie Chan buddy comedies, and so forth. I've seen textbooks classify it as "Wuxia Pian". These are still action movies (as much as the Western equivalents of historical-period action like Gladiator and The Thirteenth Warrior and whatnot), but they were developed completely separate from Western storytelling, so they feel completely alien--exposition is delivered by a villain monologuing *while fighting*, the outcome of fistfights arbitrarily determine the future of the entire country, every bad guy is a martial arts master who practices by kicking a tree in half with a single blow.

This umbrella is sort of the seed for Bruce Lee movies; there are some elements of both. For example, in Way of the Dragon, Bruce Lee's fight with Chuck Norris doesn't have the two characters narrating what they're doing and ham-fistedly delivering exposition about the differences in their styles, but he still sort of ham-fists it when they're warming up and you keep seeing the cut-aways to the cat doing the same stretches as Bruce Lee. But, then again, you also get the more subtle (well, okay, not subtle at all, but more action-based) exposition when Norris has obviously lost, but decides to go at him again.

Anyways, my point is, they're both action. Just a different kind of action. And I'll readily admit that Lee's movies weren't as great as they could be--they weren't made with the same production standards as Hollywood action movies, they retain a lot of the Eastern narrative elements that just don't seem to flow with Western audiences, so on and so forth. But the problem in all his movies was never Bruce Lee. I think he did a decent enough acting job wherever he could (mainly because all his characters were essentially written to be himself), but that isn't really why people watch his movies.

And if you want to go by proper acting chops, then Schwarzeneggar and Statham fail as well, because they're both horrible, *horrible* actors. (Hell, the Schwarzeneggar's biggest selling point is that he's so horrible that it makes him hilarious.) Hell, most of the action stars are.

Anyway, fingers crossed, if he continues to become more successful, he'll choose to take on roles that are more than him just growling and lookin' 'ard. If not, he'll probably fall into the same obscurity as Steven Seagal.

Segal? Obscure?

God damn you, sir. God damn you.