Expendables 2, and other horrific action movies

[Steamforger]

Was Act of Valor "dumbed down" as it were in regards to the gun handling and combat? I thought it was pretty damn awesome to watch, but I have no experience with what they actually do on a mission...

I don't think so (and any recently deplyed SEALs feel free to correct me), but bear in mind that the SEALs have some slightly different habits regarding gun handling due to institutional inertia (IMHO) from previous training.

See, I read that as Uncommon Valor, which I thought had some pretty good work by Gene Hackman with an M1 Garand. The interesting corollary to this is George Lucas actually went looking for SF types to be stormtroopers in the 3 prequels exactly because of their practiced ease in the carrying and deployment of arms. Sadly, it was the only thing about those 3 movies worth a damn and he needs to be whipped with a fanbelt for making them.

While not even remotely a SEAL, I was with the boat unit in there for a short stint back in '96-'97. I remember it being a terrible place to be a reservist, but the boat scene in there was dead on.

[SoupOrMan]

As to your thesis about using actual SOF vets... Acting is HARD.

Almost no-one who hasn't done it understands this, but acting is INCREDIBLY difficult. Coming off as natural and realistic is goddamned near impossible. Conveying genuine emotion, sounding real and human speaking what can often be horribly unnatural and inhuman dialogue... It's not something most people can do... In fact it's something VANISHINGLY few people can do with even the slightest skill and veracity.

Even being a BAD actor is hard.

There have been lots of attempts to use actual SOF veterans as actors, and very few of them have been even a tiny bit successful. Most have been incredibly painful to watch.

It's a lot easier to train an actor to handle firearms and look good doing it, than it is to use someone who knows what they are doing with weapons, and teaching them how to act.

Oh and by the way, good and realistic handling and use of weapons, and combat techniques?

They don't look good on camera.

They're boring, and not in the slightest bit dramatic; except in the extreme skill shown in speed shooting.

At least it's not "The Starfighters."

"It was awful! I had to drink my own urine and eat a lizard and-"

"You were out here for ten minutes."

[Steamforger]

As to your thesis about using actual SOF vets... Acting is HARD.

Almost no-one who hasn't done it understands this, but acting is INCREDIBLY difficult. Coming off as natural and realistic is goddamned near impossible. Conveying genuine emotion, sounding real and human speaking what can often be horribly unnatural and inhuman dialogue... It's not something most people can do... In fact it's something VANISHINGLY few people can do with even the slightest skill and veracity.

Even being a BAD actor is hard.

There have been lots of attempts to use actual SOF veterans as actors, and very few of them have been even a tiny bit successful. Most have been incredibly painful to watch.

It's a lot easier to train an actor to handle firearms and look good doing it, than it is to use someone who knows what they are doing with weapons, and teaching them how to act.

Oh and by the way, good and realistic handling and use of weapons, and combat techniques?

They don't look good on camera.

They're boring, and not in the slightest bit dramatic; except in the extreme skill shown in speed shooting.

At least it's not "The Starfighters."

"It was awful! I had to drink my own urine and eat a lizard and-"

"You were out here for ten minutes."

The ONLY way to watch this piece if shite is MST3K.

[arctictom]

You are an intellegent man and it looks like , Expendables , The last boy scout, The Comando, Rambo, et al, are not your taste . Dont blame you I like them because of their wild sillyness, like a lot of things Chineese opera amoung them, it is an acquired taste.

[Kommander]

As to your thesis about using actual SOF vets... Acting is HARD.

Almost no-one who hasn't done it understands this, but acting is INCREDIBLY difficult. Coming off as natural and realistic is goddamned near impossible. Conveying genuine emotion, sounding real and human speaking what can often be horribly unnatural and inhuman dialogue... It's not something most people can do... In fact it's something VANISHINGLY few people can do with even the slightest skill and veracity.

Even being a BAD actor is hard.

There have been lots of attempts to use actual SOF veterans as actors, and very few of them have been even a tiny bit successful. Most have been incredibly painful to watch.

It's a lot easier to train an actor to handle firearms and look good doing it, than it is to use someone who knows what they are doing with weapons, and teaching them how to act.

Oh and by the way, good and realistic handling and use of weapons, and combat techniques?

They don't look good on camera.

They're boring, and not in the slightest bit dramatic; except in the extreme skill shown in speed shooting.

At least it's not "The Starfighters."

"It was awful! I had to drink my own urine and eat a lizard and-"

"You were out here for ten minutes."

The ONLY way to watch this piece if shite is MST3K.

It't on Netflix too! Looks like I know what I am doing tomorrow

[Steamforger]

At least it's not "The Starfighters."

"It was awful! I had to drink my own urine and eat a lizard and-"

"You were out here for ten minutes."

The ONLY way to watch this piece if shite is MST3K.

It't on Netflix too! Looks like I know what I am doing tomorrow

Best not to have any firearms nearby when the Senator keeps calling the CO. Might eat a gun barrel to escape...

[Denis]

Almost no-one who hasn't done it understands this, but acting is INCREDIBLY difficult. Coming off as natural and realistic is goddamned near impossible. Conveying genuine emotion, sounding real and human speaking what can often be horribly unnatural and inhuman dialogue... It's not something most people can do... In fact it's something VANISHINGLY few people can do with even the slightest skill and veracity.

Even being a BAD actor is hard.

I enjoyed this guy: http://www.wimp.com/actorsread/

Just thinking about American movies - at some time in the 1960s-70s (?) there was a turning point, after which violence of all kinds was OK, but sex of any kind was not. Movies in other countries tend to have preferred eroticism over violence. Does that tell us something about US-American culture?

[Erik]

Just thinking about American movies - at some time in the 1960s-70s (?) there was a turning point, after which violence of all kinds was OK, but sex of any kind was not. Movies in other countries tend to have preferred eroticism over violence. Does that tell us something about US-American culture?

I think it says just as much, if not more, about other countries cultures.

I've heard the argument Ad Nauseum that the US is so bad because they show violence but not sex, which is supposedly much better to show as much of as possible. That argument usuallly comes from the left of the 60's, when they made a point of pushing boundaries in "eroticism". That sort of overt and in your face "eroticism" was never present in Scandinavian movies or society before the left got in control of media and started making movies.
They then started flaunting it as a badge of honor, to show how "liberated" and "modern" they were, and how anyone that wouldn't show nude people frolicking in any movie was hopelessly old fashioned and conservative, and had no place in their modern world.

Btw, anyone remember that "Swedish porno" that Robert DeNiro takes Cybil Shepard to in "Taxi Driver"? That wasn't a porno, it was a documentary made by an NGO in Sweden to promote awareness of sexual issues. It was highly controversial in Sweden at the time, and was never intended to be shown in public, only in closed settings for educational purposes.

[SoupOrMan]

My first time home on leave from the Air Force, Dad had a Friday night off from work at the police department. So I ask him if he wants to watch MST3K with me and he's kind of hesitant.

"The Starfighters" was my welcome-home movie from MST3K. We woke Mom up a couple of times from laughing so much.

The next night? "Manos: Hands of Fate."

[arctictom]

My first time home on leave from the Air Force, Dad had a Friday night off from work at the police department. So I ask him if he wants to watch MST3K with me and he's kind of hesitant.

"The Starfighters" was my welcome-home movie from MST3K. We woke Mom up a couple of times from laughing so much.

The next night? "Manos: Hands of Fate."

Another thing you might try is the Evil Dead films .