In Search of the Last Action Heroes

In Search of the Last Action Heroes

source: In Search of the Last Action Heroes

Lots of interviews make a fun look back at action heroes and movies of the 80s and early 90s BUT there are some really weird typos in places (wrong dates and directors names for example) that make you scratch your head that they could have been missed. But overall it's a solid retrospective and worth watching if you like that era of movies.

Really entertaining documentary with some great anecdotes about the 1980's and the rise of action movies and actors. Very well done, it keeps ones' attention while watching.

I grew up in the 80s and 90s. The action movies still hold to me as the best ever made and true marvels of cinema with practical effects and such. If you grew up in the time you'll enjoy the trip down memory lane.

A celebration of '80s action movies, moving through to the present day. Plenty of clips from all of the classics and crowdfunded on Kickstarter too. IN SEARCH OF THE LAST ACTION HEROES also benefits from copious interview segments with many familiar faces, although the lack of a bigger budget means that you don't get the big names like Van Damme or Stallone. Still, I was more than happy with the likes of Scott Adkins, Bill Duke, Michael Jai White, Brad Fiedel, Paul Verhoeven and many others along for the ride; if you know them, you know them. A celebration of an era very dear to my heart and the one that gave me a love of cinema to begin with.

Director Oliver Harper has crafted a beautiful, sweeping and wonderfully informative love letter to a genre of film so synonymous with the childhood and upbringing of a generation. IN SEARCH OF THE LAST ACTION HEROES speaks to a sort of movie fan that needs no pretense. This stuff has been an intrinsic part of our lives, embedded in the fabric of how we express and present ourselves through our love of movies. Movies represent a microcosm of human innovation, imagination, ingenuity, boldness, risk. The idea that creative minds would dare to push high concepts, to go to such lengths with practical effects and stunts in order to achieve what they did in-camera...that's the indomitable spirit of being human. These were pioneers. Like their predecessors, they went into uncharted territory and carved out the legacy of these amazing films with sheer force of will and THAT, to me, is a part of what makes them special...that is what Oliver's film captures in its interviews and how they're used to tell the collective stories that makeup the dominance of the Action Film through the 1980s and it's gradual fall and redefinition today. For me, the documentary's passion and thoroughness evokes the efforts of Charles de Lauzirika...the spirit of all those special feature docs we've also grown up on, feeding our love and desire for knowing how these pieces of art were made and learning about the people responsible. I think what's also so great here is how the pillars of this genre and decade are used. I know the producers worked very hard to try and get Stallone, Schwarzenegger or Van Damme to participate...countless emails with agents and attempts to make their participation happen. But ultimately it plays to the film's strength to not necessarily feature them as interviewees themselves. True to its title, the documentary discusses the impacts and influences of Sly, Jean-Claude and Arnold...these Last Action Heroes...through anecdotes and stories told by peers, friends, collaborators...and in doing so, it elevates the mythic quality of these actors. The doc uses these actors as if they're folk heroes and figures that are larger than life and they really are. They aren't there themselves...but it's about the search for them, the search for how their rise came to be and this more mythic angle of discussing them lends their presence to being felt so fully. IN SEARCH OF THE LAST ACTION HEROES is just fantastic and if anyone loves movies and this particular snapshot in time of Action Films, definitely seek it out and give it a watch.

It may be explained chronologically but 2019's In Search of the Last Action Heroes is not really a documentary. In fact, it's not really an actual film for that matter. There's no beginning, middle, or end. There's no shape or coming to fruition moment. There's no adjusting in the editing. Basically in "Search" we have a cinematic, human flotation device. It just drifts along for what feels like 5 hours. But hey, don't worry. In Search of the Last Action Heroes is not 5 hours long for it comes out to 2 hours and change. Yeesh still. The producers probably told "Search's" director (Oliver Harper) he could do whatever he wanted hence an elongated, interview palooza mixed with tons of jump cuts to archived, action flick clips from the Post-Cold War and Greed decades. Everything in frame is rinse, rinse, repeat concluding with outtakes that are well, Cannonball Run style (enough already). Yup, In Search of the Last Action Heroes is definitely in "search" of something. For what I'm not totally sure. That's not to say that I wasn't somewhat fascinated by all the info about films like Lethal Weapon and First Blood and The Matrix and even Revenge of the Ninja (I almost forgot about that Sho Kosugi nugget). I mean "Search" is literally 140 minutes of assertions by critics, a few notable directors, some C-list actors, and people in the industry I've never really heard of. With nothing for the viewer to really jounce off of, they relentlessly explain how these pics from the 80s/90s bent the cosmic shift of anything relating to that genre. Is it all kind of fan-made? Obviously. Do I still like these affray vehicles with stuff blowing up and macho dudes getting their shootout on? Sure. I just know that In Search of the Last Action Heroes has a "search" engine that sadly loses fuel midway through. Natch.

Started off really good them went downhill fast with too much emphasis on 90s action movies for some weird reason missing out on tons of 80s classics that weren't even mentioned ie- Invasion USA,Big Trouble in Little China,Avenging Force,Delta Force,Rocky 4...very strange documentary

Impact of exciting topic - told from (several, but not all of) the horses' mouths - lessened by bland talking head/spastic A. D. D. "structure". End credits hint at a (potentially) more interesting version. #nitrosMovieChallenge.