best action sequences
 

to coincide with the action movies thread .. there are some outstanding action sequences i love .. (not always neccessary in an action film)


- Terminator 3 ... the town demolishing crane sequence

- terminator 2 - hard to pick just one

- the abyss - the chain of events sequence starting with the crane falling off the ship in the storm

- the freeway sequence in Final Destination 2

- the car chase in To Live and Die In LA

- anything that involved the dinos in Jacksons King Kong

- the fight sequence between Cusack and the assassin in Grosse Point Blank (probably the most realistic fight sequence ever filmed)

- the bridge crossing scene in Sorceror where you had to sit through it twice...



i'm partial to unrelenting action scenes that are realistic - that play out probably just as they would if the events were happening in real life (given the absurdity of time travel and killer robots..etc)

The fight scene between Roddy Piper & Keith David in "They Live".

The last fifteen minutes of Equilibrium.

The car chase in Bullet or The French Connection [they don't do car chases anymore, like they did in the 70's ]

A couple "on foot" chase scenes
in "Nemesis".

The "hammer time" scene in Oldboy

The duel in the falling leaves in Hero

Travis Bickle's mad rampage in Taxi Driver

The first fifteen minutes in "Saving Pvt. Ryan".

The gun fight in the bar in "Desparado".

ron jeremy and amber lynn in ......


uh, nevermind.

One of the most realistic fights scenes [imo] was with Matt Damon and er....the other guy..in the apartment in
The Bourne Supremacy

The battle at Helms Deep in" LOTR-Two Towers".

the bathromm/hallway fight in Danny the Dog/Unleased was pretty good too ..

(at the risk of this becoming a best fight scene thread)

i dont like a lot of fight scenes .. they are almost always the same damn thing ...


which is why the Grosse Point Blank one stands out in my mind as an action scene .. more than just a fight scene (but thats just my point of view)

not necisarly realistic but i liked them,

the big hit- hotel scene
hard boiled- the tea house, warehouse, boat, and hospital scenes
shanghi noon- the native american fight
the contract killer- jet vs. the frenchmen #1
kiss of the dragon- the hotel scene and chip shop
the crow- the metting
a history of violence- the coffie shop, tom/joeys house, and richies house
the replacement killers- the movie theater
collateral- club fever
the last samurai- when tom returns to town, the first battle, the ninja attack, and the final battle.
mission impossible 2- the bio lab scene, the motorcycle chase, and the beach fight.
walking tall( remake)- the casino scene #1 and #2
the bourne identity- any
the bourne supremacy- any
x-men 2- the school seige
the hunted- any
blade- any
blade 2- any
blade 3- any
leathel weapon- riggs vs. the mr. joshua
wasabi- the mall and the golf range scenes
the crimson rivers- vincent cassel vs. the gang
the crimson rivers 2- reda( benoit magimel) vs. the dru dealer.

there are more but not now.

The chariot race scene in "Ben Hur".

rumors that a stunt man was killed during that scene are false. FYI

shit - i forgot Kill Bill ... the attack of the crazy 99 or whatever they were called

the motorcycle sequence with michelle yeoh and peirce brosnan in Tomorrow Never Dies

I liked a lot of the sequences in Falling Down.

I also liked the final shootout in Violent Cop.

-Robbery scenes in Heat.
-Ronin car chase.
-Last 30 minutes of The Matrix.
-Opening of Raiders of the Lost Ark



p.s.
It's crazy 88.

oh yeah ! good classic one ..


a lot of the mad max movies had great action sequences too ... those crazy chase scenes with all the weird cars ..

-Hard Boiled
-The Killer
-Black Hawk Down

Re: best action sequences
 

that would be benny 'the jet' urquidez...probably the best fighter there was

The highway scene in The Matrix Reloaded is my favorite action sequence.

what, no tournament?

The Matrix, the building lobby and roof. But the end didn't stick out very much. (the very end)

The Batmobile Chase in Batman Begins

The Fight on the clock tower/train/ everywhere else in the city basically in Spiderman 2 was pretty action packed.

James Cameron's best work is hard to top in terms of action.

But these days, in attempts to create more instant "exhiliration", many directors and editors are using horrible MTV style flash and gimmickry to leave the viewer stunned, but zombie-like in appreciation. I don't know what we just witnessed, but I'm sure it looked good!

Fight sequences for example: a series of tiny quickfire edits (was that a foot? look there goes a fist! ooo see that!?) soundtracked with the most crisp bone-crunching FX they could come up with are supposed to satisfy us.

And they do, obviously, because more and more films are being made this way - box office receipts ensure it.

Big action scenes now resemble computer games because of digital technology. I haven't had the pleasure of Transporter 2, but a glimpse of the trailer reveals so much hokey CGI at work it now seems anything is possible.

The world ends when anything is possible.

you're completely right ... this is why i tried to avoid fight scenes unless they were actually 'action scenes' not just a series of quick edits and sound effects that could make my overweight aged mother look like a black belt on film.

sadly enough .. Luc Besson is championing this ..
they said his Femme Nikita was 'the death of french film'
looks like he's trying to kill the action film in general.

Transporter 2 ... not for one second was i convinced that anyone in the film could fight - or was fighting.
The cameraman and the editor were the only ones truely duking it out.

which again - is why i really like the fight in grosse point blank ... and as mentioned above - the brawl in They Live ... both were shot at a distance .. not these tight manipulative shots.

I like the part during the fight in They Live when the guy's car gets damaged and they both stop for a moment to consider it.

Although Cliffhanger was a so-so movie, I like the beginning where the girl falls. It was very tense from what I remember...but it has been years since I saw it so if I saw it now I might think it sucks.

Kinda of like the Speed Racer cartoon...I remember thinking this was a great show as a kid but then saw it years later and thought; wow, this sucks.

Sigh...some things are better as memories...

i dont think of it as an action sequence but the opening of cliffhanger was incredibly tense ...

it still holds up too but the rest of the film is nothing more than a 'dime a dozen' big name star action vehicle.

someone at the time said the 1st 5 minutes of that film was one of the years best movies .. the rest of the film was one of the worst.

I actually enjoyed the fight between Inigo and Wesley in the Princess Bride. The way Inigo waited for him and then they kind of had a civil discussion while trying to best each other. Not "action packed" I suppose but I still found it to be a decent action sequence.

The opening cliffhanger in Cliffhanger was very exciting, and the trailer was memorable too for bravely dubbing over all the action with an orchestral soundtrack.

i like that one zombie movie where the girl has a saw blade on a stick and kills a ton of zombies


!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!