Sunday, April 12, 2020

In Search of the Last Action Heroes

Oliver Harper – 2019 – England

This documentary about the 80s heyday of action movies is a comprehensive, two-hour-twenty-minute, largely crowd-funded labor of love by filmmaker Oliver Harper. In a saturated market of pop-culture documentaries of varying quality, this is one of the best I’ve seen in recent years. I have no idea how (or if) the clearances for film clips was handled, but I’m not asking any questions. Nothing seems to be missing. Certainly, aficionados will know of many more titles and actors who deserve honorable mention too, but only the grumpiest nitpicker would be able to complain about how beautifully the film is organized and paced. It’s thorough without being exhausting, fun without being frivolous. From the more famous franchises like Mad Max, Conan and Rambo to some of the second-tier and equally fun gems like Invasion USA, American Ninja, Bloodsport, this film pays due tribute to them all.

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