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By action flicks i primarily mean the likes of Taken, The Last Stand so on... The ones that don't have massive ambitions or scale.
Is the time when an action film can go into theaters have a ton of fans and gain large pop culture recognition over?
I think action fans will still exist but i don't see an action flick making as much money as they did in the nineties unless it has superheroes or some historical epic level of action with thousands of people going at eachother.

Is Direct to VOD/DVD the future of the franchise? Do you see the VOD/DVD market churning out more polished and bigger budget movies in the long term.

Interesting article on the subject:

http://www.rogerebert.com/balder-and-dash/the-real-vulgar-auteurs-three-great-directors-of-direct-to-video-films

Action films are still very much in demand. The problem comes with the fact hat it's a violence based genre and major studios dilute it for PG-13 ratings, rather lazy writing, and lazy direction/cinematography. Nobody makes OTT action besides Michael Bay, and his films suck because of the horrible lazy writing. For instance, Bad Boys II has some of the best action sequences in nay film, but it's still a horrible film because of Bay's horrible writing. Get somebody competent, and more importantly invested in entertaining the audience, behind the camera, and an action film is sure to be a success.

The problem recently is that they seem to bleed every popular idea dry. Taken is a perfect example. Well executed simple plot with great action sequences and of course that famous monologue. Liam Neeson has now done how many similar films? Taken 2 was terrible. unknown was terrible. Non stop looks like another rip off cash in on Taken's popularity.

Bad rip offs just breed apathy towards similar films.

We also have tho old guard of action heroes that frankly no longer seem to give a shit about the poor standard of films they are churning out so long as they get paid.

Stallone has done in the last 5 years Escape Plan, Bullet to the Head, Grudge Match and the Rambo reboot. All of which were poor. The 2 Expendables movies were good fun, admittedly.

Arnie is also churning out crap at an alarming rate now he's no longer got politics to occupy him. Escape Plan, The Last Stand and this year Sabotage. In 2015 apparently he's lined up for Terminator Genesis which I'm sure will also be totally shit.

There is still hope though.

I thought 2 Guns was good fun.
Lone Survivor is supposed to be excellent although I haven't seen it yet.
Lockout was a great fun action movie.
Elysium was good.
I thought Jack Reacher was very good.

And if you're not satisfied with western action movies you can watch some top drawer foreign ones such as District 13 or The Raid.

Theres more action movies than ever before. It may not seem like it because a lot of them come in the form of science fiction or fantasy but I don't see whats wrong with that. Good action is good action regardless of the genre of film it's found in. There's still an abundance of action movies that fall into the crime drama or revenge genre, so I really don't see how you think there are any less action movies being made. We could talk for hours about all the bad, decent, good and fantastic action movies that have released over the past twenty years. Perhaps your standards, taste or perspective has changed because they certainly haven't stopped making them.

Originally posted by jinXed by JaNx
Theres more action movies than ever before. It may not seem like it because a lot of them come in the form of science fiction or fantasy but I don't see whats wrong with that.

Me neither, but besides the above mentioned Lockout those are more like adventure movies that involve galactic odds, saving planets and overthrowing kings.

Inception was sci-fi action without being about galactic type stuff. Same with The Adjustment Bureau. Over the last few years there has been Minority Report, Book of Eli, Children of Men, The Island and quite a few more near- future sci fi action films that don't involve saving the world. Although arguably that's the greater goal in Children of Men.

How many of those are from the last 5 years?

Action movies will continue to have a worldwide presence. Mainstream American presence? Absolutely.

Just a few off the top of my head would...,

Collateral
Domino
End of Watch
Snatch
Kill BIll
Equilibrium
Black Hawk Down
A-team
Mission Impossibles
Bond
Bourne movies
Ip Man
Fast and the Furious
REd
Pacific Rim
Dredd
Hunger Games
The Raid
Haywire
Looper
Losers
Iron Clad
HAnna
Knight and Day
MAn with Iron Fists
The Grey

These are just a couple of examples that I thoughts of off the top of my head. Like I said earlier we really could discuss a range of good and bad action movies that have released regularly over the past twenty years.

Originally posted by Shey Tapani
How many of those are from the last 5 years?

8 out of the 12 I mentioned in the last few posts.

Of course it will.
The real question is will mainstream America ever let go of its homo erotic obsession of fight scenes with musclebound men fighting with little to know choreography... action sequences through the years all not only look exactly alike but follow the same formula.
Run, shoot, supermanpunch, kick...run, shoot, superman- punch, kick. Wash, rinse, & repeat. If i see one more superman-punch ill phucking end myself

Originally posted by 0mega Spawn
Of course it will.
The real question is will mainstream America ever let go of its homo erotic obsession of fight scenes with musclebound men fighting with little to know choreography... action sequences through the years all not only look exactly alike but follow the same formula.
Run, shoot, supermanpunch, kick...run, shoot, superman- punch, kick. Wash, rinse, & repeat. If i see one more superman-punch ill phucking end myself

You've pretty much defined the formula for what HollyWood defines as an action movie.

Can you give an example of an action movie that contradicts this formula?

I mean, would you define a battle of wits, rather than guns & fists as an "action movie"?

Originally posted by Esau Cairn
You've pretty much defined the formula for what HollyWood defines as an action movie.

Can you give an example of an action movie that contradicts this formula?

I mean, would you define a battle of wits, rather than guns & fists as an "action movie"?
Lol i just think there should more choreography in its fight scenes. Not just superman-punch this guy then superman-punch that guy then step off then wall and superman-punch the guy at the end of the hall

Ok but you seem to be fairly criticising one movie & then generalising all action movies because of it.

Yes, I agree the Supes/Zod battle got tedious after the 1st minute.

Originally posted by Esau Cairn
Ok but you seem to be fairly criticising one movie & then generalising all action movies because of it.

Yes, I agree the Supes/Zod battle got tedious after the 1st minute.
No, not superman punching...
Superman-punch its a flashy MMA move.
It appears in a far too many movies and tv shows nowadays.
It involves a leaping motion followed by a punch. look it up.
Anywho rather than hire fight scene choreographers they simply rehearse a series of popular mma moves to give viewers the impression that the character has extensive fighting knowledge ... thus why you characters in movies pretty much constantly

Originally posted by 0mega Spawn
... thus why you characters in movies pretty much constantly

What?

Originally posted by Kazenji
What?

What?

Thus why you see characters doing it almost constantly...
Sorry posting off phone lol

Yeah... i know the stuff your talking about, I think the last movie that i've seen it used was in the last Fast & Furious movie.

Originally posted by 0mega Spawn

Superman-punch its a flashy MMA move.
It appears in a far too many movies and tv shows nowadays.
It involves a leaping motion followed by a punch.

Ok yeah I'm familiar with the punch...
It's equivalent to how "bullet-time" was used to death.

Movies in general have become international. I watched The Road to Bali on youtube. Bing Crosby & Bob Hope made it right there in Hollywood. Couldn't get by with that today. Cast and crew would have to journey to Bali.

Olympus has fallen is my favorite recent action movie.