blackrabbitsrun

blackrabbitsrun t1_j2cginm wrote

Reply to comment by PonchoMysticism in Was Bruce Willis in Die Hard the ushering in of the modern everyman action star? by SquatOnAPitbull

"zero reason to believe they are well trained"

Are you honestly putting forth the position, that one can't watch the tactical awareness, combat skills, hand/eye coordination, ability to plan and execute, not to mention pain tolerance and rationally infer that all that took decades of training to achieve? Or are you saying that anyone can do what John Wick does, with absolutely 0 training?

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blackrabbitsrun t1_j2c4rop wrote

Reply to comment by notorious98 in Was Bruce Willis in Die Hard the ushering in of the modern everyman action star? by SquatOnAPitbull

I have, decent movie. Still not John McClain. The guy in Nobody got fucked up because he held back. When he didn't, he tore through a Russian monster's organization like they were paper targets. Even handled being right up against a claymore fairly well. Was so frightening, people would rather bail without pay on a psychotic mob boss than be on his bad side.

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blackrabbitsrun t1_j2bxk7l wrote

Reply to comment by FormerIceCreamEater in Was Bruce Willis in Die Hard the ushering in of the modern everyman action star? by SquatOnAPitbull

I'm not denying that. His character fell into the tropes that I'm decrying. But that's not what is being talked about, and debated here. We are talking about the first movie and only the first movie. I'm comparing Die Hard 1 (one) 1988 to modern action movies where the character is always some current or former special forces or super trained fighter of some sort, chewing through enemies like a bandsaw through paper with minimal injury.

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blackrabbitsrun t1_j2bqzee wrote

Reply to comment by PonchoMysticism in Was Bruce Willis in Die Hard the ushering in of the modern everyman action star? by SquatOnAPitbull

Show me where John McClain walks through a night club and bodies a dozen well trained body guards without a problem. Or where he does the same in catacombs, or where he straight up chews through entire groups of highly trained assassins with his bare hands/a pistol and maybe a sword or a knife.

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blackrabbitsrun t1_j2bfre4 wrote

Reply to comment by TylerBourbon in Was Bruce Willis in Die Hard the ushering in of the modern everyman action star? by SquatOnAPitbull

Yep. I genuinely can't bring myself to watch Love and Thunder past the one time. Marvel doesn't need to go to extremes but damn I would like the people to actually be people. That's what Marvel marketed their heroes as in the first place. Hopefully they swing things back the other way but I'm not holding my breath for it.

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blackrabbitsrun t1_j2bc5xv wrote

Reply to comment by TylerBourbon in Was Bruce Willis in Die Hard the ushering in of the modern everyman action star? by SquatOnAPitbull

Right? I think DC is the biggest culprit of this so far with Marvel quickly moving in. You watch Captain America: Winter Soldier, Tobey McGuire's fight with the Green Goblin, and Tom Holland's first fight with the Green Goblin, they get fucked up. I would say Cap gets it the worst out of the 3, considering he gets shot too, but they all get absolutely thrashed to the point they're barely holding it together. Anymore though, I can't really think of a Marvel hero who got it even half as bad. Chadwick Bosman from Black Panther, but...nope nothing else comes to mind.

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blackrabbitsrun t1_j2ase6i wrote

Reply to Was Bruce Willis in Die Hard the ushering in of the modern everyman action star? by SquatOnAPitbull

I wouldn't go that far. Die Hard was a rarity in that John McClane was an every day person. He wasn't some special forces, goes to the gym 6 times a week, knows 5 fighting styles and cooks too, kind of character like you see anymore. You had Murtagh in Lethal Weapon, and a few others but we have since migrated away from them. One other thing that set them apart from modern action stars is that they got FUCKED up. Most action movie characters get some soot on them, maybe a bleeding lip and some scrapes and scratches but that's about it. I always liked Die Hard because John got absolutely fucked but still kept going. I miss when action stars could get wrecked honestly. It felt more realistic and honestly made the characters more likable and you rooted for them more because you saw they weren't these impossible beings. I hope action gets back to that some day.

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