Displaying items by tag: The Expendables
Cinematic superstars are usually pretty tough to interview... perhaps understandably, since they’ve suffered a near-complete loss of privacy and are under constant media scrutiny. Every little thing they say gets jumped on and blown up (and out of proportion). Small wonder most of them clam up in interviews, uttering lovely, sweet, politically correct soundbites to a hungry media salivating for headlines.
Not so Jackie Chan. The action mega-star, who’s busted heads and suffered injuries in just over a hundred movies, is perfectly candid and happy to share his thoughts on pretty much anything – be it the state of action movies today (anyone can be an action star in Hollywood); how much he dislikes making the Rush Hour movies; and how he heads to the West to make “easy money”.
The number one film in the Singapore Box Office this week, The Expendables 2, has beaten the box office numbers of the original, showing that the old action heroes of yesteryear still have some bite.
Slowly but surely, Hollywood seems to be learning the power of nostalgia, the appeal of the ‘George Lucas Throwback’ over stale production line multiplex fodder. Just as the Star Wars and Indiana Jones films were homages to the science fiction and pulp adventures of yore on which Lucas was raised, so are several recent releases. Super 8 was a love letter to the likes of Close Encounters of the Third Kind, The Goonies and E.T.: The Extraterrestrial. Rock of Ages embraced the kitsch and exuberance of musical films such as Grease and Footloose. And, of course, The Expendables was a macho salute to '80s - early '90s action flicks such as the Rambo movies, Commando, Hard Target and their ilk. While many were left somewhat unimpressed, it definitely left a taste for more of the same old-school wham bang fun, and opened the door to a sequel and the hope that more somewhat-forgotten action icons would be back to join Stallone’s motley crew.
