Looper is very enjoyable, much better than I could make out from the trailers or premise.

Machine Gun Preacher was more preacher than machine gun; an interesting but limited biopic.

Universal Soldier: Day of Reckoning (now on Netflix) makes up for the last one; no punches pulled. Dolph Lundgren hasn't aged very well. US: DoR seems more like the throwback The Expendables should have been (if Expendables hadn't been such a bore).

Recommended Viewing for Action Challenge / List #3

25 Essential Film Noir

(Leaving out titles already included in the two previous lists, e.g. THE MALTESE FALCON, THE BIG SLEEP, WHITE HEAT, and KISS ME DEADLY/plus: adding a couple of titles I left off of the Private Eye list)

STRANGER ON THE THIRD FLOOR (1940) Dir.: Boris Ingster. Star: Peter Lorre.
THIS GUN FOR HIRE (1942) Dir.: Frank Tuttle. Stars: Alan Ladd, Veronica Lake.
SHADOW OF A DOUBT (1943) Dir.: Alfred Hitchcock. Stars: Teresa Wright, Joseph Cotten.
PHANTOM LADY (1944) Dir.: Robert Siodmak. Star: Ella Raines.
DOUBLE INDEMNITY (1944) Dir.: Billy Wilder. Stars: Barbara Stanwyck, Fred MacMurray.
MURDER, MY SWEET (1944) Dir.: Edward Dmytryk. Star: Dick Powell.
LAURA (1944) Dir.: Otto Preminger. Stars: Dana Andrews, Gene Tierney.
DETOUR (1945) Dir.: Edgar G. Ulmer. Star: Tom Neal
SCARLET STREET (1945) Dir.: Fritz Lang. Star: Edward G. Robinson.
THE KILLERS (1946) Dir.: Robert Siodmak. Stars: Burt Lancaster, Ava Gardner.
THE STRANGE LOVE OF MARTHA IVERS (1946) Dir.: Lewis Milestone. Star: Barbara Stanwyck.
THE BLUE DAHLIA (1946) Dir.: George Marshall. Stars: Alan Ladd, Veronica Lake.
BORN TO KILL (1947) Dir.: Robert Wise. Star: Lawrence Tierney.
KISS OF DEATH (1947) Dir.: Henry Hathaway. Star: Victor Mature.
CROSSFIRE (1947) Dir.: Edward Dmytryk. Stars: Robert Young, Robert Mitchum, Robert Ryan.
OUT OF THE PAST (1947) Dir.: Jacques Tourneur. Stars: Robert Mitchum, Jane Greer.
BRUTE FORCE (1947) Dir.: Jules Dassin. Star: Burt Lancaster.
THE LADY FROM SHANGHAI (1948) Dir.: Orson Welles. Stars: Orson Welles, Rita Hayworth.
THE BLACK BOOK (aka REIGN OF TERROR) (1949) Dir.: Anthony Mann. Stars: Robert Cummings, Richard Basehart.
CRISS CROSS (1949) Dir.: Robert Siodmak. Star: Burt Lancaster.
THE WINDOW (1949) Dir.: Ted Tetzlaff. Star: Bobby Driscoll.
HE WALKED BY NIGHT (1949) Dir.: Alfred Werker. Star: Richard Basehart.
D.O.A. (1950) Dir.: Rudolph Mate. Star: Edmond O’Brien.
PICKUP ON SOUTH STREET (1953) Dir.: Samuel Fuller. Star: Richard Widmark.
TOUCH OF EVIL (1958) Dir.: Orson Welles. Star: Orson Welles.

While I agree with Ash about the early westerns -- I especially like Stories of the Century -- you might also try Arrow a show based on the Green Arrow character from DC comics. Its on the CW network on Wednesday evenings. It's in reruns for a few weeks now and you can stream the last five shows from the CW site. While not start to finish action, each episode has a few well done action sequences. IMDB lists it as Action/Adventure/Crime so it's almost a perfect fit for the challenge.

Just watched "Reservoir Dogs." I don't think I've ever heard so many f-words at one time before. And I've watched most of Tarantino's works before! I have to say that I didn't really like this and I know it was well received. About the only thing I liked was the music. That was good.

Quick question-would this count for the conspiracy/thriller checkmark?

Maybe you'd like City on Fire. It's basically the unseen portion of Reservoir Dogs, dealing with the actual robbery. It's obvious Tarantino got the idea from that movie, since they fit so well together but he claims he had never heard about it.

do 'Crime' documentary film's count?

I don't see why they wouldn't.

Surely anything classed as "Thriller" counts because it's a nebulous term that can be applied to Action, Adventure, Crime or Mystery - and (almost?) always one or the other.

At least, that's what I've always assumed.

Only 3 entries for me so far, which isn't terrible since I'm using this as more of a warm up to next month's Drive-in challenge. Almost Human is an excellent Euro crime film from Umberto Lenzi and I'd suggest it to anyone. The other 2 entries for me are the first 2 episodes of Ultraman. I've seen plenty of episodes before but never in any sort of order so it is cool to start watching the series in order. Both episodes were a solid start to the series.

I own the Ultraman series set, and hope to get started on it sometime during this challenge.

I thought I'd quite like to watch some martial artsy stuff, but couldn't find my copy of Drive (the late 1990s film) with Mark Dacascos, so I checked the library for any of his films (none), and Amazon (one), and watched Sanctuary. It wasn't bad, but there were almost no fight scenes. It also seemed more like a build-up to an entirely separate series, which appears not to have happened.

Super 8 was excellent. And - I feel a bit daft typing this - pretty much how I'd imagine first contact going. Depressingly. It also quite reassured me that some children can act. The two main leads - Elle Fanning and Joel Courtney - were particularly adept. Including the kids' film over the credits was a nice touch, too.

The Medallion wasn't bad, but seemed like it was caught in-between being a children's film and an adult one. Lee Evans annoys me (and has done since stand-up), but John Rhys Davies turning up was a nice bonus! Sammo Hung is down as a stuntman, although goodness knows who for... I'm also always pleased when there are out-takes over the credits. It's also the only (other than Labyrinth) film I can recall seeing an under-Escher-staircase walk in, which was a nice little trivia point for me.



(Incidentally, the theme music from Chai Lai Angels finally clicked with me - it reminds me a lot of that from Johnny English! Which presumably means both are referencing back to something else: anyone know what?)

I read Tarzan and the Apes this last month, so I thought I'd watch some Tarzan films for this challenge. Since my Weismuller sets have wandered away, and I can't currently afford the Warner Archive boxes of the later films, I made lists at Wikipedia and IMDb, then hunted Amazon and YouTube.

Which meant I was able to find and watch the earliest film version - under six years after the first book came out - the silent Tarzan of the Apes, which adapts the first half of the book. (The second half's film is lost, which is both sad and odd.) It - and some of the later ones - were able to have Tarzan('s stand-in) 'fight' real big cats, which was very interesting to see. Especially when contrasted with the stuffed animals that also turned up!

The stunt work - various sources suggest much of it was done by the actors, and fairly dangerously so - was quite impressive, and it was interesting to see what was changed from the book. Most of the changes were streamlining, some were strange, and seemed to serve no purpose.

Immediately following the First Film, I happened across episodes of Wolf Larson's 90s TV series, and thought I'd give it a go. And, well. "Blond environmentalist" is the description I found somewhere, and it fits well. Very, very odd. The YouTube uploader disagrees about the episode order, but it appears as if the series just jumped straight in with no introductions - which for a character like Tarzan is fine, but for the supporting (non-)characters, was weird.

The New Adventures of Tarzan 4-hour serial was rather a waste of time, but I watched the lot anyway. The story behind it - and the marriages it broke up and caused; the contracts and films that came and went - is a lot more interesting! Although Tarzan was much more like Burroughs' creation, that almost made it less interesting to me.

Similarly, Tarzan's Revenge was not terribly exciting, although there were many elements that hearkened back to the first book, which was nice. Tarzan seemed much more of a practical joker here, which was in keeping with the novel, which was good.

I woke up in the middle of the night, turned on the TV, and stumbled on a couple of Marx Bros. movies on TCM. I was able to watch A Night in Casablanca in its entirety. It made waking up almost worth doing... Nazi plots, murder, attempted murder, thefts, and the Marx Bros. Of course I own the film and can watch it anytime I wish but it was still a nice surprise.

havent been able to watch too much for this challenge but enjoyed the 3 i have seen in Kill Em All, End of Days, and Death Wish

Watched Brave earlier for the first time at home. It's visually amazing-the rocks, landscape, her hair-one of the first BR's I've watched that really shined and showed the difference between DVD and BR.

Finished tonight off with Thunderball. I think this was the most boring Bond I've ever watched, certainly the most boring one since I've started the challenge. Way too much time underwater. The most exciting parts were the random sea creatures that popped up-the lobster, the octopus! Way better actors than some of the human ones!

While surfing for something to watch on tv for the challenge, I realized another cartoon that would qualify, What's new Scooby Doo? As the Scooby Doo cartoons were adventures and mysteries combined. I just finished watching one on Cartoon Network right now.

I've been working almost everyday of the Challenge so far, but did squeeze in 300 while snowed in at work yesterday. First viewing since the home release week iirc, and I loved it.

Watched Ronin (1998) again Monday. I really enjoyed it this time around and focused more on the plot during this viewing. I ended up liking the first car chase (the one that ends up in the Nice market) more than the later one. Also, DeNiro and Reno have good chemistry together.

I actually have a question here--what subgenre does this film belong to? I could make a case for several categories. I've already watched a heist film earlier but I was thinking that Ronin could either fall into the film noir subgenre or treasure hunting subgenre.

Love that octopus! And I love Brave as well. I was shocked at how many of my friends and family members thought it was subpar or downright bad. I enjoyed the unusually story and the setting very much. I haven't watched the BD yet, but it is on my list for this challenge.

Took a break from action yesterday to do some grading and finish up the final season of Big Love (one of the best shows ever). This morning I watched a mini-marathon of Justice League Unlimited which is one of my favorite of the DC animated series. The third season begins with the super-villains forming a league to parallel the heroes so the character roster is really inflated. It is unfortunate that Batman's Rogue Gallery are largely absent from the show (I've only noticed the Riddler cameoing).

I know that at times people will discuss the genre tropes and plot devices that we love and/or hate. One that I dislike is the silent lackey. The hero briefly fights and overcoming a random guard/henchman who remains curiously silent despite the many other henchmen within shouting distance. Seen this challenge in: Dick Tracy Meets Gruesome and You Only Live Twice.

So... who's in charge of listing which films were released without approval, then?! I can't find a list anywhere else, but I've found six-and-a-half (not many of which seem to be A/A/C/M applicable):

THE MOON IS BLUE
SOME LIKE IT HOT
THE MAN WITH THE GOLDEN ARM
ALFIE
BICYCLE THIEVES
BLOWUP

(Maybe Anatomy of a Murder, but it apparently was approved.)



Actually, can I ask for a A/A/C/M ruling on The Man With the Golden Arm, please? It doesn't appear to be readily listed as such (drama, drugs), but it seems like it might share some similar-ish themes...

Inglourious Basterds was pretty good. I was impressed by the added sense of 'realism' that all the spoken French and German gave it, but it was a little harder to follow because of it...! Christoph Waltz's apparent fluency in four languages was particularly impressive. The climax was suitably epic, death-strewn and bloody, but I was surprised at how relatively not-gory the rest of it was - I thought it got a lot of flak at the time for violence and brutality. It seemed oddly more historic than Tarantino, despite the obvious ahistorical plot points.

Spy Kids was nowhere near as bad as I'd been led to believe - all for of the family leads were good, and even Alan Cumming - who, generally, I dislike in everything - seemed well cast and acquitted himself well. I might even try and find the sequels.

The Court Jester is superb! I'm definitely going to seek out more Danny Kaye films - Amazon Prime has two more, but I don't think either is really A/A/C/M sadly - because this was one of the best novelties - and films - I've seen in a long while. It's also essentially a Robin Hood musical, which is good (why isn't there a good Hood musical? Men in Tights is comedy with occasional song; Maid Marian and Her Merry Men is the nearest to it - and brilliant - but TV, etc.) I knew nothing about it, other than having the vaguest knowledge of who Mr Kaye was, and it was very enjoyable indeed. The music was great, the dialogue marvelous, Rathbone was excellent and everything just worked. The opening credits were particularly clever - not desperately novel or complicated, but still: clever.

At the other end of the musical spectrum, watching the all-star (almost a who's who of the then- British comedy elite) Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (1972) yesterday, was very disappointing. Fiona Fullerton was as sublime - possibly my favourite Alice - as I'd remembered (and really, really looks like she's having the time of her life!), but the rest of it was little more than a shambles. The costumes are mostly shoddy and bizarre: some of the characters wear full masks (which a) renders some of the casting pointless, and b) sees them out-of-place alongside some of the other cast), the action seemed disjointed and a bit bowdlerised, but the real offender was the music. Which was barely musical - often little more than spoken words to brief musical sting - and also infrequent.

Last night, I actually turned my first movie off during this challenge. I was watching the new Conan the Barbarian on Netflix in preapration of receving the Arnold Conan movies in the mail as I ordered them from Amazon, but never got past about 15 or 20 minutes before I couldn't take any more. Does the movie get better, or is it just another bad remake that never needed to be made in the first place?

Uh-oh. I've got that on my Netflix queue and was planning to watch it as part of the challenge. Well, I'll give it a go at some point and see how much tolerance I have for it.

Well, just because I didnt really give it a chance, doesn't mean it's not a good movie, remember YMMV . And I might try to finish it to see if it gets better.

IMHO it's "just another bad remake that never needed to be made in the first place". I watched it during the 2012 Sci-Fi challenge and gave it 4 out of 10 stars. I was feeling a bit generous that day as I'd already watched Cyclops (2008), and Pathfinder (2007) before Conan. It should speak volumes that I gave The Brain from Planet Arous (1957) 6 out of 10 that morning. I made it all the way through but it was difficult. The only thing that makes me feel better about the purchase is that it was used and only cost ~$2. Still I could have purchased almost anything better...