Movies News Talk
Classic action films with absurd ideas like vampire hunters and intergalactic alien drug dealers abound from the 1990s.
Though the ridiculous plots and great action Movies from the 1990s abound, the absurdity sometimes lends some extra appeal to the films. As long as they feature interesting characters and convincing action set pieces, action movies don't always have to have the most grounded and believable plots. Sometimes the dash of absurdity makes things even more exciting and frenetic since the narrative gets harder to forecast.
Though they don't always stretch all the way into sci-fi, many of the best action Movies of the 1990s ask their viewers to believe in ridiculous ideas. Many 1990s action films rapidly develop into ridiculous action sequences and overblown theatricality, even if their starting points are absurd. Many of these films have grown to be cult favorites, cherished for their audacious strangeness.
Though he created many of his best crowdpleasers in the 1990s, Jean-Claude Van Damme has always been a master of ridiculous action movies. The storyline of Sudden Death is best understood as Die Hard at a hockey game, with Van Damme portraying a fire marshal tasked with stopping an extortionist terrorist from detonating a bomb at Stanley Cup Finals game seven.
Though its execution elevates things, Sudden Death starts with a ridiculous idea. Luckily, it delivers the goods; Van Damme's martial skills and a reasonable dosage of big explosions help. Van Damme kills a man sporting a giant penguin suit as well.
Michael Keaton's time as the Caped Crusader proved successful, and Val Kilmer replaced Tim Burton as director for Batman Forever. These developments produced a quite different Batman film since Burton's dark, dystopian Gotham suddenly adopted a colorful, campy attitude. Keaton avoided the pun or two Kilmer's Batman always carries at hand.
Though it's not usually ranked among the best Batman films, Batman Forever has certain highlights, particularly in the action scenes. Though they deviate sharply from Burton's technique, Jim Carrey and Tommy Lee Jones's brilliantly overblown performances as the two villains are entertaining to watch.
Face/Off might be the epitome of the 1990s trend in outrageous action thrillers surpassing all other films. For its audience, it offers a ridiculously entertaining ride with an implausible sci-fi concept thrown in some flimsy reasoning. Star as a terrorist and FBI agent undergoing experimental facial transplant surgery Nicolas Cage and John Travolta. This somewhat alters their voices as well.
Though Nicolas Cage also credits Con Air and The Rock, Face/Off is the most ridiculous of his 1990s action films. Face/Off lets Cage play John Travolta and vice versa. The way the two actors interpret each other's eccentricities to complement the exciting action scenes is quite humorous. Though Face/Off's ridiculous idea seems to have been reverse-engineered from a clever title, John Woo's mastery of action drives the film skyward.
Also called I Come in Peace, Dark Angel, Dolph Lundgren plays a renegade police officer hunting down a group of white-collar heroin suppliers. Before it reveals that strong aliens extracting endorphins from the brains of drug users to sell as recreational drugs back on their home planet are the true masterminds behind the drug racket, Dark Angel boasts an amazing explosions-per- minute rate.
Dark Angel tosses some strange alien technology, like a spinning disk that can cut people's throats by keying into their individual bioelectrical patterns, as if this initial isn't already ridiculous enough. Though none of the story makes much sense, it doesn't really have to given so many great action sequences. Dark Angel's other major strength is that it moves quickly enough to allow little time for questions.
Before ever moving to Hollywood filmmaking, Jackie Chan had a long and successful career in Hong Kong. Rush Hour explores the cultural shock between the two countries. Chan is teamed with American comic Chris Tucker as two police who have to find the kidnapped daughter of a Chinese diplomat in Los Angeles. Though the idea is rather simple, the action and the storyline both get progressively ridiculous.
When Rush Hour can juxtaposition the many styles and cultures of its two leads, it is at its best. This covers some jokes about the language barrier and the two men's disparate professionalism, but it also covers Tucker's slapstick efforts to copy Chan's amazing stunt work. In its action-packed climax, Rush Hour finally gives up all sense of believability as Chan's character moves from a talented fighter into some sort of superhuman.
Though it will be difficult to surpass the 1998 version starring Wesley Snipes, Mahershala Ali will be directing a new Blade movie in the MCU in 2025. Frequent delays on the reboot point to some reluctance in Marvel's approach. 1998's Blade is utterly fashionable and self-confident. It could be challenging to try to catch this swagger in line with the MCU's pre-defined tone.
Blade has Snipes in exactly the right cast. He's offered the opportunity to deliver lots of unforgettable one-liners, but he's the epitome of cool when it comes time to kill some vampires. What committing to ridiculous action looks like is the nightclub scene, with writhing, lustful vampires beneath sprinklers of blood. In many respects, it embodies the core of what makes 1990s action movies so fun. Though it's an odd idea, it's delivered with courageous authenticity.
Keanu Reeves plays an FBI agent undercover to spy on a gang of bank robbers pulled together by their love of surfing. Though he is a well-known college football player, Johnny Utah is a rather grounded character, particularly in light of Patrick Swayze's enlightened spiritualist thief Bodhi. Bodhi gently persuadesivesively tells Johnny and the audience of his own unique viewpoint.
Bodhi's brand of anti-establishment philosophy is difficult not to be taken in by. But stepping back shows that a lot of his new age perspective stems from his need to indulge his twin loves of surfing and sex. Not only for its action scenes and intriguing characters, but also for the way Point Break creates the impression that surfing is noble and vital enough to make an FBI agent doubt all his life decisions. This makes it among the best heist movies ever.
Keanu Reeves created some ridiculous action films in the 1990s besides Point Break. In Speed, he and Sandra Bullock seize control of a bus loaded with a bomb meant to explode below 50 miles per hour. Speed is an unquestionably good action thriller even if the story has no basis in real life. Even with completely ridiculous stunts like a bus load of people jumping over a section of missing road.
The bus is kept from slowing down, thus the movie moves at a furious speed as well. Speed has been trashed by bomb experts, although it isn't necessarily meant to be the most realistic action movie. Speed 2 is even more absurd since it attempts to retell the same story using a boat instead of a bus.
Men in Black is a buddy cop movie bristling with strange aliens, as Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones team up to keep the people of New York City safe, regardless of their planet of origin. The concept of Men in Black is rooted in conspiracy theories about government agents who are deployed to silence any noise about alien activity on Earth. In another movie, these characters might be the villains, but Men in Black makes them the charming protagonists.
Men in Black uses Will Smith's character as a conduit for the audience. He is the one who is introduced to a fantastical world that he didn't know existed, while Tommy Lee Jones plays the wise older professional. Men in Black is filled with funny quotes and relatable human details to flesh out its strange world, and this means the action scenes feel surprisingly weighty. Men in Black's ending provides its most absurd moment of all, as it reveals that the entire galaxy is being tossed around in an alien game of marbles.
Total Recall is based on a short story by Philip K. Dick, but it changes the narrative to the point that it's barely recognizable by the end. The first half of the movie is relatively close to Dick's story, albeit with the musclebound Arnold Schwarzenegger in place of his meek protagonist. However, the movie quickly runs out of material to adapt, and it takes a turn into a wholly original fantasy.
Total Recall retains a lot of the core themes of Dick's story, especially the tension between objective reality and the subjectivity of human memory. But casting Arnold Schwarzenegger inevitably changes the tone of the sci-fi story, and it becomes much more action-heavy. Paul Verhoeven's endlessly inventive action sequences keep things moving at an exciting pace, which means that the movie can take some of its weirdest moments in its stride.