TV/Movies Megathread

[CountDeMoney]

Discounting the folks whose big franchises got their start in the 1980s--I mean Schwarzeneger and Willis especially--is there any other actor that could rival Keanu Reeves as the greatest action star of the 1990s?  Discuss.

Interesting premise, and one I could agree with, considering so many action stars like you said, were already belting them out from the 1980s--Willis, Stallone, Arnold, even the B-listers like Seagal and Van Damme.

The only action stars I could see that started in the 90s and ran parallel to Keanu's career would be Nicholas Cage and, to a lesser extent, John Travolta.

[Eddie Teach]

Tom Cruise didn't really start doing action movies til the 90s. I'd say he's a bigger star than Keanu Reeves. Will Smith too.


I loved the Jeopardy skit on the SNL tribute, didn't care for all the montages of 3 second clips. Uneven but there were a few funny bits scattered throughout. Overall, not too bad for a tribute to a show I stopped watching 15 years ago.

[CountDeMoney]

Tom Cruise didn't really start doing action movies til the 90s. I'd say he's a bigger star than Keanu Reeves. Will Smith too.

Meh, I dunno...if you look at Tom Cruise's filmography, there's not much in the way of action movies with exception of Top Gun 1985, Days of Thunder 1990 and the first M:I in 1996, if we're defining "action" in the loosest of terms.

Besides, I think Tom Cruise is in an entirely different category anyway,  Now, Will Smith, you have an argument.

[Admiral Yi]

Different category?  Keanu Reaves is the definition of different category.

[Ed Anger]

Whoa

[CountDeMoney]

Different category?  Keanu Reaves is the definition of different category.

This entire discussion is in a different orbit.

[Eddie Teach]

Meh, I dunno...if you look at Tom Cruise's filmography, there's not much in the way of action movies with exception of Top Gun 1985, Days of Thunder 1990 and the first M:I in 1996, if we're defining "action" in the loosest of terms.

Top Gun and Days of Thunder aren't really action movies; they're dramas about people in high adrenaline lines of work. All the M:I movies, Edge of Tomorrow, Collateral, Jack Reacher, War of the Worlds, etc. are.

[CountDeMoney]

Top Gun and Days of Thunder aren't really action movies; they're dramas about people in high adrenaline lines of work. All the M:I movies, Edge of Tomorrow, Collateral, Jack Reacher, War of the Worlds, etc. are.

True, but honestly, he's done more action flicks in his last 15 years than in his first 15.   
Which is why I don't agree that Cruise was a bigger action star in the 1990s.  Bigger star, yeah.  But Ide's premise isn't arguing that.

[Ideologue]

Tom Cruise didn't really start doing action movies til the 90s. I'd say he's a bigger star than Keanu Reeves. Will Smith too.

See, I was considering Cruise, then like CDM I realized that he didn't hit his action stride till very late--discount the first M:I, and the second if you (reasonably enough) count 2000 as "the 90s"--and that's it.  Minority Report, the next two M:Is, Collateral, WotW, Jack Reacher, Oblivion, Edge of Tomorrow, even The Last Samurai if that's countable (still never seen it)... these are all post-2000.  Hell, most of them are post-2010.

For some reason I'm really resistant to considering Cage an action star, but he really was.  Weird.

Travolta's got his collaborations with Woo, but nobody likes Broken Arrow but me.

[garbon]

I loved the Jeopardy skit on the SNL tribute

Even that was rather weak compared to earlier iterations of that skit.

[Tonitrus]

Watching the first few episodes of season 5 of Portlandia...I am getting the impression it is one of those quirky, indie shows that should work well for 3-4 seasons and quietly fade away.

[Eddie Teach]

This season started off slow, yes. (I think it's only the fourth though). They changed the format a bit- before it was more of a sketch comedy show, while this season they've tried to have everything in an episode fit together. The first couple episodes focused way too much on just a couple of the characters, but since then they've integrated a bit better.

[celedhring]

Just seen a few sketches of the SNL 40th anniversary. Bill Murray looks like 15 years older than he actually is.

[celedhring]

Also, I'll raise Bruce Willis for contention as "90s action star". Die Hard is his only 80s action film, while he's got the two good Die Hard sequels, Last Man Standing, The Last Boy Scout, The Fifth Element, Armageddon... and a bunch of others in the 90s.

[The Brain]

What the hell is a 90s action star? All action movies were made in the 80s.