facebook
twitter
google+
Want a quality action film, but you only have an hour and a half? Step this way...
Looking back over the genre, action films definitely haven’t suffered from the trend to make everything longer. They’ve always been pretty long, regularly clocking in at over two hours. Perhaps because of all the slo-mo? But while the sweet spot for action classics seems to be the 100-110 minute mark, there are those that have cut the genre right down to basics, and succeeded all the more for it.
Below is my pick of 25 great action films 90 minutes or under. Even more so than other genres, action crosses many other films - picking a pure ‘action’ flick is all but impossible. So below I’ve chosen films that retain action sequences as their main narrative device, and keep the action at the heart of the movie, rather than as a extra.
google+
Want a quality action film, but you only have an hour and a half? Step this way...
Looking back over the genre, action films definitely haven’t suffered from the trend to make everything longer. They’ve always been pretty long, regularly clocking in at over two hours. Perhaps because of all the slo-mo? But while the sweet spot for action classics seems to be the 100-110 minute mark, there are those that have cut the genre right down to basics, and succeeded all the more for it.
Below is my pick of 25 great action films 90 minutes or under. Even more so than other genres, action crosses many other films - picking a pure ‘action’ flick is all but impossible. So below I’ve chosen films that retain action sequences as their main narrative device, and keep the action at the heart of the movie, rather than as a extra.
- 3/10/2016
- by simonbrew
- Den of Geek
The Slifr Movie Treehouse (the acronym stands in for the title of my blog, Sergio Leone and the Infield Fly Rule) is a place where I like to gather a few of my movie-writing pals and exchange long e-mails on the way the movies shaped up for us in the year just left behind. It’s been a few years since I’ve undertaken this project, but the time felt right again, so I invited the very talented critical voices of Brian Doan, Odie Henderson, Marya Murphy and Phil Dyess-Nugent to take part, and to my great happiness they all agreed. (Bios for each writer can be found at the conclusion of each of their individual posts, which can be accessed by clicking below on the title of each post.)
What follows here are samples from the 16 posts we submitted over the week of January 11-17, and we’ll start...
What follows here are samples from the 16 posts we submitted over the week of January 11-17, and we’ll start...
- 1/19/2016
- by Dennis Cozzalio
- Trailers from Hell
facebook
twitter
google+
Looking for good books about the movies to read? We've got a bumper selection of recommendations right here...
A confession. I actually started writing this article in 2013, and the reason you've only reading it now is that I've made sure I've read every book on this list, save for one or two where I've marked otherwise. As such, what you're getting is a very personal list of recommendations. Each of these books has at least something to it that I think is of interest to someone wanting to learn more about film - or just enjoy stories of movie making.
I've tended to avoid picture books, with one exception, as these ones I've chosen are all intended to be chock-full of words, to relax with at the end of a long day. Which is what I did. There are one or two notable omissions, as I'm still...
google+
Looking for good books about the movies to read? We've got a bumper selection of recommendations right here...
A confession. I actually started writing this article in 2013, and the reason you've only reading it now is that I've made sure I've read every book on this list, save for one or two where I've marked otherwise. As such, what you're getting is a very personal list of recommendations. Each of these books has at least something to it that I think is of interest to someone wanting to learn more about film - or just enjoy stories of movie making.
I've tended to avoid picture books, with one exception, as these ones I've chosen are all intended to be chock-full of words, to relax with at the end of a long day. Which is what I did. There are one or two notable omissions, as I'm still...
- 12/10/2015
- by simonbrew
- Den of Geek
James Cameron and his longtime Lightstorm Entertainment partner Jon Landau will produce "Alita: Battle Angel" (formerly "Battle Angel Alita") at their studio home 20th Century Fox as they continue prepping three ambitious "Avatar" sequels. Robert Rodriguez will take over as director, per Variety. Cameron started developing what he calls a "kick-ass epic" based on Yukito Kishiro's Japanese manga series, which first published in 1990, long before he decided to shoot "Avatar." Set in the 26th century the story centers on a female cyborg with a scraped memory but serious martial arts skills who is found in a junkyard by a doctor who names her after his dead cat. The rebuilt cyborg tracks down and kills vicious criminals. According to Cameron, the filmmaker had been wanting to direct a project with Rodriguez ("El Mariachi," "Spy Kids," "Desperado," "Sin...
- 10/14/2015
- by Anne Thompson
- Thompson on Hollywood
Twentieth Century Fox and producers James Cameron and Jon Landau are in talks with Robert Rodriguez to direct Alita: Battle Angel, the live-action adaptation of the graphic novel series Battle Angel Alita by Yukito Kishiro. Fans of the graphic novel have salivated over the prospect of Cameron directing the film, but he’s just too busy with three sequels to Avatar going back to back-to-back. So he’ll entrust it to Rodriguez, who launched the El Mariachi, Spy Kids, Sin City…...
- 10/14/2015
- Deadline
The line between film direction and music video direction has always been a thin one, with numerous directors over the years making the jump from music videos to film, and continuing in the former even after finding success in the latter, with Paul Thomas Anderson standing as one of the more recent examples, having directed two music videos for Joanna Newsom. Others, such as Steve McQueen, have done music videos for the first time after finding success in features.
Now the latter group has gotten a new addition in the form of Robert Rodriguez. Rodriguez, who shot to fame with El Mariachi before going on to direct films such as Sin City and From Dusk Till Dawn, took on directing duties for the new song from pop singer Demi Lovato, reuniting with his Machete performers Michelle Rodriguez and Jeff Fahey in the process. The music video can be seen below.
Now the latter group has gotten a new addition in the form of Robert Rodriguez. Rodriguez, who shot to fame with El Mariachi before going on to direct films such as Sin City and From Dusk Till Dawn, took on directing duties for the new song from pop singer Demi Lovato, reuniting with his Machete performers Michelle Rodriguez and Jeff Fahey in the process. The music video can be seen below.
- 10/13/2015
- by Deepayan Sengupta
- SoundOnSight
For well over two decades Robert Rodriguez has been an inspiration for young, broke filmmakers hoping to cobble together a feature length film in their own backyard on their own dime. The incomparably talented writer-director-producer-cinematographer-soundman broke onto the scene in 1992 (the same year as his longtime friend and collaborating partner, Quentin Tarantino) with his dusty gangster flick, “El Mariachi,” which he shot all by himself on the super cheap. Looking back at the paltry $7,000 Rodriguez filmed the movie for, the figure is impressive even today — most noticeably for the fact that roughly $6,400 was spent on film alone. While inflation has risen in the years since, so too have young filmmakers’ abilities to actually make a film. Most everyone carries a high resolution camera in their pocket. No matter how you cut it, Rodriguez was a pioneer, a director who revolutionized independent film, and one who continues to push boundaries. In recent years Rodriguez has.
- 8/21/2015
- by Gary Garrison
- The Playlist
Robert Rodriguez is one busy guy – the director recently launched the El Rey television network and is currently working on the second season of From Dusk Till Dawn: The Series, but he’s simultaneously guiding multiple projects to the big screen, including an adaptation of beloved animated series Jonny Quest.
At the TCAs to discuss From Dusk Till Dawn, Rodriguez fielded a question about why he decided to tackle Jonny Quest:
“I thought it’d be really cool to do a legitimate action/adventure film that just happens to have a kid in it. Not a kids film; the Spy Kids were more like kids films, this would be like a real action-adventure film because that’s what the original series was like. It was a hard hitting, kickass action-adventure series. That’s what enticed me to go do it. My own series had already played out. That was...
At the TCAs to discuss From Dusk Till Dawn, Rodriguez fielded a question about why he decided to tackle Jonny Quest:
“I thought it’d be really cool to do a legitimate action/adventure film that just happens to have a kid in it. Not a kids film; the Spy Kids were more like kids films, this would be like a real action-adventure film because that’s what the original series was like. It was a hard hitting, kickass action-adventure series. That’s what enticed me to go do it. My own series had already played out. That was...
- 7/31/2015
- by Isaac Feldberg
- We Got This Covered
It's fitting that Clint Eastwood and John Wayne both have the same birthday week. (Wayne, who died in 1979, was born May 26, 1907, while Eastwood turns 85 on May 31). After all, these two all-American actors' careers span the history of that most American of movie genres, the western.
Both iconic actors were top box office draws for decades, both seldom stretched from their familiar personas, and both played macho, conservative cowboy heroes who let their firearms do most of the talking. Each represented one of two very different strains of western, the traditional and the revisionist.
As a birthday present to Hollywood's biggest heroes of the Wild West, here are the top 57 westerns you need to see.
57. 'Meek's Cutoff' (2010)
Indie filmmaker Kelly Reichardt and her frequent leading lady, Michelle Williams, are the talents behind this sparse, docudrama about an 1845 wagon train whose Oregon Trail journey goes horribly awry. It's an intense...
Both iconic actors were top box office draws for decades, both seldom stretched from their familiar personas, and both played macho, conservative cowboy heroes who let their firearms do most of the talking. Each represented one of two very different strains of western, the traditional and the revisionist.
As a birthday present to Hollywood's biggest heroes of the Wild West, here are the top 57 westerns you need to see.
57. 'Meek's Cutoff' (2010)
Indie filmmaker Kelly Reichardt and her frequent leading lady, Michelle Williams, are the talents behind this sparse, docudrama about an 1845 wagon train whose Oregon Trail journey goes horribly awry. It's an intense...
- 5/26/2015
- by Gary Susman
- Moviefone
The 1990′s introduced the world to Quentin Tarantino, saw the creation of the Nc-17 rating, and began the slow call toward fully computer animated films. It began the slow (still slow) movement toward a more diverse industry, with the first African-American director earning an Oscar nomination (John Singleton for “Boyz in the Hood”). And the year after one of the greatest years in the history of film, 1995 came plodding along, trying to keep up. So, for the first definitive list of 2015, we are going to look back 20 years at a year that, at first glance, doesn’t look so hot. It’s ripe with flops, but it’s also full of debuts, trailblazing beginnings, and better films than it gets credit for. But, the caveat still stands: this is not a “best of” list. In fact, there are a lot of bad movies on this list. But, they are movies that made a cultural impact,...
- 1/31/2015
- by Joshua Gaul
- SoundOnSight
Gillian Alexy (Damages, The Americans), Patrick Breen (Kevin Hill), Jeremy Davidson (The Americans), Martha Higareda (El Mariachi) and Natalie Hall (True Blood, Star Crossed) have landed guest star or recurring roles in the upcoming season of Royal Pains. Alexy will recur as the mysterious Charlotte, who Hank (Mark Feuerstein) met while traveling in Europe. Breen will play Bob, an unconventional couples counselor who has a big impact on Paige (Brooke D’Orsay) and Evan (Paulo Costanzo). Davidson will play new Ray Mazzarino, a new HankMed patient who recently moved to the Hamptons for a fresh start and goes into business with Evan. Higareda is Viviana, the lively bartender at a quiet local bar that becomes a sanctuary for Jeremiah (Ben Shenkman). Hall plays Hope, a burlesque dancer who asks for Jeremiah’s help when she complains of pain during her act. Season 6 of the USA Network medical drama premieres June...
- 6/4/2014
- by THE DEADLINE TEAM
- Deadline TV
IMDb.com, Inc. takes no responsibility for the content or accuracy of the above news articles, Tweets, or blog posts. This content is published for the entertainment of our users only. The news articles, Tweets, and blog posts do not represent IMDb's opinions nor can we guarantee that the reporting therein is completely factual. Please visit the source responsible for the item in question to report any concerns you may have regarding content or accuracy.