Yes, Another Documentary For Me

This time it was 2019's In Search of the Last Action Heroes:

It was not the plan to see several documentaries in a short amount of time, but... it'll be the last one I do, at least for the next week or so. As someone born in 1981, naturally I have a strong affinity for the action movies of the 80's and 90's, whether it be the big budget R-rated epics or the lower budget efforts. My childhood & my tastes will factor into me rating this high.

The documentary is a crowdfunded effort (all the contributors were listed in the end credits, so that's why they were over 12 minutes long and featured interview outtakes) where the only big name from the era-at least in front of the camera-that was interviewed was Cynthia Rothrock, although Paul Verhoeven was another nice get. The format was standard: movies w/ action before the 80's were discussed for a bit then all the talking heads bring up all the great stars (Arnold, Sly, Jackie Chan, Van Damme, Norris, etc.), the movies of John Woo, the classic films (The Terminator, Aliens, Die Hard, RoboCop, Predator, Lethal Weapon, etc.) and some other topics.

It was still nice that they had plenty of names if you enjoy the A and B movies in the genre back then-Vernon Wells, Al Leong, Matthias Hues, Ronny Cox, composers like Brad Fiedel, directors like Rambo III's Peter MacDonald, writers like Shane Black, & guys that should be modern action stars like Michael Jai White/Scott Adkins, among others. For an expert like me I did not learn too much new but for those less familiar hopefully they'll learn quite a bit, or at the very least have the desire to check out some bitchin' movies from this time period they haven't viewed before. It was a nice love letter to an era I miss & wish did not go away long ago. At least there are still films that I need to review here or haven't even experienced before.

Oh, and I know the producers-not the director-were also involved in In Search of Darkness, the 4 hour plus documentary on 80's horror I need to watch later in the year-it being over 4 hours is the reason why I haven't pressed “play” on the stream yet.