resinrats

This past weekend, I watched Under Seige 1 & 2 and was thinking, why don't they make the "Terrorists take over something & one man single handedly takes them out" movies anymore. The 80's had a bunch. Die Hard, Rambo, Under Siege, etc. I don't think I've seen one in years. Maybe that Rundown movie from a few years ago was the closests they've come to making one.

Is America too pussified that they don't want to make one because some wuss couldn't handle it post-9/11? The movies above all had white guys as the terrorists so there won't be complaints about that. What's stopping them?

chanster

Probably because every situation has already been covered..the genre basically burned itself out. When you had movies like Van Damme killing terrorists at a hockey game, you knew the genre was on its way out. Probably the last good movie to come ouf the genre was the Rock.

For the record, I would not place Rambo in that genre.

Groucho

24?

resinrats

I won't really count 24 since he does have a whole team of people working with him (even though Jack does most of the killing of terrorists himself).

Groucho

But the team is usually worried about cougars or babies in the office, and have little time to aid Jack.

BravesMG

Collateral Damage had Arnold pretty much taking out an entire terrorist cell by himself in 2001. It was supposed to come out around 9/11, and got pushed back a while, but it was still pretty much the same. A couple of cool kills (I liked the snake one), but a really bad movie IMHO.

Shannon Nutt

Live Free Or Die Hard
Rambo IV

Shooter was essentially a one vs. many kind-of movie.

whoopdido

Yeah except for the fact that the bad guys were the United States government.

Ya know we are in a war against a certain group of people. That group being fanatical Islamic terrorists that will stop at nothing until they destory everything about our way of life. Notice that I said we're in a war against FANATICAL Islamic terrorists. We're not in a war against Islam or the middle eastern people. He are, however, in a war against those fanatics. Just like we were in a war against the Nazis, or the Russians during the cold war.

Why was it ok to have movies about the good Americans vs the bad Nazis or the bad Commies, but now it's not ok to have an American made movie about the good Americans vs the bad terrorists?

Everybody knows who we're at war with. It would be like making a movie right smack in the middle of cold war and have the bad guys be Mexicans or something like that.

Bareit

Because that's boring. I see that every day on CNN.

starseed1981

Studios are scared to make these movies anymore because Jack Bauer will come and torture them.

Doc MacGyver

Because Nazis were thoroughly and wholly evil. There's nothing too redeeming about them. What were they fighting for, elimination of minorities and the world under German control? We can all get behind the idea of fighting that. Say what you want about islamic terrorists and their deplorable methods, but they do have some legitimate beefs. They don't want to "destroy everything about our way of life." They want historical palestine back, they want us out of saudi arabia, and they want us to stop supporting the dictatorial regimes that have oppressed them for half a century (meaning us, Britain had been screwing them over for much longer). This is not an historical empire that has gone mad with power. It's a section of the world that we have shat upon for decades because we preferred the relative stability of petty, propped-up dictatorships over the uncertainty of an islamic democratic revolution. We aren't the evil empire in this scenario, but we certainly did help to make our own bed.

I'm not supporting their methods or even their values. Ask any Saudi Arabian woman how her life's going. All I'm saying is stop acting like we were minding our own business and the evil middle east picked a fight out of the blue.


Doc

zombiezilla

And nearly all of them sucked big ass. And hey, you answered your own question there, too!

whoopdido

Right. I forgot. Everything is always America's fault.

harpo787

I think MacGyver covered it pretty well. I don't think there was really such a thing as a good nazi (as opposed to the bad ones mentioned by Whoopdido). The belief system put forth by Nazi Germany was pretty much evil through and through. Nazis originated from a specific place (Germany) and had a few symbols, but one more recognized than most: the swastika. So you could easily tell who was an active Nazi as opposed to a German citizen.

When it comes to our current war, how can we portray the bad guys on the big screen? They don't have a specific country of origin (how many of the 9/11 terrorists are from either Iraq or Afghanistan?), and they don't have a unifying symbol or anything like that. How can you separate the extremist Muslim from the rest? How many Muslim-American people would be offended by seeing generic portrayals on the screen?

Finally, Whoopdido, I don't think MacGyver was saying that "everything is America's fault," and I don't think that either. However, we can't exactly sit here and pretend that we haven't contributed to this problem. This isn't a democrat/republican thing either. Presidents from both parties are guilty of contributing to this situation. George W. (and/or staff) overlooked the report warning of plane attacks, Clinton contributed, George HW contributed, didn't Reagan and company arm and/or fund bin Laden and posse when they were fighting against USSR back then?

We don't need to be isolationists, but at the same time we simply can't be police the world...especially when our own house isn't even in order.

Wait a minute, what forum is this? (c;

wm lopez

Since Hollywood seems to be afraid of having Musliums as terrorists in the movies why not have right-wing christain terrorists who want to start a nucluar war so to hurry up Jesus Christ's return.

whoopdido

You have to remember that, for the most part, very few of the German military during World War II truly believed in what they were fighting for. They weren't any different than our soldiers. They were simply following orders. Their commanders told them to fight for the Fatherland or whatever they called it and go out and kill as many Americans as possible. It's not like every single German troop wholeheartedly believed what Hitler believed. Of course the crazy SS guys are another story. Most German troops weren't the epitome of evil yet movies had no problem portraying them as heartless Nazis that wanted exterminate everything in front of them.

The Islamic fundamentalists truly believe in what they're fighting for and to make it even worse they actually believe that God wants them to do what they're doing. It's a small percentage of Islam because I've heard everything about how the true meaning of Islam is peace. That's why I believe that the vast majority of people that follow Islam don't want to destroy America...it's just a small percentage that do and those are the people we're fighting.

I don't know maybe it's just because the average person is an idiot and they wouldn't be able to distinguish between a radical Muslim terrorist and just a Muslim.

dugan

http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0164184/

And Whoopido, the people "we're" at war with are a) people who want Coalition troops to leave Iraq and b) a small group who once held power in Afghanistan and want it back. These aren't necessarily people who "want to destroy America."

whoopdido

Keep believing that if it makes you feel better.

UAIOE

We got "Commando" and "Under Siege", what else do we really need?

TheGodfather

How about Ultraviolet? It sucked but IIRC it was a "one vs many terrorists" flick...

nodeerforamonth

Why? Because the PC police won't let it happen.

Want a perfect example? What was the Arnold movie that came out in 2002? "Collateral Damage"? Before 9/11, the enemy was supposed to be muslem extremists. After 9/11, they changed it to be South American drug runners.

Even "24" is politically correct.

nodeerforamonth

No, it was South American drug runners.

Groucho

Collateral Damage was already in the can when 9/11 occurred. It was originally scheduled for release in October 2001, but was pushed back to February of the next year.

Nick Danger

In every picture Golan/Globus ever made, the villains were fanatical Arab terrorists. To Americans, they were some sort of distant threat, like giant meteors. Now that American troops are being killed by them every day, the idea is a little closer to home. People don't go to the movies to be reminded of their troubles. So action movies are made about themes that are safely distant, like soldiers in ancient Greece.

Snowmaker

Jack Bauer doesn't like competition.