The action genre of the 70’s and 80’s specifically paralleled the horror
genre in a couple of aspects; they were mean spirited and incredibly violent. As
opposed to horror though,
more often than none it was the "hero" that was responsible for the more "out there"
atrocities. The way Arnold used garden tools on those poor soldiers in
Commando, or the pain Sly inflicted to the Vietnamese in Rambo II, or the vicious ass kicking Burt Reynolds served up in
Sticks; they all held a
candle to the handy work of the likes of say Voorhees or Myers.
In my opinion the action genre has been sagging since the mid 90’s as its
become sterile, safe and more oriented on over the top spectacles (don’t even
get me started on the use CG in action films) than intimate and to the grit wam-bam. Well here at AITH
we like to remember the good old days; the days where men were men and proud of
it. The days where a dude could smash another dudes head into a table just
because he was looking at some girl funny…and it was okay. The days where one-liners ran
rampant, body counts went through the roof and political correctness was out the window where it
f*cking belonged. The days of real action.
Hence the birth of our new bi-weekly column REEL ACTION (clever title isn’t it…bugh…
it’s all I got yo), where we will focus on them priceless action films of old;
the ones that whooped butts and took names without ever apologizing for it like
the pussy-ass, lets not offend anybody action crap were
served up today. Welcome to REEL ACTION!