The short history of Hollywood hasn’t always had a place for movies like these until the 1980s. The ’80s and ’90s saw the release of the best action movies and set the stage for all to follow. Action movies are a staple in any movie theater you can go to these days anywhere in the world. People often go to the movies to escape from reality for a short time and nothing does it better in many cases than a big testosterone filled action spectacle.
adventure series
In the early years of Hollywood, action movies were mostly limited to westerns in action shorts that came before other feature film submissions. Limited technology and special effects led to most films being more akin to stage productions of drama or comedy than action spectacles. The 1970s brought further advances in what could be achieved on screen, but most filmmakers were more concerned with social political commentary about drugs or war than robot transformation. In the late 1970s, French Connection featured an incredible car chase sequence that received many rave reviews.
police action
The most common type of action movie found in the eighties is usually about cops. Movies like 48 Hours, Beverly Hills Cop, Die Hard, and the Lethal Weapon movies had cops as the main characters in the image. The most notable difference from these films was that the main character was not a superhuman hero, but a flawed, realistic man trying to survive. Action movie heroes quickly became more relatable and reignited the genre throughout the ’80s and ’90s. The stunts became progressively more and more elaborate along with the level of violence and mayhem that could be depicted on screen. . Most of the movies accepted a restricted rating due to the violence and language used throughout.
sci fi action
Science fiction, or sci-fi, movies became much more popular as special effects and technology advanced in Hollywood. The first movies were there, like 2001: A Space Odyssey, but they became much more common in the 1970s once Star Wars came on the scene. Star Wars took the action series formula and placed it on top of a futuristic sci-fi world that captivated the minds of a generation.
Sci-fi movies continued and got progressively darker and edgier with movies like Blade Runner and Terminator. The next true revival of the genre came in the late ’90s with the Matrix trilogy. The Matrix incorporated the new Internet presence into the zeitgeist and examined what the future might hold for those who gave themselves over to the ‘system’.
The current state of action movies is the most popular it has ever been. In 2009, James Cameron’s sci-fi action film Avatar became the all-time record holder for box office receipts with more than $2 billion in ticket sales worldwide. While some would argue that spectacle and 3D have become more important than basic storytelling and compelling characters, there’s never been a better time to be an action movie fan.