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It is always strange when you are watching an old movie and see a far-fetched scenario that has since played out in the real world. Did the movie writers have privileged information about some new gadget? Maybe a child who watched that movie was inspired and grew up to design something similar. Either could be possible. On the other hand, there are some movies that predict social issues and world events that nobody could have imagined.
Tech Toys
Any science fiction movie fan has witnessed gadgets in movies becoming reality. In Dick Tracy, the iconic detective constantly spoke into his wrist radio. Dick Tracy was known for using technology to fight crime. The first mention of a wrist radio was seen in the comic book series in 1946. Many believe this was the catalyst for smartwatches and other types of wearable devices.
In 2001: A Space Odyssey, many futuristic devices were conceptualized. One of the most notable being the tablet computer, which was released only nine years after the year the movie was set. In the movie, technology like the tough tablet was used by astronauts to watch TV.
The movie Hackers predicted a ton of technological and social advances. From hackers being employed by companies for strategic attacks, to on-demand television streaming services, this movie got a lot right. One gadget that the movie revealed with surprising accuracy is the concept of virtual reality gaming. In one scene, Eugene is playing a virtual reality game, looking very similar to what is available today. He wears a face mask and holds controllers in each hand, exactly like the gaming devices popular now. He is even standing on a platform that is akin to OMNI's virtual reality peripheral.
Transportation
The idea of flying cars and hoverboards have been popping up in movies since The Jetsons in 1960. Although there are some concept vehicles out today with these capabilities, they are not available to the general public. However, self-driving cars, like the one seen in Total Recall, are now in cities all over the world. In the movie, the driver was replaced by a mechanical robot named Johnny. Self-driving cars today still require a human in the driver's seat, which shows society is still not comfortable seeing an empty car driving down the road.
The Terminator from 1984 gave flight to the idea of drones. In the movie, military drones carry weapons that are used to fly around and fire at people. Who knows if this idea was on the military's radar at the time. Since then, drones have been made for recreational and professional purposes. One day soon, packages may be delivered by drones. Although this idea may have been inspired by the movie, the use of drones has far surpassed anything the Terminator could have guessed.
Social Media
The Truman Show was released in 1999 and predicted a society obsessed with reality TV. The conflict of this movie centers around whether society's entertainment is worth one man's freedom. This idea could not be more relevant today when social media and reality TV pushes the boundaries of people's conduct. Reality shows today strand people on desert islands or in swanky penthouses, and fans sit back to watch. Whether this movie influenced current reality TV or predicted it, the cautionary tale is one that needs to be told.
As the internet entered everyone's lives, the movie You've Got Mail was released on the big screen. This movie predicted how relationships would evolve within online platforms. Current dating apps are a far cry from the correspondence seen in the movie. However, this movie was the first to explore how people would connect in the future.
Whether these movies inspired or predicted technology and social issues, it's interesting to investigate what they got right. Maybe the movies in theaters today have already predicted the next great invention. Or, maybe the next great innovator is being inspired today.
LESSON #1: THE BODY LANGUAGE OF THE HANDS-- The combinations of fingers and wrists are fascinating things to watch. What do the subject’s hands grasp, stroke, or fiddle with? Where do they go and why? Observe the speed, placement, and fidgets. There are nerves and emotions behind those movements every time. Mandy cinematographer Benjamin Loeb’s camera loves the hands in this movie and they are excellent tells for the drama at hand. Better yet, what will your hands clutch while watching this tense Netflix film?
The Queen actress is introduced as Martha Weiss Carson, the daughter of her overbearingly traditional well-to-do Boston mother Elizabeth, embodied by 88-year-old Triple Crown Acting honoree Ellen Burstyn. Martha is married to brusque blue collar construction worker Sean Carson, played by Shia LeBeouf, and the two are eagerly expecting their first child. Martha’s birth plan is to have a home delivery through a midwife to avoid drugs and hospitals. When she rapidly goes into labor one night, a backup midwife (Molly Parker) arrives to guide the couple.
LESSON #2: THERE IS NO MORE HARROWING ROUTE TO HAPPINESS AND NO HIGHER FALL FOR LOSS THAN HUMAN BIRTH-- Pieces of a Woman locks you into a massive 22-minute birthing sequence with no cuts, just an observational camera moving about the interiors, faces, and those aforementioned hands. The set piece is scoreless until about halfway in when the dialogue goes silent for a moment of fleeting affection between the married couple while Lord of the Rings composer Howard Shore’s melodies, guided by Holger Groschopp’s solo piano, begin to shift tones. Every parent can testify to this lesson, especially when the result is the latter half. Rivaling similar circumstances in Alfonso Cuaron’s Roma and trading all the thrillers and action movies on the table, you will not find a more white-knuckle experience in a movie this year.
After this overwrought opener, Pieces of a Woman descends into the constricting grief and malaise of the months that follow. Calendar dates and seasonal aerial establishing shots of a bridge under construction mark the passage of time. Each chapter shows progress towards the structure’s unified completion. The opposite is happening on the human side elsewhere as lives unravel.
LESSON #3: THERE IS NO COMPENSATION FOR LOSING A CHILD-- No measure of cheer can immediately soften this loss. Seeing other children and fulfilled parents only jade Martha further. Pity is not an engine of empathy when it’s cast towards people suffering. Different faiths have their philosophical and spiritual answers that attempt to bring their form of comfort. Furthermore, no money can appease such a thing or create some kind of exit strategy. Medical answers or a malpractice trial, like the one looming in the background of the film, try to justify fate or dispense blame to “answer for this monstrosity,” but neither can replace what was lost.
LESSON #4: TO FEEL SOMETHING-- The sorrow of this entire ordeal silently shatters psyches and not so silently destroys familial relationships at a time with family should matter the most. Martha, Sean, and the meddlesome Elizabeth all uncouple from this event with different quakes of aftershocks with goals to feel something positive again. Contentious differences, inerasable shame, wayward sins, and bottled contempt all smolder like ulcers on souls preventing much healing. Impressive and stunning emotional explosions are unleashed from each of the three performers.
Concurrently, that opener is also admittedly hard to top with attention and hard to follow with investment. No energy can, nor should honestly, match that. It’s jarring to sink as low as this narrative does and not everyone is capable of visiting a personal place of despair. Coming down from that gripping beginning to wrestle with, let alone find, hope is immensely difficult, yet that’s the courage of Mundruczó and Weber to enter this territory without flinching.
The EPL is approaching mid-season; the NBA season just got underway; the NFL playoffs are about to start, and the Olympics were postponed until next summer. We thought we’d put together a shortlist of some of the best movies about sports with all of this in mind. By the way, if you’re into the occasional […]
LESSON #1: WHAT WOMEN ARE CAPABLE OF-- At the tipping point in Shadow in the Cloud when action becomes necessary to confront mounting threats, it is a lone woman surrounded by chauvinistic men that doubtlessly steps up above all others. Pushed to fight or flight, she’s going nowhere and her battle cries are “You’ll see what I’m capable of!” and “You don’t understand how far I will go!” Fellas, be afraid. Don’t dare cross a determined woman, no matter their size, age, or profession. They have outright toughness most cannot fathom.
That lone woman is flight officer Maude Garrett, played by Chloë Grace Moretz, and she is exponential girlpower, especially for a story set during a World War II era of “dames,” “broads,” and “tarts.” The threats in question are multifaceted, from belittling misogyny to Japanese bullets and, as the movie’s title suggests, a creepy mystery in between. Brazen and bonkers at every turn, director Roseanne Liang has made an action film that she defines as “stylistic feminine savagery.” Hot damn, is she ever right!
On a stormy 1943 night at a New Zealand air base, Maude has drawn up falsified orders from the top brass and smuggled a firearm to join the flight crew of “The Fool’s Errand” B-17 bomber shortly before takeoff on a supply delivery mission to Samoa. Her papers insist that the radio bag she’s carrying remains strictly unopened and protected at all cost. Maude’s presence brings out horndog talk of tongue-wagging innuendo and rancorous opposition among the crew, led by the stern Captain John Reeves (Callan Mulvey of Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice) in the pilot’s seat. She is relegated to the “sperry” ball turret while Staff Sergeant Walter Quaid (Hunter Killer’s Taylor John Smith) is entrusted to guard the bag.
LESSON #2: LISTEN TO THE GIRL-- Stuck in her clanky underbelly bucket-of-bolts perch defending herself over the coms to obstinate pains in the ass, the mood changes when Maude spots a few things afoot outside the plane among the wiggles and shimmies of bumpy air travel (crafted by Guns Akimbo supervising sound editor Nick Buckton). The first are glimpses of tailing Japanese reconnaissance that are brushed aside by the crew to be impossible as far south as they are from the active Pacific theater. The second is more animalistic in nature when it’s described as a large winged rat meddling on the wing. That report brings out dismissive laughs instead of heeded warnings.
LESSON #3: THE FOLKLORE OF GREMLINS-- The crew is cackling because they’ve been fed zany workplace PSAs (like one in the movie recreated Mukdaddy animation design lead Tim Evans that telegraphs the nuisance to come) and posters for years urging upstanding morale-boosting diligence to their airborne handiwork to prevent “gremlins” from causing malfunctions. Akin to a mix between mischievous leprechauns and the Big Bad Wolf, this was real lore born from World War II that would later be characterized and popularized by author Roald Dahl, a former airman himself.
Lifted from legend by Stephen Unterfranz’s visual effects team at WETA Digital as a canny critter and foreboding little adversary for cinematic delight, that is precisely the mythic menace more dangerous than the Japs that Maude finds herself staring down. The aerial ruckus that follows is a rowdy whirl propelled by Triple Frontier stunt coordinator Tim Wong and orchestrated by the throbbing electronica pulse of music from Mahuia Bridgman-Cooper and The Black Quartet.
The action is entirely centered on Chloë Grace Moretz’s provoked lady-of-action and the young actress barrels headlong into this kinetic chiller. Cinematographer Kit Fraser‘s twisting camera rarely leaves the feminine mettle of her appropriately imperfect heroine. Equal to the actress herself, Maude is a scrappy individual with a flawed complexity that swings the nature-versus-nurture pendulum like a battle axe.
Though Moretz’s performance may be hiding in a little indie hoping for a wider audience in a big streaming pond, count this role as a new and worthy addition to fem action canon next to the Furiosas and Sarah Connors of screen history. She’s that tenacious. Fittingly, Shadow in the Cloud signs off as a tribute to the female airman of WWII, complete with archival footage compiled by Pearl Lieberman, giving the genre romp a higher level of dignity than purely escapist thrills.
Between a soap opera-level subplot and plenty of ignored physics, oodles of Shadow in the Cloud are as preposterous as the beasties themselves, but that’s the entertaining intention laid on thick. Plenty of risks and snares will have you agape and squeezing that couch armrest just fine. Though the controversial (and rewritten) Max Landis retains a screenplay credit, the unfailing maniacal mind behind this bloody escapade is filmmaker Roseanne Liang, helming her second feature film and first in nine years. Speaking at the 2020 AFI Fest where her film played stateside, she’s looking to do Hollywood action films. Shit, if this is the loud Harley she can make with mere pennies and training wheels, imagine larger and take notice. Like her voracious main character, let’s see what she too is capable of.
NINE NOMINATIONS FOR MA RAINEY’S BLACK BOTTOM LEAD ALL FILMS AS THE CHICAGO INDIE CRITICS ANNOUNCE THEIR NOMINEES FOR THEIR FIFTH ANNUAL AWARDS
Even in this challenging year, quality cinema still lived on! The Chicago Indie Critics have announced their nominees for their fifth annual film awards. The voting members completed ballots to select nominees in 23 categories. The CIC members will commence a final round of voting ending on January 1, 2021. The 2020 CIC Award winners will be announced on the evening of January 2, 2021 in an online presentation posted on their YouTube Channel.
Leading all films with an impressive nine nominations is Netflix’s Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom helmed by Best Director nominee George C. Wolfe and starring acting nominees Chadwick Boseman and Viola Davis. Following next with seven nominations each was David Fincher’s Mank and Aaron Sorkin’s The Trial of the Chicago 7, both also hailing from Netflix. In all, 45 different films are represented with nominations for the 2020 CIC Awards.
Two awards of special recognition and interest are the annual Trailblazer and Impact Awards. The CIC’s Trailblazer Award honors the work of an artist who truly pushed the boundaries of the medium in terms of form and content. The Impact Award celebrates a person whose work during the past year or beyond made a positive influence on society. Beloved double-acting nominee Chadwick Boseman of Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom and Da 5 Bloods and Nomadland filmmaker Chloe Zhao are included in both fields.
The other nominees this year for 2020 Trailblazer Award include filmmakers Radha Blank (The 40-Year-Old Version), Emerald Fennell (Promising Young Woman), and Steve McQueen (Small Axe). For the Impact Award, the late actor and female filmmaker are joined by Music Box Theatre general manager Ryan Oestreich, McHenry Outdoor Theater owner Scott H. Dehn, and documentarian Garrett Bradley (Time).
Founded in 2016, the Chicago Indie Critics (formerly known as the Chicago Independent Film Critics Circle) is a creative and engaging non-for-profit organization composed of unique, dedicated, and diversified film critics. Its members are wide-ranging in experiences, backgrounds, tastes, and target audiences across both print and online platforms and publications. The CIC organized to share their personal assessments, commentaries, passions, and creativity in the vigilant effort to highlight the greatness and diversity found in both independent and mainstream films. While they originate in the Chicagoland area, the efforts of Chicago Indie Critics are to share, celebrate, and promote the rich artistic medium of film to audiences, fans, and eager minds across the nation and the world as an exemplary and upstanding pillar of intelligent print and broadcast journalism.
CIC DIRECTORS:
Emmanuel Noisette, Don Shanahan, El’Ahrai Stanek
CIC MEMBERS:
Annie Banks, Leo Brady, Mike Crowley, Jonita Davis, Jon Espino, Cati Glidewell, Ryan Jagiello, John Hammerle, Matt Kubinski, Al Lerner, Linda Lerner, Kevin McLenithan, Josh Parham, John Robinson, Andrea Thompson, Mike Vanderbilt, Kevin Wozniak, Jeffrey York
The complete list of nominees for the 2020 CIC Awards:
BEST INDEPENDENT FILM (budgets under $20 million)
THE FATHER
FIRST COW
NEVER RARELY SOMETIMES ALWAYS
NOMADLAND
PROMISING YOUNG WOMAN
BEST STUDIO FILM (budgets over $20 million)
DA 5 BLOODS
MA RAINEY’S BLACK BOTTOM
MANK
SOUL
TRIAL OF THE CHICAGO 7
BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM
ANOTHER ROUND
BACURAU
BEANPOLE
HIS HOUSE
THE LIFE AHEAD
BEST DOCUMENTARY
BOYS STATE
DICK JOHNSON IS DEAD
RISING PHOENIX
THE SOCIAL DILEMMA
TIME
BEST ANIMATED FILM
ONWARD
OVER THE MOON
SOUL
THE WILLOUGHBYS
WOLFWALKERS
BEST DIRECTOR
Emerald Fennell, PROMISING YOUNG WOMAN
Spike Lee, DA 5 BLOODS
George C. Wolfe, MA RAINEY’S BLACK BOTTOM
Florian Zeller, THE FATHER
Chloe Zhao, NOMADLAND
BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
MANK - Jack Fincher
NEVER RARELY SOMETIMES ALWAYS - Eliza Hittman
PALM SPRINGS - Andy Siara
PROMISING YOUNG WOMAN - Emerald Fennell
THE TRIAL OF THE CHICAGO 7 - Aaron Sorkin
BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
THE FATHER - Florian Zeller
FIRST COW - Kelly Reichardt and Jonathan Raymond
I’M THINKING OF ENDING THINGS - Charlie Kaufman
MA RAINEY’S BLACK BOTTOM - Ruben Santiago-Hudson
NOMADLAND - Chloe Zhao
BEST ACTOR
Riz Ahmed, SOUND OF METAL
Chadwick Boseman, MA RAINEY’S BLACK BOTTOM
Anthony Hopkins, THE FATHER
Delroy Lindo, DA 5 BLOODS
Steven Yeun, MINARI
BEST ACTRESS
Nicole Beharie, MISS JUNETEENTH
Viola Davis, MA RAINEY’S BLACK BOTTOM
Sidney Flanigan, NEVER RARELY SOMETIMES ALWAYS
Frances McDormand, NOMADLAND
Carey Mulligan, PROMISING YOUNG WOMAN
BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
Chadwick Boseman, DA 5 BLOODS
Bo Burnham, PROMISING YOUNG WOMAN
Sacha Baron Cohen, THE TRIAL OF THE CHICAGO 7
Frank Langella, THE TRIAL OF THE CHICAGO 7
Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, THE TRIAL OF THE CHICAGO 7
Bill Murray, ON THE ROCKS
BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Maria Bakalova, BORAT SUBSEQUENT MOVIEFILM
Olivia Colman, THE FATHER
Talia Ryder, NEVER RARELY SOMETIMES ALWAYS
Amanda Seyfried, MANK
Youn Yuh-jung, MINARI
BEST ENSEMBLE CAST
DA 5 BLOODS
MA RAINEY’S BLACK BOTTOM
MINARI
ONE NIGHT IN MIAMI
THE TRIAL OF THE CHICAGO 7
BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY
DA 5 BLOODS
EMMA
JINGLE JANGLE: A CHRISTMAS JOURNEY
MANK
NOMADLAND
TENET
BEST PRODUCTION DESIGN
EMMA
JINGLE JANGLE: A CHRISTMAS JOURNEY
MA RAINEY’S BLACK BOTTOM
MANK
TENET
BEST COSTUME DESIGN
EMMA
JINGLE JANGLE: A CHRISTMAS JOURNEY
MA RAINEY’S BLACK BOTTOM
MANK
SYLVIE’S LOVE
BEST MAKEUP
BIRDS OF PREY
EMMA
JINGLE JANGLE: A CHRISTMAS JOURNEY
MA RAINEY’S BLACK BOTTOM
POSSESSOR
BEST EDITING
THE FATHER
NOMADLAND
TENET
THE TRIAL OF THE CHICAGO 7
WANDER DARKLY
BEST MUSICAL SCORE
MANK
THE MIDNIGHT SKY
MINARI
SOUL
TENET
BEST ORIGINAL SONG
“Husavik” - EUROVISION SONG CONTEST: THE STORY OF FIRE SAGA
“Loyal Brave True” - MULAN
“Speak Now” - ONE NIGHT IN MIAMI
“This Day” - JINGLE JANGLE: A CHRISTMAS JOURNEY
“Wuhan Flu” - BORAT SUBSEQUENT MOVIEFILM
BEST VISUAL EFFECTS
THE INVISIBLE MAN
JINGLE JANGLE: A CHRISTMAS JOURNEY
THE MIDNIGHT SKY
TENET
WONDER WOMAN 1984
SPECIAL AWARDS
TRAILBLAZER AWARD
Honors the work of an artist who truly pushes the boundaries of the medium in terms of form and content
Radha Blank
Chadwick Boseman
Emerald Fennell
Steve McQueen
Chloe Zhao
IMPACT AWARD
Given to a person whose work has had a positive impact on society
Chadwick Boseman
Garrett Bradley
Scott H. Dehn
Ryan Oestreich
Chloe Zhao
CIC AWARD NOMINATIONS BY THE NUMBERS
FILMS:
9: Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom
7: Mank, The Trial of the Chicago 7
6: Da 5 Bloods, The Father, Jingle Jangle: A Christmas Journey, Nomadland
5: Promising Young Woman, Tenet
4: Emma, Minari, Never Really Sometimes Always
3: Soul
2: Borat Subsequent Moviefilm, First Cow, The Midnight Sky, One Night in Miami
1: Another Round, Bacurau, Beanpole, Birds of Prey, Boys State, Dick Johnson is Dead, Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga, His House, I’m Thinking of Ending Things, The Invisible Man, The Life Ahead, Miss Juneteenth, Mulan, On the Rocks, Onward, Over the Moon, Palm Springs, Possessor, Rising Phoenix, The Social Dilemma, Soul, Sound of Metal, Sylvia’s Love, Time, Wander Darkly, The Willoughbys, Wolfwalkers, Wonder Woman 1984
Patty Jenkins and Gal Gadot’s long awaited sequel to Wonder Woman has had a turbulent time during the pandemic. Pushed back countless times along with the announcement of it debuting on HBO Max and in theatres on the same day. With only a limited amount of cinemas opening in the US (2,000 to be precise) […]
Despite the overall crappiness of this year, 2020 has been the 10th anniversary of this website Every Movie Has a Lesson. I didn’t start this endeavor until May of 2010 and, when the end of the year rolled around, I didn’t have a complete “sample size” or body of work, so to speak, to write a proper “10 Best” list. Missing that chance has always bothered the completist in me. I’ve been meaning to fix that and this little anniversary seemed like the right time, especially after charting a “best of the decade” list a year ago at the close of the 10s. So, turning back the clock a decade, here are my “10 Best Films of 2010.” Enjoy!
1. Inception
2. Toy Story 3
3. Scott Pilgrim Vs. the World
4. The Social Network
5. Black Swan
6. The Town
7. Easy A
8. The King’s Speech
9. The Fighter
10. Winter’s Bone
The 10 Best Movies of 2010
1. Inception
2. Toy Story 3
3. Scott Pilgrim Vs. the World
4. The Social Network
5. Black Swan
6. The Town
7. Easy A
8. The King’s Speech
9. The Fighter
10. Winter’s Bone
Even if my tolerance of Christopher Nolan has faded every slow slightly with time, Inception, for me, remains his largest and grandest overall work at this point of his career. It captivated me then and it still does now. If that makes me a Nolan fanboy for a day, so be it. I call him to the carpet plenty. With my younger writer’s skills that used to really swing for hyperbole fences, I remember calling Toy Story 3 a “perfect” movie. It’s the end we deserved and I’m still salty Toy Story 4 has sullied that luster some. Inception and Toy Story 3 ended up my #6 and #7 films of the entire decade.
Coming in at #20 on that same list and #3 here was Scott Pilgrim Vs. the World. It’s arguably the most kinetic and visually inventive movie I’ve ever seen. It deserves more than a bubble gum pop level of acclaim. Hell, here I am putting Edgar Wright’s show over David Fincher’s worshipped The Social Network, many folks’ consensus pick as the top film of this given year. I recently revisited it for a retrospective piece for 25YL and enjoyed measuring its impact since its debut. A movie that has slipped for me a little was Black Swan. It’s my pick for the best thing Darren Aronofsky has done, and it was my unofficial #2 of 2010. Black Swan fell to round out the Top 5.
In the bottom half, there’s quite a mix. The biggest riser is Easy A. Something tells me that has to do with the rising talent of Emma Stone and being able to look back to her beginning brilliance. I know it’s become popular to label The King’s Speech pandering Oscar bait that ended up working in its favor. I won’t do that. It remains an inspiring and well-balanced film. The Town may not be as good as Argo two years later, but it’s rock solid still.
The battle for the final spot was between 2010’s little-indie-that-could in Winter’s Bone or the jaw-dropping spectacle of Tron: Legacy. It went with quality over quantity with Winter’s Bone, a ballsy movie that some could call ahead of its time. For those of you looking for the Coen brothers’ True Grit, keep on scrolling or go to another writer’s list. It ain’t It ain’t making it this high ever.
The Top 10 Indispensable Expendables Action Star Film List
by Christopher D. Childs
In 2010, 63-year-old Sylvester Stallone had a brilliant idea: throw a bunch of veteran action stars all into one movie and then crank up the testosterone. Thus The Expendables was born. The film pulled in more than $220 million worldwide and spawned a sequel, The Expendables 2, which allows the franchise to pull in even more action stars. Some of these guys are heading into senior citizen territory but so far none is using a walker to kick some ass. So here's a list of the most indispensable films representing each of these iconic Expendables action stars.
Sylvester Stallone - First Blood (1982)
Rocky may be Sylvester Stallone's best film - and it's what put him on the Hollywood map by proving he could both act and write - but First Blood is the Stallone film that you have to see alongside The Expendables. First Blood gives us the character of Rambo, but in his first appearance he's very different from the character that appears later on. In First Blood, Stallone's Rambo does everything he can to outsmart his opponents and NOT kill them. It's a solid actioner with a more interesting protagonist than we usually get. Another indispensable and early Stallone film is the Roger Corman B-movie Death Race 2000.
While some of The Expendables stars have only a few quality films to choose from, Jet Li has an embarrassment of riches. The Chinese-born Li was a Wushu national champion who performed as a youngster in front of President Nixon. He rose to fame in Hong Kong cinema in the 1980s and 1990s. His action films frequently rely on spectacular wire work (Swordsman, Once Upon a Time in China, Fong Sai Yuk) but Fist of Legendgives him a chance to dazzle with more down to earth fighting, courtesy of Yuen Woo-Ping's action choreography. The film is a variation on the Bruce Lee film The Chinese Connection. Li plays Chen Zhen, a student of Huo Yuanjia, a character Li himself would later play in Fearless. Li's work in Hollywood films has never come close to the work he does in Asia.
Dolph Lundgren - Showdown in Little Tokyo (1991)
Off screen, Dolph Lundgren may be the most impressive of The Expendables Team. Boasting a reported IQ of 160, he received a Master's Degree in Chemical Engineering from University of Sydney in Australia (as part of an exchange program through The Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm) and then was awarded a Fulbright Scholarship to MIT. He also speaks multiple languages and has a black belt in karate. Lundgren gained attention playing ruthless boxer Ivan Drago in Rocky IV, but his best leading man role is as Sgt. Chris Kenner opposite Brandon Lee's Johnny Murata in Showdown in Little Tokyo.
Terry Crews - Idiocracy (2006)
Former NFL player Terry Crews came to acting in 2000. He's done mostly supporting roles in comedy and action films, but hands down his most memorable role is as the intellectually challenged President Camacho in the dumbed-down U.S. society of 500 years in the future in Mike Judge's Idiocracy. Idiocracy was unceremoniously dumped on the market by Fox and, without a publicity campaign to support it, the film went largely unnoticed. But Judge (of Beavis and Butthead fame) delivers a wickedly funny satire about the survival of the dumbest, and Crews nearly steals the show as the crazy Prez.
Randy Couture - Redbelt (2008)
Randy Couture is the weakest acting link in The Expendables. The MMA fighter has very few film roles to his credit but can claim a pair of UFC Light-Heavyweight champion titles and three UFC Heavyweight championships. As his best role I'll cite the best film he happened to appear in: David Mamet's anti-action film Redbelt. This film cleverly mixes the world of filmmaking, con men, and fight promotion.
Bruce Willis - Die Hard (1988)
Bruce Willis had only a cameo appearance in The Expendables but he's back for more in The Expendables 2. He has an extensive list of action hero starring roles but the one that's a must-have is Die Hard. It kicked off a highly lucrative franchise and gave us the wise-cracking New York cop John McClane. Willis was still playing McClane nearly two decades later in Live Free or Die Hard.
Arnold Schwarzenegger - The Terminator (1984)
Arnold had an even smaller cameo than Willis in the first Expendables, probably because he was still Governor of California, but he too is back for the sequel. His most iconic role has to be as the single-minded cyborg in The Terminator. After playing the baddie here, Arnold made a point of playing good guys in a string of mostly formulaic action films. Another Arnie signature film is John Milius' Conan the Barbarian. With Terminator and Conan, you have Arnold at his best and beefiest.
Jean-Claude Van Damme - JCVD (2008)
The Muscles from Brussels! Kickboxing champion Jean-Claude Van Damme found action hero stardom in the late 1980s. He also recognized early on the talent of Hong Kong's New Wave. He managed to bring over some of Hong Kong's best action directors for their first English language films: John Woo (Hard Target), Ringo Lam (Maximum Risk), and Tsui Hark (Double Team). Most of his action films are standard but fun B-movie fare but no one expected the clever oddity of JCVD. In the film Van Damme plays himself, an aging action star struggling to get roles. So while Hard Target, Double Impact, and Universal Soldier might be more representative of his action career, JCVD is a must-see for any Van Damme fan.
Chuck Norris - Return of the Dragon (1972)
Okay, why Chuck Norris got recruited for The Expendables 2 before the likes of The Rock and Vin Diesel or even Steven Seagal is a mystery. He's never been a kick-ass action star but more like a right-wing goodie-two-shoes with martial arts skills. He found popular success in the '80s with a string of films (Lone Wolf McQuade, Missing in Action, Delta Force) in which he played bland, self-righteous heroes. He's not helped by the fact that he has an unimpressively mousy little voice. So the film that puts him in perspective is Return of the Dragon where he gets his butt kicked by Bruce Lee.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Christopher D. Childsworks as a review writer forResumeWriterReviews. It gives him an opportunity to improve his critical and creative thinking skills. Moreover, he keeps up with modern tendencies of employee engagement, motivation and management.
The Top 10 Most Successful Action Franchises of All Time
by Daniel T. Anderson
What would you guess to be the most profitable action movie franchise of all time? If you had to choose one, which would it be? Mission Impossible? The Pirates of the Caribbean? The Matrix films?
Reporting on these sorts of box office results is typically pretty simplistic. We're told the amount of money a film made domestically (and sometimes internationally) and how much the film cost to make. The difference is supposed to be the profitability. However, determining real-life profitability is much more complex.
For one, international box office receipts are vastly underutilized, as most action films earn more money overseas than they do domestically. For another, theaters get a cut of the box office income, not every dollar earned goes to the studio, and the percentage the theater gets varies, depending on how long the film has been playing. By a film's fourth week, it's normal for the theater to get 50% or more of the earnings. And when reporting film budgets, for some strange reason, the costs of marketing and distribution are frequently overlooked, costs that often are anywhere from 50% to 100% of the production budget (after all, buying commercials and billboards all over the world is expensive!)
Of course, the big secret is that Hollywood doesn't even make most of its money from cinemas -- most of its profit comes from what are known as "secondary markets," which include everything from Netflix to HBO to iTunes to DVD sales; it's not uncommon for secondary markets to earn as much for films as their entire domestic and international box office returns brought in. If the figures posted in this article seem unusually high, that's because this article recognizes that secondary markets are often just as big, enough bigger for revenues, than the original theatrical run.
The most egregious error perpetrated when reporting on film profitability though is the lack of perspective in as far as taking inflation into account. Sure Iron Man 3 has earned more than Raiders of the Lost Ark, but if Raiders of the Lost Ark sold as many tickets today as it did upon its initial release, how would Raiders of the Lost Ark stack up against The Fast and the Furious or The Avengers?
Well, here at About Action and War Movies, we have done all the hard work so that you don't have to. Unfortunately, most of the figures beyond basic budget and box office results are not released, so we had to use formulas based on mean averages to determine all the other variables in determining profitability (marketing and distribution costs, income from secondary markets, earnings for both theater chains and secondary market distributors, etc.)
Without further ado, here are the top ten most profitable action franchises.
10. Die Hard
Average Per Film Profit - Adjusted for Inflation: $491,000,000
Average Per Film Profit - Actual: $294,000,000
No. of Films Considered: 5
Number ten on this list is the iconoclastic Die Hard series. Some readers might be surprised to find this franchise anywhere on the list. Sure the original is a classic action film, but the most recent entries haven't exactly been burning up the domestic box office. Fortunately, for Bruce, the Die Hard series still packs a bang overseas, where even the latest film, A Good Day to Die Hard earned hundreds of millions overseas while failing domestically. Plans are for a sixth film in the franchise in which John McClane will finally die. (It's a much overdue death!)
9. The Terminator
Average Per Film Profit - Adjusted for Inflation: $494,000,000
Average Per Film Profit - Actual: $303,000,000
No. of Films Considered: 4
With the fifth film in the franchise due this Summer, a film which is supposed to reset the messy continuity of the series and launch a brand new trilogy, Hollywood is attempting to squeeze every last bit of water from this increasingly heavy stone. The first film was a modest cult classic, but the franchise really hit its high water mark with Terminator 2: Judgment Day, a massive critical and box office hit. Ever since though, both of the two films that followed earned less and less at the box office (while becoming increasingly confusing), mostly made still profitable by large overseas returns. Can this franchise continue to turn a profit? Can Arnold revive his career? Can the timeline be cleared up to make any sort of sense?
8. Jurassic Park
Average Per Film Profit - Adjusted for Inflation: $750,000,000
Average Per Film Profit - Actual: $684,000,000
No. of Films Considered: 4
The Jurassic Park franchise does massive business - monster movies have always been big box office earners. Though it should be said that it's massive box office contracted sharply with the third film, and then bounced back with Jurassic World owning the largest opening weekend ever. The franchise could move up or down on this list depending on where Jurassic World finally ends. The question is this: Is the franchise dead after this most recent entry? Or will audiences continue to flock to see the same repeated story once every decade or so?
7. Mission: Impossible
Average Per Film Profit - Adjusted for Inflation: $798,000,000
Average Per Film Profit - Actual: $567,000,000
No. of Films Considered: 4
While Die Hard and The Terminator seem to be dropping domestically, increasingly reliant upon overseas box office to become profitable, the Mission Impossible series is headed the other direction, with each film being more profitable than the last. The last entry Mission: Impossible- Ghost Protocol made almost $700 million in profits (estimated, of course!) There's a reason that Tom Cruise was picked by About Action and War Movies to be the most profitable action movie star of all time. (His alter-ego Ethan Hunt also did pretty well in our spy vs. spy franchise fight.) Expect this Summer's Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation to do huge business.
6. The Matrix
Average Per Film Profit - Adjusted for Inflation: $899,000,000
Average Per Film Profit - Actual: $605,000,000
No. of Films Considered: 4
The Matrix trilogy followed a strange path at the box office. Normally, within a trilogy, the second film is usually the weakest performer. For example, The Empire Strikes Back is the worst performing of the original Star Wars trilogy. Attack of the Clones is the worst performing of the new trilogy. With The Matrix, it's the opposite. The first film had a massive estimated profit of $466 whereas the second film had a gargantuan estimated profit of $749, only to drop down to a still respectable $383 for the last film. Why did so many people go crazy for the second film in the franchise? I have no idea. Either way, the trilogy is finished. (The original film also has the benefit of being one of the ten most important action films of all time.)
5. James Bond
Average Per Film Profit - Adjusted for Inflation: $968,000,000
Average Per Film Profit - Actual: $806,000,000
No. of Films Considered: 3
Skipping the Batman franchise and we land at James Bond, at least the Daniel Craig films. At one point in the franchise many decades ago, a Bond film that grossed $20 million was considered a huge hit. Of course, that was also when budgets were $8 million dollars. James Bond was dying a bit towards the end of the Roger Moore era and with the disappointing box office returns of Timothy Dalton's outings. But then, fortunes changed with Pierce Brosnan, and the films started to earn hundreds of millions in profit. When Bronsan left and Criag took over, things changed again - for the better - with the films now earning almost a billion worldwide just at the box office. Craig has been quoted as saying he'd like to be let out of his James Bond contract, but with profit figures like these, that's not going to happen anytime soon.
4. The Hunger Games
Average Per Film Profit - Adjusted for Inflation: $1,026,000,000
Average Per Film Profit - Actual: $960,000,000
No. of Films Considered: 4
As this list isn't including super hero films, we skip Spiderman and Iron Man to give 7th place to The Hunger Games.
The Hunger Games was a small budget action film that had low expectations from studio executives. It was considered on track to be a potential moderate hit; no one would have guessed that it would go on to become a gargantuan box office behemoth with every film earning half a billion or more in profit. (No wonder the studio decided to split the last chapter into two films, they get an extra film that way!) Owning the rights to The Hunger Games could be said to be the equivalent to having the right to print money.
3. The Fast and Furious
Average Per Film Profit - Adjusted for Inflation: $1,049,000,000
Average Per Film Profit - Actual: $988,000,000
No. of Films Considered: 4
The story of The Fast and the Furious franchise is one of the stranger tales of Hollywood. In 2001, a small action film with a $35 million dollar budget was released called The Fast and the Furious. It starred Vin Diesel and Paul Walker, two minor celebrities that were somewhat well known, but were nonetheless not known for their ability to open films. It turned out to be a moderate surprise hit, earning $100 million domestically and another $100 overseas. It wouldn't be breaking any box office records, but it was definitely enough to green light a number of sequels. As with most franchises, the box office results started to go down, with the third film making substantially less than the original.
And then, something strange happened, the franchise suddenly exploded. The fourth film earned $300 million internationally. The fifth earned $626 million. The sixth film earned $789 million. The latest installment earned $1,511 million, that's a billion and a half dollars just in ticket sales around the world. What happened? How did this happen? Franchises usually fade out and die off, not fade up and explode. In any case, it was enough to put this franchise at the number three spot and ensure many more films in the future.
2. Pirates of the Caribbean
Average Per Film Profit - Adjusted for Inflation: $1,277,000,000
Average Per Film Profit - Actual: $998,000,000
No. of Films Considered: 4
It cannot be understated how insanely popular this franchise is, or...at least was, at a point in time. The lowest performing of all the films was the first one, which earned $655 million internationally at the box office. The second film in the series earned a billion dollars just in ticket sales around the world. The third came close and so did the fourth. Add in secondary markets and you have the second most successful franchise of all time with an actual estimated per film mean average profit of just shy of a billion dollars. On films that cost about $350 million to make including production and publicity and distribution, that's a pretty strong return on one's money.
1. Indiana Jones
Average Per Film Profit - Adjusted for Inflation: $1,497,000,000
Average Per Film Profit - Actual: $622,000,000
No. of Films Considered: 4
And the top spot goes to Indiana Jones! (But only because Star Wars, Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter, and The Avengers aren't on this list.)
How popular has Indiana Jones been, well consider that Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, the often derided 2008 entry made $856 million in estimated profits once both international and national box office and secondary markets were calculated - and this was the least successful film in the franchise, by far! Put differently, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom made over $300 million globally just in ticket sales, at a time when the large budget for this film was only $28 million (as opposed to the $185 million that Kingdom of the Crystal Skull cost.) Which means that in its day, Raiders of the Lost Ark was the equivalent of an Avatar.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Daniel T. Anderson, a writer at thecollege essay helpservice. He keeps up with advancing technologies so as to get acquainted with latest technological tendencies. Besides, Daniel is keen on reading modern literature and traveling.
