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Wednesday, June 20, 2007
Film Action-Slacked
Posted By Matt Brunson on Wed, Jun 20, 2007 at 1:13 PM
The latest issue of Entertainment Weekly (June 22) features the cover story "The 25 Greatest Action Movies of All Time." Overall, it's a decent list, with 1988's Die Hard coming out on top and 1986's Aliens landing in second place. (My personal choice for #1, 1981's Raiders of the Lost Ark, came in third.) Other worthy titles on the list include 1980's The Empire Strikes Back, 1987's RoboCop and 1991's Terminator 2: Judgment Day. Dubious selections include 2000's Gladiator and 2004's The Incredibles (love the movie, but one of the best action flicks?).
But if there's something troubling about EW's list, it's what's troubling about most recent lists of this nature: There's far too much emphasis on modern movies and not enough on classics from the past. Really, it's not a surprising development: These days, film criticism (and the attendant respect for cinema's history) is less important than film gossip, and what is Entertainment Weekly if not a magazine that prides itself on covering the latest stars, trends and what-not?
Only five films on EW's list were released before 1980 — the oldest is 1938's The Adventures of Robin Hood, which places #18 (I'd probably place it #2 on my list). The list inexplicably slights dozens of World War II classics (The Great Escape, The Guns of Navarone, etc.), several Western gems (no Stagecoach?) and all gangster flicks.
The good news? At least EW had the sense not to put 300 on the list.
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