80s and 90s "B" action movies

[DrOldSchool]

On 3/31/2021 at 10:58 AM, Murphy76 said:

Gotta love Rambo 2 & 3.

 

Weird Al does a great parody of Rambo 2 in UHF, which is a classic on it's own.  So funny-

 

Props to the scene in Rambo 3 where he cleans his own wound with gunpowder, and only gives a quiet groan.

 

UHF is so much fun. THESE FLOORS ARE DIRTY AS HELL AND I'M NOT GONNA TAKE IT ANYMORE!

 

 

[jholz]

14 minutes ago, DrOldSchool said:

 

UHF is so much fun. THESE FLOORS ARE DIRTY AS HELL AND I'M NOT GONNA TAKE IT ANYMORE!

 

 

 

UHF does indeed have it's moments...and I would have to say on the whole that it is a much better film than Rambo 2 & 3.

 

Like the Rocky franchise, I'd argue that the First Blood series went steeply downhill after the first. 

 

Oddly enough, the original First Blood is based on a much better book of the same name by David Morrell, who wrote a few very good spy thrillers in the 70's and 80's. He was my favorite author from about age 7-12.

 

[Murphy76]

36 minutes ago, DrOldSchool said:

 

UHF is so much fun. THESE FLOORS ARE DIRTY AS HELL AND I'M NOT GONNA TAKE IT ANYMORE!

 

 

 

Michael Richards is absolutely perfect for that role.  The whole movie is filled with people who should have gone to bigger things

[Hawkeye77]

On 3/22/2021 at 10:46 AM, bscinstnct said:

What bout Nighthawks?!

 

Nighthawks was dope!

 

 

 

- Pam: What do you do for a living?
- Heymar "Wulfgar" Reinhardt: I'm an international terroristwanted by the police in half of the countries in Europe. And I am currently laying low for the moment.

Pure escapist entertainment and classic good "B" film!  

[Hawkeye77]

On 4/1/2021 at 10:31 AM, jholz said:

 

UHF does indeed have it's moments...and I would have to say on the whole that it is a much better film than Rambo 2 & 3.

 

Like the Rocky franchise, I'd argue that the First Blood series went steeply downhill after the first. 

 

Oddly enough, the original First Blood is based on a much better book of the same name by David Morrell, who wrote a few very good spy thrillers in the 70's and 80's. He was my favorite author from about age 7-12.

 

English prof at Iowa when I was there - not my field, but I'd have taken a class from him if only I'd known what was coming, lol.

[jholz]

41 minutes ago, Hawkeye77 said:

English prof at Iowa when I was there - not my field, but I'd have taken a class from him if only I'd known what was coming, lol.

 

Interesting, I never really bothered to find out anything about him, as I was young at the time I was reading his stuff, but it makes sense that he has an academic background. I was an English prof myself but never at anywhere even close to the prestige of even Iowa. I do have a former colleague who works there now, actually. 

 

The industry has changed drastically since the time Morrell would have been teaching and I could never make a viable living at it. But, the skills I acquired have served me well in other professional endeavors.  

[Hawkeye77]

8 minutes ago, jholz said:

 

Interesting, I never really bothered to find out anything about him, as I was young at the time I was reading his stuff, but it makes sense that he has an academic background. I was an English prof myself but never at anywhere even close to the prestige of even Iowa. I do have a former colleague who works there now, actually. 

 

The industry has changed drastically since the time Morrell would have been teaching and I could never make a viable living at it. But, the skills I acquired have served me well in other professional endeavors.  

That's cool! Lots of folks influenced by the Iowa Writers Workshop over the years.  English Prof anywhere is prestigious in and of itself, I'm jealous.  As a result of working on and getting my masters in economics, and in-between getting my eventual professional degree (not Econ, I didn't have the necessary and extremely advanced math background), I got to teach economics at the UI as a TA, and as an instructor with my own undergrad and grad level courses - just part-time but it opened the door later to a second job at a community college for a couple years in the evenings and on weekends that made my apartment and car payments when my temporary 9-5 job for those two years wasn't all that lucrative - nothing wrong with extra $. Teaching college level students was so much fun - if I had to go back, lol . . . 

 

One of my sisters was a lit major at Iowa and has managed a pretty good career for the past 30 years working at home and doing editing for publishers, writing a certain genre of younger readers books and still writing every day and working towards something more "individual" she wants to publish, but she'd never have made it trying to write her own fiction novels for a living, for example.  Wish I could write!

[jholz]

9 minutes ago, Hawkeye77 said:

That's cool! Lots of folks influenced by the Iowa Writers Workshop over the years.  English Prof anywhere is prestigious in and of itself, I'm jealous.  As a result of working on and getting my masters in economics, and in-between getting my eventual professional degree (not Econ, I didn't have the necessary and extremely advanced math background), I got to teach economics at the UI as a TA, and as an instructor with my own undergrad and grad level courses - just part-time but it opened the door later to a second job at a community college for a couple years in the evenings and on weekends that made my apartment and car payments when my temporary 9-5 job for those two years wasn't all that lucrative - nothing wrong with extra $. Teaching college level students was so much fun - if I had to go back, lol . . . 

 

One of my sisters was a lit major at Iowa and has managed a pretty good career for the past 30 years working at home and doing editing for publishers, writing a certain genre of younger readers books and still writing every day and working towards something more "individual" she wants to publish, but she'd never have made it trying to write her own fiction novels for a living, for example.  Wish I could write!

 

Yeah, teaching college is indeed a ton of fun. I loved my time in the classroom. I wish I could have taught something less subjective than English, perhaps. I was always so jealous of the math and science profs feeding the scantron sheets into their automatic grading machines. And when an answer was wrong - it was simply wrong. Not a matter of opinion. I could see Econ being somewhat in the middle as far as that is concerned. I too, still do some adjunct work at the local college when the spirit and my finances move me. 

 

And it is crazy, my former colleague (and roommate) actually now works for the Iowa Writers Workshop. Small world.

 

Like your sister, I was motivated by a desire to write and really enjoyed the academic writing I was able to do. I have one legit academic publication and have spoken at a number of conferences - but wasn't getting paid (really) for any of it. The best compensation I got was the travel and the opportunity to meet Pele once.

 

But, I eventually transitioned to grant writing and now work for a nonprofit that helps low income folks gain employable skills and find jobs. So, I get to use my writing to tangibly make the world a better place - which is what I was after from the beginning, I suppose. Crazy how things work out. At the end of the day, good education is never going to hurt you. 

[toc]

While not solely an action movie since it has comedy, romance, drama, a ruthless middle aged man hell-bent on causing harm to teenagers...this belongs on any list of movies.  If you were a kid of any age in the 1980s this is the greatest movie in the history of the world.  Could only be considered a B movie as in it could not be any better.

[Murphy76]

 

Anyone remember "Thrashin'". 

 

Awesome skateboarding movie, including a scene where skaters 'joust'.  Hard to believe Josh Brolin was the star.....

 

 

Edited April 2, 2021 by Murphy76

[lefthack]

[ohioglfr]

On 4/2/2021 at 6:27 PM, Murphy76 said:

 

Anyone remember "Thrashin'". 

 

Awesome skateboarding movie, including a scene where skaters 'joust'.  Hard to believe Josh Brolin was the star.....

 

 

Gleaming the Cube was pretty good, too.

[ohioglfr]

Commando, with Arnold Schwarzenegger.  Rae Dawn Chong was hot.

[mokedaddy]

I can’t believe I forgot about The Running Man.

 

Edited April 18, 2021 by mokedaddy

[capking]

On 3/20/2021 at 5:01 PM, MtlJeff said:

So, All this talk of "Demolition Man" in the Caddies using carts thread has made me want to start this thread in the 19th hole. I'm a 39yr old movie lover, and there's a part of me that just loves B action movies from the 80s and 90s. Me and my brother grew up watching them, and still regularly randomly text each other quotes from all of the classics. 

 

They just don't make movies like this anymore. The villains were outrageous, the plots were outrageous, the heros would say cliche'd catchphrases after every kill. It was just really compelling stuff

 

I would like to discuss this in this thread:

 

1) Most ridiculous villains

2) Best one-liners

3) Most preposterous plots

4) Anything else you want to discuss

 

etc

 

What are some of your favorites?

3) the hands down winner for plot is “Over the Top”

Tough trucker Lincoln Hawk is determined to win back his son and triumph at the world arm wrestling championships.

You should start following the comic Earl Skakel, any podcast I hear him on he references 80’s action movies. Mostly predator and Commando, he also talks about quoting lines to character actors he sees in Hollywood 30 years after the movie comes out.