80's Action Films

Who misses the classic 80s action films (Die Hard, Cobra, The Terminator, Nico, Lethal Weapon etc) where the story was simple and the guns had unlimited bullets. I think the 80's was the best era for films as every film was a classic.

What are your thoughts on this classic era

I'm a big fan of "The Exterminator"(1980).I wonder where a 1984 film got it's title and most famous line...

I love the Robocop trilogy for three reasons. Number one has it's poigniant storyline about a recently-deceased-but-resurrected-from-death-via-cybernetic-form-cop and him having to deal with his painful memories. Number two had the slick action pace and the mega panned third one just brings back many memories of the ninties for me.

When you say every film of the 80's was a classic, do you also agree that Steve Guttenberg was as skilled in his art as Marlon Brando or Al Pacino?

Liked it - it gave me my favourite movie of all time: Mad Max 2 ( can't wait for Part 4)

Also it gave us, possibly the finest action movie EVER in Raiders Of The Lost Ark. Not to mention Predator, Rocky 3, Escape From New York, First Blood, the underrated Streets Of Fire, Invasion USA, Red Dawn, Class Of 1984, Cobra, as well as all the aforementioned above. Not forgetting all the Italian knock off movies like Bronx Warriors that anyone 40 plus will remember from the golden era of VHS :-)

I do love 80's cinema, but like different genres of films

My faves are Blade Runner, The Lost Boys, Aliens, Empire Strikes Back, Raiders of the Lost Ark, Robocop, Terminator, Predator, The Thing, and Batman

I hear Tango & Cash only missed out on the Best Picture Oscar after it emerged that the actor who played cellhouse thug Face was wearing a prosthetic chin made from the reconstructed pelvis of the late Laurence Olivier. The academy felt it was a tribute too far, and gave the gong to Driving Miss Daisy instead.

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0120494/

Batman, Predator, Terminator, The Thing, Alien, Star Wars, Robocop, Die Hard, Conan, Hellraiser and a whole host of so bad their good action movies. These films had warmth, they had fun, not like these overblown movies these days.

Careful, to the untrained eye it might look like you're saying The Terminator, Alien, Die Hard and Robocop were "so bad they're good" when in fact they're so good they're classics. And both Star Wars and Alien were released in the 70's. Still, good call!

Stallone's "The Expenderables" looks like a return to the giddy world of the 80s action film.

I also loved the action packed ultra violent wafer thin plots of the 80's action genre - my standout 6 were: Big trouble in Little china, Predator, Tango and Cash, Commando, Batman and Robocop. So nostalgic honerable mentions include the Iron Eagle series (a poor mans Top Gun), police acadamy, the lost boys, the goonies and gremlins.

I think we lost out to commercialism, the rebirth of visiting the cinema and certification have caused the action film of the noughties and nineties to be that bit more tame.

The 80's was in my opinion by far the greatest decade for action cinema. Don't get me wrong their have been some great action films since the 80's but for me films like Die hard, lethal weapon, the terminator, rambo, Rocky and all the others mentioned are just classics.

I think whats missing these days is a tru action star. Back in the day I always looked forward to the latest Arnie film or the next Stallone film. You knew exactly what you would get with these guys, over the top action, cheesy one liners and stories that were simplistic in the extreme. Then Bruce Willis comes along and carries on into the Nineties. Theirs no one about to match these guys anymore. Vin Diesal looked like he could have taken up the mantle yet decided to make some utter crap. The Rock looked a good contender, especaily with the arnie cameo handing over the batton in Welcome to the jungle, then he goes all soft.

It's funny that Die hard 4 and the latest Rambo film for me are twoof the best action films in ages and shows that Stallone and Willis still have some of the old magic.

"I think we lost out to commercialism, the rebirth of visiting the cinema and certification have caused the action film of the noughties and nineties to be that bit more tame."

Err have you seen Rambo 4, I wouldn't call that tame, nor the Punisher: Warzone. No their have been lots of gory violent films throughout the nineties and noughties but they have been to few and far between. The mid nineties saw the explosion of the sci fi summer blockbuster such as the Jurassic parks and Independance day, and such like. this has continued with films like transformers recently and the superhero films. These films are action packed but aimed at a much wider audiance so have the violence tamed down to get kids in the cinema.

I will admit the 'Die Hard' films are good (well 1,2 and 4 are to me great but 3 was a bit too convoluted in the 2nd half). They are great, relatively slick, fast paced, action movies with great performances generally.