The nostalgic may feel overwhelmed remembering the heyday of indie cinema and the rise to fame of Quentin Tarantino, but let’s not fool ourselves: for many viewers who experienced them firsthand, the 90s were the decade par excellence of the action cinema.
With icons of the likes of Schwarzenegger and Stallone in full swing, established directors (Michael Mann) and on the rise (this… Michael Bay) Devoting itself to the genre and with studios willing to spend big budgets in search of the next blockbuster, the Hollywood of three decades ago was more than lavish in explosions and shootings. And what was not Hollywood, too.
To prove it, we have gathered 15 movies that, for us, expose the greatest virtues of the actioners of that time. From the last great films of our leading musclemen to that end of the decade (and century) in which the virtual turned out to be the most.
‘Total Challenge’ (Paul Verhoeven, 1990)
The chance meeting of Schwarzenegger and Verhoeven in an Italian restaurant (there you go, Lautreamont) made this adaptation of Philip K. Dick written by Dan O’Bannon and Ronald Shusset (Alien) was as unfaithful to the original story as it was loyal to the writer’s constants.
Absurd humor, anti-capitalist satire and metaphysical doubts are the seasoning of scenes with bloodthirsty highs, as well as a setting that left icons like that mutant you are thinking of. To make matters worse, the Dutchman left the filming with the number of Sharon Stone on the agenda: the next stop on your trip would be Basic instinct.
‘Terminator 2’ (James Cameron, 1991)
While his friend and rival Stallone sank with Oscar, take your hands off! Schwarzenegger he definitively ascended to the Olympus of the tantarantans through the sequel to that B film that he had filmed seven years earlier.
And not only him: with an astronomical budget (102 million dollars compared to six for the original) and a collection to match, James Cameron surpassed the drowning of ‘Abyss’ demonstrating the possibilities of CGI and signing moments such as the chase on the highway (during whose filming, it is fair to say, he also played the game) or that game of cat and mouse in a blast furnace. Normally the whole world would exclaim “‘Sayonara baby!”.
‘They call him Bodhi’ (Kathryn Bigelow, 1991)
paraphrasing Julio Medem, We can say that Bigelow gets off on seeing two boys together, especially if they live a love-hate relationship as hot as that one. Keanu Reeves (in his first action job) and that Patrick Swayze (recently removed from the hurricane Dirty Dancing who just need to start singing Like a wave.
Author of titles as interesting as The night travelers and blue steel, the filmmaker offered a cocktail of sweaty anatomies, extreme sports (Swayze, very fond of the subject, he finished filming with four broken ribs) and technical tricks (if others did the rest in car chases, Bigelow did it in a foot race through the alleys of Los Angeles) with photography of a Donald Peterman whose most notable works to date had been Flashdance and 1, 2, 3… Splash.
The film, analyzed to the point of exhaustion during the following decades and victim in 2015 of a shameful remake, It is an enduring work precisely because of the ability to be one with its moment.
‘Lethal Weapon 3’ (Richard Donner, 1991)
After two deliveries in 1987 and 1989, Murtaugh (Danny Glover) He wasn’t the only one who was getting too old to put up with Riggs (Mel Gibson) and his outbursts. Even so, to the saga of buddy movies par excellence did not do badly in a chapter that brought back to Joe Pesci as comic relief.
with their gags, their songs Eric Clapton at the BSO (assisted by Sting and Elton John, to increase the rancid factor) and that collection that rubbed shoulders with batman returns in the rankings, Lethal Weapon 3 It was the action movie your father liked.
‘Demolition Man’ (Marco Brambilla, 1993)
Long before the word “woke” became a wild card for reactionaries, Stallone managed the funniest title of its forgettable 90s with this satire on a then-fashionable topic: political correctness.
Unlike today’s tantrums, the film had good supporting roles (a Wesley Snipes unleashed, the great Nigel Hawthorne and that Sandra Bullock that everyone loved to hate), winks to A happy world and gags as fine, as well as eschatological, like that of the legendary three shells.
‘The Professional’ (Luc Besson, 1993)
Uncomfortable? Sordid? Well, of course it did, and that was what it was about: beyond how repulsive its author, at that time a herald of the most commercial French cinema, may seem to us today, the history of hitman Leon (Jean Reno) and his apprentice Matilda It continues to be lived like a New York nightmare with Gary Oldman in ogre functions, gushing blood and an exceptional use of suspense, which also propelled the career of Natalie Portman as one of the key actresses of this decade, and the following ones.
‘Imminent Danger’ (Philip Noyce, 1994)
Impossible to talk about the nineties action without mentioning the writer Tom Clancy and his star character: that Jack Ryan whom you could see one day with the features of Alec Baldwin (The Hunt for Red October) and the other with those of Harrison Ford his most stable face on the big screen.
After having faced the IRA in patriots game (1992), this proven middle manager of the CIA stood up to the Colombian cartels here, entering into an impasse from which he emerged, already in 2002 and with the Ben Affleck for Imminent danger.
‘Heat’ (Michael Mann, 1995)
Between so many jokes, so much explosion and so much defiance of the laws of physics (and those of logic), Michael Mann slammed his fist on the table demanding seriousness with a heist thriller that was promoted to the point of nausea as an opportunity to watch together to Pacino and DeNiro, but whose place in history is due to scenes as overwhelming as the mythical shooting and that aura of criminal tragedy throughout Jean-Pierre Melville. Not in vain is it one of the favorite films of Mia Hansen-Løve.
‘Die Hard: Revenge’ (John McTiernan, 1995)
After an unmitigated dump (The last days of Eden, 1992) and the misunderstood, but delicious, The last great hero (1993) McTiernan returned to the saga that he himself had set in motion to sink John McClane (Bruce Willis) in his worst nightmare: solving logic problems in the middle of a cosmic hangover.
Thank goodness that, faced with the enigmas of Simon (Jeremy Irons, competing for the title ‘Mr. Tank Top 1995’), the dipsomaniac cop counted as buddy with a Samuel L. Jackson already promoted to icon for his work in Pulp Fiction. Critics didn’t like the result, but the majority of the public knew that Fort Knox is for tourists.
‘The Day of the Beast’ (Álex de la Iglesia, 1995)
What happens if you combine Hollywood action with comics from Bruguera and the tandem Berlanga-Azcona in a mixer to the rhythm of satanic metal? What’s the second feature from the Bilbao native after Mutant Action.
Portrait of a Madrid where not even rats can live, this mochales hunt in pursuit of the Antichrist offered us a stellar interpretation of Alex Angulo and instant cult scenes such as the escalation of the Capitol Hotel and the climax at the KIO Towers, in addition to that Terele Pavez that the same thing a rabbit used to skin you and sew you up with shotgun pellets.
‘Two Rogue Cops’ (Michael Bay, 1995)
The rock (1996) was funnier, partly thanks to Nicolas Cage and Sean Connery, while Armageddon (1988) was more… well, whatever that was. But Bay’s full-length debut was a warning of what that mercenary of the video clip and the spot was going to do with the genre in the following years.
Backed by the legendary tandem of producers Bruckheimer-Simpson (Top Gun) and with Will Smith taking the first step towards big screen stardom, Two rebel police officers He was one of the final exponents of the buddy movie as a guarantee of blockbuster success.
‘Mission: Impossible’ (Brian De Palma, 1996)
28 years ago, anyone would have said that this big-screen revival of the legendary spy series was going to lead to a saga, or that moments like the race on the train and the raid on the CIA data center (with that perfidious drop of sweat) they were going to be nothing compared to the stunts to come.
In honor of that Tom Cruise still oblivious to Botox, let’s make it clear that it was he who insisted on having as director a De Palma determined, for a change, to break records of suspense and creative audacity.
‘Face to Face’ (John Woo, 1997)
In his third American feature, the author of Hard Boiled and The murderer ‘even more difficult’ of histrionics was marked: not only did it have as protagonists John Travolta (back at your command after Broken Arrow, 1996) and Nicolas Cage, but rather made them exchange faces and identities throughout a script whose synopsis is an invitation to a headache. Better to stop explaining and enjoy its slow motions, its shootouts and those faces that ‘Nic’ makes when it’s his turn to be the really bad bad guy.
‘Blade’ (Stephen Norrington, 1998)
At the time, a actioner medium budget with a supernatural premise, a Wesley Snipes of few words wielding the katana and a plot that should have inspired more than one game of Vampire: The Masquerade. Now, a premonition, because we are talking about the first film starring a character Marvel that triumphed at the box office: four years later they arrived Sam Raimi and Tobey Maguire with Spider-Man… and we all know what happened next.
‘Matrix’ (Wachowski Sisters, 1999)
Again Matrix? Well yes, but what are we going to do if, after having devoured the 80s and 90s, the producer Joel Silver (Commando, Predator, Die Hard, etc.) knew how to convince Warner that the future of action was in sunglasses, virtual worlds, bullet time and Keanu Reeves. Hailed at the time as a cosmic revelation, the Wachowskis’ film was a turning point from which the genre would change forever.
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