The action film is a film genre that predominantly features chase sequences, fights, shootouts, explosions, and stunt work. The specifics of what constitutes an action film has been in scholarly debate since the 1980s. While some scholars such as David Bordwell suggested they were films that favor spectacle to storytelling, others such as Geoff King stated they allow the scenes of spectacle to be attuned to storytelling. Action films are often hybrid with other genres, mixing into various forms such as comedies , science fiction films , and horror films .
142-420: Jason Statham ( / ˈ s t eɪ θ əm / STAY -thəm ; born 26 July 1967) is an English actor, producer, and former model and diver. He is known for portraying tough, gritty, or violent characters in various action thriller films, and has been credited for leading the resurgence of action films during the 2000s and 2010s. By 2017, his films had grossed over £ 1.1 billion ( $ 1.5 billion), making him one of
284-476: A "defining feature" that signals to movie-goers the content of a film. The same exposé commented, "You know what you're getting with a Jason Statham film. He will beat people up. He will crash cars. He will do an unconvincing American accent." Statham's impact on the action-thriller genre has been seen by Gabbatt as a replacement of the same undertaken by Arnold Schwarzenegger , Sylvester Stallone , and Jean-Claude Van Damme during their runs as headliners throughout
426-586: A "desperate attempt to mask the lack of content." Geoff King argued that the spectacle can also be a vehicle for narrative, opposed to interfering with it. Soberson stated that Harvey O'Brien had "perhaps the most convincing understanding of the genre", stating that the action film was "best understood as a fusion of form and content. It represents the idea and ethic of action through a form in which action, agitation and movement are paramount." O'Brien wrote further in his book Action Movies: The Cinema of Striking Back to suggest action films being unique and not just
568-401: A "now-customary efficiency" in attaining "an entertaining hitman thriller". The New York Times noted Statham as "sleek as a bullet"; and the film "a more powerful recharge" of the original. UK newspaper, The Daily Telegraph hailed Statham as "England's best export to action movies in just about forever, a businesslike brute with gentlemanly soul." He returned to British film by starring in
710-585: A 2013 interview with Vanity Fair , Statham advocated for stunt performers to be given their own category at the Academy Awards : "All of the stunt men, these are the unsung heroes. They really are. Nobody is giving them any credibility. They're risking their necks. And then you've got poncy actors pretending like they're doing [the stunts]." In 2014, Statham was inducted into the International Sports Hall of Fame . Action thriller While
852-634: A 30-second Super Bowl advertisement for Wix.com during Super Bowl LI . CNET reported that the advertisement reached 22 million user impressions. Statham was asked to re-join the Fast & Furious franchise once more in 2016. The ensuing film, The Fate of the Furious , was released in April 2017 to commercial success. While the film overall received mixed reviews, Statham was praised for his comedic timing and onscreen chemistry with contemporaries. The film went on to be
994-505: A Global release status of Chinese-language martial arts films, most notably Zhang Yimou 's Hero (2002) and House of Flying Daggers (2004), Stephen Chow 's Kung Fu Hustle (2004) and Chen Kaige 's The Promise (2005). Most Hong Kong action films in the first quarter of the 21st century, such as those in Cold War (2012), Cold War 2 (2016) and The White Storm film series have their violence toned down, especially compared to
1136-480: A Hollywood leading man. He has since starred in the ensemble action series The Expendables (2010–2023) and as Deckard Shaw in the Fast & Furious franchise , including the spin-off Hobbs & Shaw (2019). Jason Statham was born in Shirebrook on 26 July 1967, the son of dancer Eileen (née Yates) and street seller Barry Statham. His father also worked odd jobs as a house painter, coal miner, and singer in
1278-416: A Little Dream of Me " by The Beautiful South in 1995. While working as a model for French Connection, Statham was introduced to fledgling filmmaker Guy Ritchie , who was developing a film and needed to fill the role of a streetwise con artist. After learning about Statham's past as a market stall salesman, Ritchie cast him in the crime comedy thriller Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels (1998). The film
1420-485: A bonus disk, Arbor Bona Arbor Mala , an experimental ambient album. Always seeking to push out musical and communication boundaries, the Shamen saw themselves as an information band. Their Internet site Nemeton was amongst the first British music sites to host unique Web based events, e.g. releasing the first ever single and LP on the net in 1995 and it also features a remarkable piece of software devised by Angus to convert
1562-460: A chart-topping British electronic dance music act by the early 1990s. The founding members were Colin Angus, Derek McKenzie and Keith McKenzie. Peter Stephenson joined shortly after to take over on keyboards from Angus. Several other people were later in the band. Angus then teamed up with Will Sinnott, and together they found credibility as pioneers of rock/dance crossover. When rapper Mr. C joined,
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#17328556153941704-436: A fight sequence. In the 1980s, American martial arts films reflected the national move towards conservatism, reflected in films of Chuck Norris and other actors such as Sho Kosugi . The genre would shift from theatrical releases towards the end of the decade with the rise of home video, the lower box-office of American martial arts productions, and a significant portion of direct-to-video action films that first were made in
1846-493: A global audience of these films in the United States and Europe, but was cut short on Lee's death in 1973 leading the phases popularity to decline. Following a period of stagnation, Chang Cheh and Lau Kar-leung revitalized the genre with shaolin kung fu films and Chor Yuen 's series of darker swordplay films based on the novels of Gu Long . Kung Fu comedies appeared featuring Jackie Chan as martial arts films flourished into
1988-566: A hero overcoming enemies or obstacles and physical conflicts or challenge, usually battling other humans or alien opponents. By late 2010s studies of genre analysis, the term "genre" itself is often replaced or supplemented with the words "mode" and "narrative form" with all three terms often being used interchangeably. Johan Höglund and Agnieszka Soltysik Monnet said that the difference between these concepts are elusive, but stated that genre could be defined as belonging to specific historical and cultural moments while "mode" and "form" can refer to
2130-454: A larger pattern that operates across a wider historical and cultural field. In their book Action Cinema Since 2000 (2024), Tasker, Lisa Purse, and Chris Holmlund stated that thinking of action as a mode is more helpful than thinking of it as a genre. The three authors suggested that action frames a certain manner of filmmaking and viewing exceed genre without eclipsing it stating that websites such as IMDb and Misplaced Pages rarely label films by
2272-468: A negative budget, and was panned by the critics. In August 2011, he began filming Parker for director Taylor Hackford ; the film was released in January 2013. Statham played Parker , the criminal antihero previously played by Mel Gibson in 1999's Payback and by Lee Marvin in 1967's Point Blank (though their characters were given different surnames). A. O. Scott of The New York Times said of
2414-454: A normal guy. His look is just right for now: very masculine and not too male-modelly." However, he was still forced to follow in his father's footsteps as a street seller to make ends meet, stating that he sold "fake perfume and jewellery on street corners". He made small appearances in a few music videos, including "Comin' On" by The Shamen in 1993, " Run to the Sun " by Erasure in 1994, and " Dream
2556-543: A propensity for violent action, identified with the films of Chang Cheh . Violent female characters have been part of cinema since its early inception, with characters such as Kate Kelly brandishing a shotgun in The Story of the Kelly Gang (1906). Women traditionally appear in action films as romantic interests, tomboys , or sidekicks to male protagonists. Violent white women would appear in other genres as well such as
2698-501: A series of action sequences, stating that that the difference between Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981) and Die Hard (1988), that while both were mainstream Hollywood blockbusters with hero asserting masculinity and overcoming obstacles to a personal and social solution, John McClane in Die Hard repeatedly firing his automatic pistol while swinging from a high rise was not congruent with
2840-725: A significant portion. These films include Taxi 2 (2000), Kiss of the Dragon (2001), District 13 (2004) and Unleashed (2005). Whan asked about the Americanization of these French films, Christophe Gans , director of Brotherhood of the Wolf (2001) stated that "Hollywood ownership of certain elements [...] must be challenged, in order to show that these elements have also long been present in European culture." The most significant producers of French action films with international ambitions
2982-653: A similar level of popularity to that of the Western in the United States. The most internationally known films of this era were the films Kurosawa with Seven Samurai (1954), The Hidden Fortress (1958), and Yojimbo (1961). By at least the 1950s, Japanese films were looked upon as a model to be emulated by Hong Kong film production, and Hong Kong film companies began actively enlisting professionals from Japan, such as cinematographer Tadashi Nishimoto to contribute to color and widescreen cinematography. New literary sources also developed in martial arts films of this period, with
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#17328556153943124-406: A single genre and that streaming services such as Amazon Prime and Netflix similarly dilutes what is marketed and received as action. In transnational cinema, there are two major trends in action films: Hollywood action films and their style being imitated around the globe and the other being Chinese-language martial arts films. The roots of action films extend into the beginning of film but it
3266-451: A three-act structure centered on survival, resistance and revenge with narratives where the physical body of the hero is tested, traumatized and ultimately triumphant. The third shift in action cinema, the postclassical, was defined by the predominance of Eastern cinema and its aesthetics, primarily the wire-work of Hong Kong action cinema from the classical era, through the convention of the increasingly computer generated effects. This saw
3408-594: A tough police officer protects society by upholding the law against systematic corruption. This extended into films which O'Brien described as "knee-jerk responses" to perceived threats with rogue cop and vigilante films such as Dirty Harry (1971) and Death Wish (1974) where the restoration of order is only possible by force and antisocial characters prepared to act when society does not. The vigilantism reappears in other films that were exploitative of southern society such as Billy Jack (1971) and White Lightning (1973) and "good ol' boy" comedies like Smokey and
3550-450: A wide range of projects, but one that also uses cross-textual media in his output". In 2003, Statham appeared in three British television commercials for the Kit Kat chocolate bar. Described as a "break philosopher", he philosophised about salmon swimming upstream, a Mexican fisherman, and the relative speeds and ages of animals, before ending with a reminder that "taking a break" (alluding to
3692-456: Is Luc Besson 's France-based EuropaCorp , who released films like Taxi (1998) and From Paris with Love (2010). EuropaCorp produced Transporter franchise starred British actor Jason Statham and made him an action film star, which led him to feature in The Expendables series by the end of the 2010s. The action film genre has been a staple of Bollywood cinema . In the 1970s,
3834-569: Is a generic term to refer to several types of films containing martial arts. The wuxia film is the oldest genre in Chinese cinema. Stephen Teo wrote in his book on Wuxia that there is no satisfactory English translation of the term, with it often being identified as "the swordplay film" in critical studies. It is derived from the Chinese words wu denoting militarist or martial qualities and xia denoting chivalry, gallantry, and qualities of knighthood. The term wuxia entered into popular culture in
3976-702: Is based on Twin Dragons (1992). Other films such as the martial arts film Bhadrachlam (2001), borrows from American cinema with the Jean-Claude Van Damme film Kickboxer (1989). SS Rajamouli 's RRR (2022) was among the highest budgeted films made in India, and became a rare hit film outside of Indian diaspora, where it broke box office records in Japan and performed exceptionally well in American box office. Japan
4118-442: Is itself empowering and, if not, whether a hypersexualized female character can still represent strength and autonomy. Hypersexualized female action leads had tight fitting or revealing costumes that Tasker identified as "exaggerated statements of sexuality" and in the tradition of "fetishistic figure of fantasy" derives from comic books and soft pornography . This originated in television with characters like Buffy Summers ( Buffy
4260-508: The Phorward mini album, produced by ex-Fiction Factory singer/songwriter Kevin Patterson. Their third album, En-Tact , was released in 1990, and it spawned the hit singles " Move Any Mountain (Progen '91)", "Hyperreal" and "Make It Mine". Also notable was the appearance of rapper, DJ and producer Mr. C, as well as incorporation of a female vocalist, Plavka Lonich – who was intended to become
4402-568: The femme fatales in film noir and horror films of the 1970s. Violent women were common in action films since the 1960s. These films featured working-class women exacting revenge. Films of the 1970s featured black women such as Pam Grier in films like Foxy Brown (1974). In the 1980s, a new symbolically transgressive character emerged in the form of Ellen Ripley in Aliens (1986) and Sarah Connor in Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991) and
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4544-540: The Bollywood action film consolidated with two films starring Amitabh Bachchan : Prakash Mehra 's Zanjeer (1973) and Yash Chopra 's Deewaar (1975). The box office success of these films made Bachchan a star and spawned the "angry young man" film in Bollywood cinema. Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, the action genre film declined considerably with new films predominantly featuring former bodybuilders failing to reach
4686-458: The Canary Islands . Statham moved to Great Yarmouth , where he initially chose not to follow his father's career working the local market stalls, instead practising martial arts . He grew up alongside football player Vinnie Jones , with whom he would later act; Jones introduced him to football , and Statham went on to play for the local grammar school , which he attended from 1978 to 1983. He
4828-584: The Guy Ritchie crime films Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels (1998) and Snatch (2000). The commercial success of these films led him to star as Frank Martin in the Transporter trilogy (2002–2008). After starring in a variety of heist and action thriller films such as The Italian Job (2003), Crank (2006), War (2007), The Bank Job (2008), The Mechanic (2011), Spy (2015), and Mechanic: Resurrection (2016), he established himself as
4970-508: The Hong Kong action cinema , such melodramatic male bonding and marginalized women characters, while the Korean films also have greater elements of tragedy and romance emphasized. Most martial arts films made before the mid-1960s were Cantonese-language productions. In comparison, Mandarin-language films were an integral part of Hong Kong cinema due to the influx of Shanghai film talent in
5112-554: The September 11 attacks in 2001, which suggested an end to fantastical elements that defined the action hero and genre. Following the release of Quentin Tarantino 's Kill Bill: Volume 1 (2003) and Kill Bill: Volume 2 (2004) revisited the tropes of 1970s action films leading a renaissance of vengeance narratives in films like The Brave One (2007) and Taken (2008). O'Brien found that Tarantino's films were post-modern takes on
5254-458: The ensemble action film The Expendables . Statham plays Lee Christmas , a former SAS soldier and expert at close quarters combat using knives. The film was commercially successful, opening at number one at the box office in the United States, the United Kingdom, China and India, and grossed a total of $ 274 million worldwide. In his first film of 2011, Statham starred in the remake of
5396-466: The tenth highest-grossing film of 2019 , and received generally positive reviews from critics, with praise for Statham's performance. In 2022, Statham established his own production company, Punch Palace Productions. An article by Adam Gabbatt in The Guardian noted that Statham's character contributions to his industry and film niche are "tough [and] uncompromising". Some critics note his presence as
5538-454: The third highest-grossing film of 2017 and the 12th highest-grossing film of all time . Spy 2 was confirmed on 15 February 2018. But later in 2018, Feig explained that although a sequel to Spy could still happen, "there hasn't been any interest from the studio" in the project. Statham played the lead, former Naval captain Jonas Taylor, in the 2018 action-horror film The Meg , which
5680-501: The xinpai wuxia xiaoshuo (or "new school martial arts fiction") coming into prominence with the success of Liang Yusheng 's Longhu Dou Jinghua (1954) and Jin Yong 's Shujian enchou lu (1956) which showed influence of the Shanghai martial arts films but also circulated from Hong Kong to Taiwan and Chinese communities overseas. This led to a growing demand in both local and regional markets in
5822-485: The "S.O.S. EP", and the On Air and Different Drum albums. On Air featured a series of popular tracks from En-Tact and Boss Drum as performed live on BBC radio; Different Drum was a remix album containing alternate versions of every track from Boss Drum . The tracks "Boss Drum", " LSI (Love Sex Intelligence) ", " Phorever People ", "Ebeneezer Goode", and "Re:Evolution" were all released as singles in their own right. It
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5964-512: The 13th Floor Elevators . By mid-1987, frontman Colin Angus was discovering the sounds of early house-music pioneers, such as S-Express and M/A/R/R/S , and increasing his knowledge of the latest studio equipment. By September 1987, the Shamen were applying these techniques to their own music, mixing rock guitars, techno and hip-hop rhythms and sampled radio voices, which was to prove influential to groups like Jesus Jones and EMF . Their single "Christopher Mayhew Says", released in late 1987,
6106-428: The 1960s with films like The Born Losers (1967) which was predominantly a drama, interspersed with martial arts scenes. American martial arts films predominantly came into production following the release of Enter the Dragon (1973), with the only higher-budgeted American film to follow in its wake being The Yakuza (1974). Lott noted the two films would lead to the two subsequent styles of martial arts films in
6248-593: The 1970s. James Monaco wrote in 1979 in American Film Now: The People, The Power, The Money, the Movies that "the lines that separate on genre from another have continued to disintegrate." Tasker said that most post-classical action films are hybrids, drawing from genres as varied as war films, science fiction , horror , crime, martial arts , and comedy films . In Chinese-language films, both wuxia and kung fu are genre-specific terms, while martial arts
6390-553: The 1972 Charles Bronson film The Mechanic as Arthur Bishop. A theatrical trailer depicting Statham's character "shooting a man's head off" was banned from circulation by the Advertising Standards Authority for showing excessive violence. His role in The Mechanic was positively reviewed by the critics both in the United States and the United Kingdom. The Guardian praised his performance as possessing
6532-600: The 1980s and 1990s. Statham himself cites Stallone, Bruce Lee , Paul Newman , Steve McQueen , and Clint Eastwood as his inspirations. An article by Times Higher Education reported that Manchester University Press commissioned an academic study analysing the impact Statham has had on the British and American film industries from his debut in 1998 to 2018. According to the article, professors Steven Gerrard and Robert Shail are looking to show "the changing face of British cinematic masculinity" into "one that embraces cinema across
6674-768: The 1980s. Other films again modernized the form with gangster films of John Woo ( A Better Tomorrow (1986), The Killer (1989)) and the Wong Fei Hung saga returning in Tsui Hark 's Once Upon a Time in China featuring Jet Li which again revitalized the swordplay styled films. By the turn of the century Hollywood action films would look towards Hong Kong cinema and bringing some of their major actors and directors over to apply their style to their films, such as Chan, Woo, Li, Michelle Yeoh and Yuen Woo-Ping . The release of Ang Lee 's Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000) led to
6816-479: The 1980s. This was followed by the post-classical era where American action films were influenced by Hong Kong action cinema and the growing using of computer generated imagery in film. Following the September 11 attacks , a return to the early forms of the genre appeared in the wake of Kill Bill and The Expendables films. Scott Higgins wrote in 2008 in Cinema Journal that action films are both one of
6958-702: The 21st century have been comic book adaptations, which commenced with the X-Men and is seen in other series such as Spider-Man , and Iron Man series. Tasker wrote that despite the central characters in superhero cinema being extraordinary, occasionally even God-like, they often followed the traces of the central character becoming powerful of which is fundamental to action films, often dealt with origin stories in superhero films. Action films often interface with other genres. Tasker wrote that films are often labelled action thrillers, action-fantasy and action-adventure films with different nuances. Tasker later discussed that
7100-513: The Bandit (1977). This era also emphasizes the car chase scenes as moments of spectacle in films like Bullitt and The French Connection (1971). O'Brien described these films as emphasizing "the fusion of man and machine" with the drivers and vehicles acting as one, concluding with what he described as "the ultimate in apocalyptic modernity and social erasure" in Mad Max 2 (1981). O'Brien described
7242-746: The Bollywood press who reported on him in the headlines of Bollywood magazines for his public brawls and affairs with leading actresses. In Dabangg (2010), Khan continued with this public persona, which was repeated in several of his later films such as Ready (2011), Bodyguard (2011), Ek Tha Tiger (2012) and Dabangg 2 (2012). From the 1980s, generations of actors in Telugu cinema have invoked Hong Kong action films, such as Srihari who stated he wanted to become an actor after watching his first Bruce Lee film. Several films in Telugu cinema were remakes of Hong Kong films, such as Hello Brother (1994) which
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#17328556153947384-445: The British crime thriller The Bank Job and Death Race , a remake of Death Race 2000 (1975). American film critic Armond White hailed Statham's ascension as an action film star. On the occasion of Death Race , White championed Statham's "best track record of any contemporary movie star." Later in 2008, White praised Statham's Transporter 3 as a great example of kinetic pop art . Chris Hewitt of Empire Magazine , noted
7526-577: The British thriller Hummingbird . The latter film was praised by critics for pushing Statham's acting abilities to new heights. His "attempt to develop his 'brand' by trying more adventurous parts" noted by The Guardian 's Mark Kermode , "[broadened] his dramatic palette". Statham made a cameo in the 2014 music video Summer of Calvin Harris as one of the car racers. In 2014, he returned as Lee Christmas in The Expendables 3 . Although critically panned,
7668-503: The DNA structures of human life into electronic music. "S2 Translation", a track on Axis Mutatis , was generated using this software. The Shamen continued recording into the late 1990s, releasing two additional LPs with an increasingly experimental bent. Their penultimate studio album, the instrumental Hempton Manor , followed an acrimonious split with their label One Little Indian . It is alleged to have been recorded in seven days to conclude
7810-593: The Dragon briefly allowed an influx of Hong Kong films to Japan, but the trend did not last, with 28 Hong Kong films, mostly kung fu films, being released in 1974, and the number decreasing to five in 1975, four in 1977 and only two in 1978. Ryuhei Kitamura , director of Versus (2000), said in 2004 that he grew frustrated with the Japanese film industry as producers felt they couldn't make action films in competition with Hong Kong or American productions. Versus grew to become popular outside of Japan, and Kitamura said he
7952-597: The Hong Kong film industry after the handover in 1997. Anglophone action film scholarship has tended to emphasize bigger budget American action films, with academics tending to find films that fall out of Hollywood productions as not quite fitting definitions of the genre. By 2024, many national and regional industries were known for action films. These include international films such as Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam , South Korean, Japanese, Thai , Brazilian , Chinese , South African , French and Italian action titles. At
8094-675: The Kit Kat slogan) is an important part of life. In the comic book series Ultimate Spider-Man , that series' version of the villain Vulture was rendered by artist Mark Bagley to resemble actor Statham, per writer Brian Michael Bendis ' instructions. In the Twenty One Pilots song " Pet Cheetah " released in 2018, Statham is mentioned in the lyrics. Statham has been in a relationship with model Rosie Huntington-Whiteley since 2010. The couple announced their engagement in January 2016. Their son
8236-802: The Red Lotus (1965) and King Hu 's Come Drink with Me (1966). In the 1970s, the Hong Kong martial arts films began to grow under the format of yanggang ("staunch masculinity") mostly through the films of Chang Cheh which were popular. This transition led to the kung fu film sub-genre at beginning of the decade and moved beyond the swordplay films with contemporary settings of late Qing or early Republican periods and had more hand-to-hand combat over supernatural swordplay and special effects. A new studio, Golden Harvest quickly became one of independent filmmakers to grant creative freedom and pay and attracted new directors and actors, including Bruce Lee . The popularity of kung fu films and Bruce Lee led to attract
8378-581: The Shamen respectively. In May 1991, with the increased popularity of their band, Will Sin decided to release an EP entitled "U Make Me Feel" with an unknown female singer under the pseudonym Elsi Curry, and it was released as a promotional record. Later that same month, after the Sixth Mark of the Synergy Tour, and a one-week tour of Russia, the Shamen headed to Tenerife , to film a video for "Move Any Mountain". On 23 May, Will Sinnott drowned whilst swimming off
8520-596: The Shamen: "Christopher Mayhew Says" and "Knature of a Girl". "Knature of a Girl" was the first record by the Shamen to feature Sinnott, but it was not until June's "Jesus Loves Amerika" single that the techno influence began to show. By this stage, Angus and Sinnott had become hooked on the acid house movement taking place in London, and its music and clubs were to exert an influence on the pair. Keith McKenzie and Peter Stephenson were less impressed by these new developments, and left
8662-491: The Sierra Madre . It's not a remake or anything, but it's a little bit like that, about relationships and how greed contaminates the relationships these three people have. The working title is The Grabbers ." He reprised his role as Chev Chelios in the 2009 sequel Crank: High Voltage . In 2010, Statham appeared alongside fellow action stars Sylvester Stallone , Jet Li , Dolph Lundgren and Mickey Rourke , among others, in
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#17328556153948804-563: The United Kingdom began to rapidly expand. "Hyperreal", released in March 1991, reached number 28 on the UK Singles Chart . By this time, they realised they were on their way to reaching mainstream popularity. Every Synergy Live show on the fifth and sixth leg of tours were sold out. On the sixth leg of Synergy in April 1991, Gavin Knight and Richard Sharpe joined as the live drummer and keyboardist for
8946-480: The United States, Europe and Japan had during this period. Yip described Japanese cinema as the most advanced in Asia at the time. This was showcased by the international breakthrough of Akira Kurosawa 's films like Rashomon (1950). The film genre known as the chanbara was at its height in Japan. The style was a sub-genre to the jidai-geki , or period drama with an emphasis on sword fighting and action. It had
9088-406: The United States, with films like Enter the Dragon about people who reveled in combat, often in a tournament setting, and The Yakuza which had several genres attached to it, but featured several martial arts sequences. By the end of the 1970s, the style was an established genre in American cinema, often featuring tough heroic characters who would fight and not think about their actions until after
9230-584: The Vampire Slayer (1997–2003)) and Xena ( Xena: Warrior Princess (1995–2001)). These series popularity demonstrated a growing market for female action film heroes, in films of the 2000s like Lara Croft: Tomb Raider (2001), Charlie's Angels (2000), Ultraviolet (2006), Salt (2010) and series like Underworld and Resident Evil . These series like their television series earlier, had their leads eroticized as active and physically capable while also being scantily-clad, hyper-feminized similar to
9372-583: The action film genre has been a subject of scholarly debate since the 1980s. Soberson wrote that repeated traits of the genre include chase sequences, fights, shootouts, explosions, and stunt work while other scholars asserted there were more underlying traits that define the genre. David Bordwell in The Way Hollywood Tells It wrote that audiences are "told that spectacle overrides narrative" in action cinema while Wheeler Winston Dixon echoed that these films were typified by "excessive spectacle" as
9514-553: The action heroine's dual status of an active subject and sexual object was overturning the traditional gender binary because the films "assume that women are powerful" without resorting to justify her physical aggression through narratives involving maternal drive, mental instability or trauma. Purse found that female leads in films like Elektra (2005), Kill Bill , Underworld , Charlie's Angels and Mr. & Mrs. Smith (2005) did showcase women having expensive cars, clothing, travel, homes and often high-paying jobs, but that this
9656-419: The actor in the film: "[Statham], who seems to be made entirely of muscle and scar tissue, is comfortable with his limitations as an actor. His Parker, in any case, is more of an axiom than a fully rounded human being." A 2012 BBC News report estimated that his ten-year film career to date (2002 to 2012) yielded over one billion dollars in the box office, making him one of the industry's most bankable stars. He
9798-638: The band moved on to international commercial success with " Ebeneezer Goode " and their 1992 Boss Drum album. The Shamen were preceded by Alone Again Or , the Love -inspired name under which they recorded their first psychedelic electronic pop singles. After their name change, further singles picked up airplay from John Peel . Released in June 1987, the Shamen's first album, Drop , demonstrated their love of 1960s psychedelia , with influences such as Love, Syd Barrett and
9940-435: The book Australian Genre Film , Amanda Howell suggested that this label was used to help distance Australian cinema from Hollywood films as it would be suggesting commerce over culture and that it would be "quite unacceptable to make Australian movies using conventions established in the U.S.A." Howell stated this to be the case with action films of the 1970s and 1980s with Brian Trenchard-Smith 's Turkey Shoot (1982) being
10082-550: The classical form of action cinema to be the 1980s. The decade continued the trends of formative period with heroes as avengers ( Lethal Weapon (1987)), rogue police officers ( Die Hard (1988)) and mercenary warriors ( Commando (1985)). Following the continuity of the car and man hybrid of the previous decade, the 1980s featured weaponized men with who were either also carrying weapons such as Sudden Impact (1983), trained to be weapons ( American Ninja (1985)) or imbued with technology ( RoboCop (1987)). O'Brien noted that
10224-410: The coast of La Gomera . Colin Angus later said: "When it first happened, I was still reeling from the shock of Will's completely unexpected and tragic death, and I couldn't think about the Shamen at all, couldn't see how anything could continue. But as I came to terms with it and thought about the situation I realised that what the Shamen was about was positivity and that positivity is like the spirit of
10366-459: The decline of overt masculinity in the action film which corresponded with the end of the Cold War in 1991, while the rise of self-referential and parodies of this era grew in films like Last Action Hero (1993). O'Brien described this era as being soft where the hard bodies of the classical era were replaced with computer generated imagery such as that of Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991). This
10508-546: The direct-to-video field, or in similarly low-budget theatrical releases such as Bulletproof Monk (2003). While the American styled-films were predominantly made in the United States, productions were also made in Australia, Canada, Hong Kong and South Africa, and were predominantly shot in the English-language. Heroic Bloodshed is a that originates with English-language Hong Kong action and crime film fan communities in
10650-487: The earlier work of directors like Woo and Johnnie To . Antong Chen, in his study on the Hong Kong action film, wrote that the influence of China and the amount of Chinese co-productions made with Hong Kong created a shift in these films, particularly following the release of Infernal Affairs (2002). Harvey O'Brien wrote in 2012 that the contemporary action film emerged through other genres, primarily Westerns , crime and war films and can be separated into four forms:
10792-432: The early 1960s and saw a surge in production of Hong Kong martial arts films that went beyond the stories about Wong Fei-hung which were declining in popularity. These new martial arts films featured magical swordplay and higher production values and more sophisticated special effects than the previous films with Shaw Brothers a campaign of "new school" ( xinpai ) martial arts swordplay films such as Xu Zenghong's Temple of
10934-484: The end of the 1990s. Films such as Chunhang (2000) and Memento Mori (2000) and action films Shiri (1999) and Nowhere to Hide (1999) received commercial releases in North America, Asia, and Europe. The success of the latter two films was unprecedented, and was followed by other South Korean action films in the early 2000s reaching the top of the local box office. These South Korean films mimic some traits of
11076-527: The female leads in implausible elements, such as in Charlie's Angels , Fantastic Four (2005) and My Super Ex-Girlfriend (2006). The fighting styles of women also tend towards more traditionally feminine fluid movements of martial arts, over using guns or directly punching. Purse wrote that the contemporary female action film lead's sexualized brand had her in close proximity of post-feminism discourse about choice, power and sexuality. Marc O'Day interprets
11218-427: The film as "a dour, drab affair", but credited the film with "establishing Statham as a new action hero, as at ease with gruff one-liners as he was with Jackie Chan-esque high-kicking". In 2009, Statham started to develop a new movie written by David Peoples and Janet Peoples . Statham stated "We've got a movie we're trying to do, written by David Peoples and Janet Peoples, in the vein of an old film, The Treasure of
11360-475: The film would go on to gross $ 215 million against a $ 90 million budget. In 2015 he starred in the action comedy Spy alongside Melissa McCarthy , Jude Law , and Rose Byrne . The film, a commercial success, was particularly praised for showcasing Statham's comedic side in contrast to his more serious roles. According to an article by Empire magazine, a Spy 2 was development in late 2015, with more screen time dedicated for Statham's character, Rick Ford. He
11502-408: The focal point of the group. The transformation into a successful rave party act was complete. Tensions had already begun to show, however – the band's barely concealed espousal of the then-fashionable new psychedelic drugs and the artistic pressures of altering direction from that of an acceptably skilled guitar band to an electronic dance act. As they continued their Synergy tour, their popularity in
11644-414: The following films were voted the top ten best action films of all time. In Hong Kong, the "new school" of martial arts films that Shaw Brothers brought in 1965 featured what featured what Yip described as "strong, active female characters as protagonists." These female-centered films were challenged with the rise of a new male heroic prototype marked by a strong sense of youthful energy and defiance and by
11786-448: The formative trends at this point had become "identifiably generic" as film industries began to reproduced these films during the decade producers like Joel Silver and production companies like The Cannon Group, Inc. began to formulate production of these films with both high and low budgets. The action films of this era have roots in classical story telling, specifically rooted from martial arts films and Westerns, and are built around
11928-598: The formative, the classical, the post-classical and neoclassical phases. Yvonne Tasker reiterated this in her book on action and adventure films , saying that action films became a distinct genre during the New Hollywood period of the 1970s. The formative films would be from the 1960s to the early 1980s where the Anti-hero appears in cinema, featuring characters who act and transcend the law and social conventions. This appears initially in films like Bullitt (1968) where
12070-540: The former was one of the highest-grossing movies of the year in Japan. Following LoveDeath , Kitamura's next directing work was in the United States. The action cinema of South Korea mostly existed on the margins of the film industry in South Korea. The genre was initially called the Hwalkuk ("living theatre") was a term that indicated plays and films driven by action scenes, while this term has not been used regularly since
12212-430: The ground. While heroes in kung fu films often display chivalry, they generally hail from different fighting schools, namely wudang and shaolin . American martial arts films feature what author M. Ray Lott described as a more realistic style of violence over the Hong Kong wuxia films with more realism and are often low-budget productions. Martial arts began routinely appearing in fight scenes in American films in
12354-641: The group in October 1987, on bass and keyboards, freeing up Angus to handle vocals and guitar. Sinnott's musical background was an extensive one. He had already made an impression as part of the Can / SAHB influenced improvisation troupe Edith and the Ladies, and his father, a master wood craftsman, had made guitars for the Incredible String Band and John Martyn . At the start of 1988, the first music videos were shot for
12496-486: The group the following summer, after the January 1989 release of the In Gorbachev We Trust album, which saw the group further enhancing their sound. Over summer 1988, they met Mr. C and Evil Eddie Richards, who later both worked with the Shamen to help them transition their music into the rave scene. Angus and Sinnott relocated to London, allowing them to start afresh, and plunge into the emerging rave scene. 1989
12638-484: The image of Indiana Jones in Raiders swinging his whip to fend off villains in the backstreets of Cairo. British author and academic Yvonne Tasker expanded on this topic, stating that action films have no clear and constant iconography or settings. In her book The Hollywood Action and Adventure Film (2015), she found that the most broadly consistent themes tend to be a characters quest from freedom from oppression such as
12780-527: The industry's most bankable stars . Statham began practising Chinese martial arts , kickboxing , and karate recreationally in his youth while working at local market stalls. An avid footballer and diver , he was a member of Britain's national diving team and competed for England in the 1990 Commonwealth Games . Shortly after, he was asked to model for French Connection , Tommy Hilfiger , and Levi's in various advertising campaigns. Statham's history of working at market stalls inspired his casting in
12922-520: The late 1920s. These films were popular during the period, which comprised almost 60% of the total Chinese films. Man-Fung Yip stated that these film were "rather tame" by contemporary standards. He wrote that they lacked the kind of dazzling action choreography as expected today and had crude and rudimentary special effects. These films came under increasing attack by both government officials and cultural elites for their allegedly superstitious and anarchistic tendencies, leading them to be banned in 1932. It
13064-564: The late 1970s, with "action movie" becoming the more familiar term. The Korean action films came from Japanese cinema, James Bond series , and Hong Kong action cinema. As North Korea borders China, it block access to the continent from a South Korean perspective, the Cold War allowed South Koreans to substitute deferred travel beyond the border through films with locations shot in Hong Kong. While melodrama and comedy were staples in South Korean cinema, most action films were sporadic and tied to
13206-444: The late 1980s and early 1990s. In the Chinese language, the term used for these films is jinghungpin , literally meaning "hero films". Academic Laikwan Pang asserts that these gangster films appeared at a time when Hong Kong citizens felt particularly powerless with the handover of Hong Kong from the United Kingdom to China set for 1997. The key directors of the genre were John Woo and Ringo Lam , and producer Tsui Hark , with
13348-458: The late 1980s and early 1990s. Author Bey Logan stated that the term was coined by Rick Baker, in the British fanzine Eastern Heroes . The term is used broadly. Baker described the style as Hong Kong action films which feature gangsters and gunplay and martial arts that were more violent than kung fu films and academic Kristof Van Den Troost described it a term used to distinguish Hong Kong gun-heavy action films from period martial arts films from
13490-431: The late 1980s in the United States were martial arts films. Towards the end of the 1990s, production of low-budget martial arts films declined as no new stars in the genre developed and older actors such as Cynthia Rothrock and Steven Seagal started showing up in less and less films. Even internationally popular films like Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000) had negligible effects in American productions in either
13632-482: The lead villain in Cellular (2004). In 2005, Statham was once again cast by Ritchie to star in his new project, Revolver , which was a critical and box office failure. He played a dramatic role in the independent film London in 2006. That same year he played the lead role in the action film Crank . Statham was asked to promote Crank during the 2006 San Diego Comic-Con Convention . In 2008, Statham starred in
13774-617: The most notorious. Smith had previously released films like Deathcheaters (1976) and Stunt Rock (1979) when financial incentives were available for overtly commercial projects. She commented that action films did tell identifiably Australian stories such as the Sandy Harbutt 's biker film Stone (1974) and Miller's post-apocalyptic film Mad Max (1979) derived from Australia's social and cultural realities, as well as how George Miller 's later Mad Max: Fury Road (2015) derived from Australia's long-standing cinematic fascination with
13916-470: The most popular and popularly derided of contemporary cinema genres, stating that "in mainstream discourse, the genre is regularly lambasted for favoring spectacle over finely tuned narrative." Bordwell echoed this in his book, The Way Hollywood Tells It , writing that the reception to the genre as being "the emblem of what Hollywood does worst." In the Journal of Film and Video , Lennart Soberson stated that
14058-421: The music and positivity acknowledges the need for change. So for those reasons I elected to carry on and also I knew that the name Shamen really meant a lot to Will and that was one of the main attractions for joining the band for him." In July 1991, Plavka Lonich chose to leave the band, because she was planning to start on her solo career. After finding a new female singer, Cheryl Melder, the Shamen embarked on
14200-604: The notion that traditional marks of masculinity are not exclusive to men and that musculature was not natural, but something to be achieved. Accusations of these muscular women of the era were levelled at that them by 1993 were that they were "men in drag" and that the films generally have to "explain" why their female leads displayed physical aggression and why they were "driven to do it." As the 1990s went on, Hollywood films began having more conventional looking women in their action films such as The Long Kiss Goodnight (1996). A vibrant debate exists about whether hypersexualization
14342-435: The physical effort required to completing a task and the abilities and skills acquired over time. Films from the period reflected on the cultural and social climate from the period, as seen in invoking Japanese or Western imperialist forces as foils. The kung fu film came out of the wuxia films. In comparison to the wuxia , film, the focus on the kung fu film is on the martial arts over chivalry, The martial arts films
14484-493: The police drama Blitz as Detective Sergeant Tom Brant. The film received mixed reviews with Cath Clake of The Guardian reviewing it as "not half bad" and "oddly entertaining". He was then cast in the action film Killer Elite . The film was based on real events, which were the subject of Sir Ranulph Fiennes ' novel The Feather Men . Statham played an assassin named Danny who comes out of retirement to save an old friend, played by Robert De Niro . The film grossed returned
14626-567: The popularity Bachan had. These films predominantly earned their revenue through longer runs at B-grade theatres. A cycle of action films came from these films in the 1980s and 1990s called the Avenging Woman film, where female protagonists seek justice for a rape victim, where the protagonist seeks revenge through violence. In 2009, the action genre was re-popularized with the box office success of Wanted (2009) starring Salman Khan . Khan reinvented his screen persona with that of his image in
14768-543: The postwar period. These films were targeted at the more educated and more refined middle-class audiences who saw themselves as above the contemporary martial arts films. Scott Higgins wrote in 2008 in Cinema Journal that Hollywood action films are both one of the most popular and popularly derided of contemporary cinema genres, stating that "in mainstream discourse, the genre is regularly lambasted for favoring spectacle over finely tuned narrative." Bordwell echoed this in his book, The Way Hollywood Tells It , writing that
14910-402: The reception to the genre as being "the emblem of what Hollywood does worst." Tasker wrote that when action and adventure films secured awards, it is often in categories such as visual effects and sound editing. Time Out magazine conducted a poll with fifty experts in the field of action cinema, including actors, critics, filmmakers and stuntmen. Out of the 101 films ranked in the poll,
15052-425: The recording contract with One Little Indian, and the first letter of each track spells out "Fuck Birket", referring to label founder Derek Birket , who wanted the group to move back into more commercial territory. UV , in 1998, was their last album. UV was released independently on Moksha Recordings . Mr. C has since continued as a house music DJ and became a nightclub owner of The End club. As of 2007, he
15194-441: The road and cars and a history of cultural anxiety towards a bleak and forbidding outback landscape opposed to the optimism of American action films. France is a major European country for film production and has made co-production commitments with 44 countries around the world. Around beginning of the 21st century, France began producing a series of films explicitly intended for international markets, with action films representing
15336-453: The science fiction martial arts action film The One . Statham was offered more film roles and was cast in the lead role of driver Frank Martin in the action film The Transporter (2002), written by Luc Besson . The film spawned two sequels, Transporter 2 (2005) and Transporter 3 (2008). He also played supporting roles in Mean Machine (2002), The Italian Job (2003), and as
15478-516: The serialization of Jinaghu qixia zhuan (1922) ( transl. Legend of the Strange Swordsmen ). In wuxia , the emphasis is on chivalry and righteousness and allows for phantasmagoric actions over the kung fu film 's more ground-based combat. The Kung fu film emerged in the 1970s from the swordplay films. Its name is derived from the Cantonese term gong fu which has two meanings:
15620-515: The start of their Progeny tour. With Mr. C now a full-time member of the Shamen, and Soul Family Sensation's Jhelisa Anderson (who was chosen to replace Plavka, as she was already a One Little Indian artist) providing guest vocals, the Boss Drum album followed in 1992. Boss Drum featured a spoken-word collaboration, "Re:Evolution" with Terence McKenna , and the Shamen's biggest and most controversial hit: " Ebeneezer Goode ". "Ebeneezer Goode"
15762-479: The starting point of the genre being traced to Woo's A Better Tomorrow (1986) make a record-breaking HK$ 34.7 million at the Hong Kong box office. The style of these films would influence American productions, such as Michael Bay 's Bad Boys II (2003) and the Wachowskis ' The Matrix (1999). Korean media recognized the more fatalistic and pessimistic tone of these films, leading to Korean journalists to label
15904-433: The style as "Hong Kong noir ". The influence of these films was evident in early Korean films such as Im Kwon-taek 's General's Son (1990) and later films such Song Hae-sung 's A Better Tomorrow (2010), Cold Eyes (2013) and New World (2013). Postcolonial Hong Kong cinema has struggled to maintain its international identity as a provider of these types action films because the talents involved had abandoned
16046-521: The subsequent storm of publicity, the song reached the top of the UK Singles Chart and stayed there for four weeks. Subsequent singles such as "Boss Drum" and "Phorever People" were chart hits, but Terence McKenna observed: However, the Shamen's new mainstream popularity enabled them to release an unusually large number of remix singles, EPs, and LPs during the Boss Drum era, including the "Face EP",
16188-406: The term "action film" or "action adventure film" has been used as early as the 1910s, the contemporary definition usually refers to a film that came with the arrival of New Hollywood and the rise of anti-heroes appearing in American films of the late 1960s and 1970s drawing from war films , crime films and Westerns . These genres were followed by what is referred to as the "classical period" in
16330-450: The term action film genre and adventure are often used in hybrid, and are even used interchangeably. Along with Holmund and Purse, Tasker wrote that the action films expansiveness complicates easy categorization and though the genre is often spoken of as singular genre, it is rarely discussed as singular style. Screenwriter and academic Jule Selbo expanded on this, describing a film as " crime /action" or an "action/crime" or other hybrids
16472-445: The themes that rescinded irony to restore " cinephile re-actualization of the genre's conventions." The genre went into full circle resurrecting films from the classical period with Live Free or Die Hard (2007) and Rambo (2008) finding the characters navigating a contemporary world while also acknowledging their age, culminating into The Expendables (2010) film. The most commercially successful action films and franchise of
16614-525: The title character in China O'Brien (1990) who were physically muscular and or enacted more extreme violence that was usually reserve for male action leads. In her book Contemporary Action Cinema (2011), Lisa Purse described the media response to female leads in action films reveal a discomfort about their presence and are often described with hesitant terms of women moving into territories that are perceived as masculine. Revealing woman in this form deconstructs
16756-533: The turn of the millennium, Australian genre films have gained increasing acceptance in the Australian feature film industry, while the action genre represented a small percentage of its output in the 21st century. Scholars of Australian genre film generally used the term "action-adventure" which allows them to apply it to various forms of narratives such as tongue in cheek heroic posturing stories like Crocodile Dundee (1986), road movies or bush/outback films. In
16898-489: The upcoming Spectre film. Its author, Steve Rose noted that "there was no doubt Statham can walk the Bond walk. And talking his talk can hardly be an issue with a character whose accent has fluctuated between Sean Connery 's Scottish brogue and Timothy Dalton 's Welsh." After the interview there were multiple calls from critics and the public to instate him as James Bond in a future film. The sequel to his 2011 film The Mechanic
17040-422: The use of locations such as Hong Kong. These films often featured one-legged or otherwise handicapped action characters similar to those of Japanese films ( Zatoichi ) and Hong Kong films ( The One-Armed Swordsmen ). These included Im Kwon-taek's Returned Left-Handed Man (1968), Aekkunun Bak's One-Eyd Park (1970) and Lee Doo-yong's Returned One-Legged Man (1974). In the 1990s, the country's national cinema
17182-468: The woman of exploitation films of the 1970s such as Caged Heat (1974) and Big Bad Mama (1974). While characters like Frank in The Transporter series are permitted to visibly sweat, strain and be bloodied, Purse found a reluctance for filmmakers to have their female leads have any appearance warping injuries to ensure a perfectly made-up face. Comedy is often used in films of this period to place
17324-448: Was "only a semantic exercise" as both genres are important in the construction phase of the narrative. Mark Bould in A Companion to Film Noir (2013) said that categorization of multiple generic genre labels was common in film reviews who are rarely concerned with succinct descriptions that evoke elements of the film's form, content and make no claims beyond on how these elements combine. Film Studies began to engage generic hybridity in
17466-453: Was a busy year, as they set out on their Synergy tour, a nightclub experience, combined with live music from the Shamen and others like Orbital , and with DJing from Paul Oakenfold , Mixmaster Morris , Mr C, and Evil Eddie Richards . The tour was to last nearly two years. Synergy was innovative at the time, as a touring rock dance club introducing live bands to clubbers, and house, techno and ambient DJs to rock fans. The Shamen also released
17608-408: Was a difficult market for Hong Kong action cinema to break into. Prompted by the success of Enter the Dragon and the popularity of Bruce Lee, Toei made their own Bruce Lee-style martial arts films, with The Street Fighter and its two sequels starring Sonny Chiba as well as a spin-off with a female lead similar to Hong Kong's Angela Mao called Sister Street Fighter . The success of Enter
17750-446: Was accused of promoting drug use, owing to the refrain, 'Ezer Goode, Ezer Goode' as homophonic with 'E's are good' (E being slang for the drug ecstasy ), 'He s ever so good, he's Ebenezer Goode' (using the homophony of "he" and "E"), and to double entendre drug references throughout the song. This echoed similar references in previous songs such as "Synergy"'s ' MDMA -zing... we are together in ecstasy'. Despite – or maybe because of –
17892-466: Was aiming for the foreign audience, as he was disappointed with the current state of Japanese films. Kitamura's characters have been described as "a careful combination of the maverick independence of 1980s Hollywood action heroes and the calmness and acceptance of Japanese samurai, a consistent criticism of Japanese people today." Kitamura followed up Versus with two manga-inspired big-budget action films, Azumi and Sky High . Both released in 2003,
18034-431: Was also passionate about diving , practising daily to perfect his techniques. He was a member of Britain's National Swimming Squad for 12 years, and competed for England at the 1990 Commonwealth Games in the 10 metre, 3 metre, and 1 metre events. He said in a 2003 interview that his time with the national squad was a "great experience" that taught him "discipline, focus, and certainly [kept him] out of trouble". Statham
18176-603: Was born in June 2017. Their daughter was born on 2 February 2022. They lived in California for a number of years before moving back to London in 2020. Statham enjoys wakeboarding, jet skiing, wind surfing, and rock climbing. While filming on location in Bulgaria for The Expendables 3 , he drove a truck off the road in Varna and crashed into the Black Sea due to malfunctioning brakes. In
18318-417: Was displayed in corresponding with corresponded with millennial angst and apocalypticism showcased in films like Independence Day (1996) and Armageddon (1998). Action films of mass destruction began requiring more overtly super heroic characters with further comic book adaptations being made with increased non-realistic settings with films like The Matrix (1999). The fourth phase arrived following
18460-435: Was however impossible for the band to fully escape the shadow that Sinnot's death had cast across them. At a time and in a scene when performers were often both masked and anonymous, the emerging early 1990s dance music world had lost one of its more notable personalities. Axis Mutatis was released in 1995, with new vocalist Victoria Wilson-James replacing Jhelisa Anderson . Early special editions of this album featured
18602-464: Was in decline by the mid-1970s in Hong Kong in relation to the stock market crash which went from over 150 films in 1972 to just over 80 in 1975, which led to a downfall in martial arts films produced. When the economy became to rebound, a new trend of martial arts films, the Shaolin kung fu films emerged and sparked a revival of the genre. Unlike the wuxia , the kung fu film primarily focuses on fighting on
18744-509: Was in decline leading to Hong Kong gangster films filled in this void leading to large commercial success at the national box office. Early Korean heirs to Hong Kong action films include Rules of The Game (1994), Beat (1997), and Green Fish (1997) involving men who gain confidence and achieve personal growth as they embark on journeys to protect national state and meet devastating ends. South Korean cinema only received international attention in both art film and blockbuster formats towards
18886-504: Was nominated for the Critic's Choice Award for Best Actor in a Comedy for his role in Spy . Statham was offered a three-film contract to reboot the Transporter series in late 2015, but turned it down because he was not given the script before the signing date and unhappy with its compensation package. According to an article by The Guardian , Statham expressed interest in playing James Bond in
19028-599: Was not until the base of Chinese commercial filmmaking was relocated from Shanghai to Hong Kong in the late 1940s that martial arts cinema was revived. These films contained much of the characteristics of the previous era. During this period, over 100 films were based on the adventures of real life Cantonese folk hero Wong Fei-hung who first appeared in film in 1949. These films primarily on circuited within Hong Kong and Cantonese-speaking areas with Chinese diaspora . Yip continued that these Hong Kong films were still lagging behind in aesthetic and technical standards that films from
19170-504: Was only in the mid-20th century when action films developed into their own recognizable genre instead of being a collection of other types of films such as Westerns, swashbucklers or adventure films. Films have been described "action films" or "action-adventure film" as early as the 1910s. Only by the 1980s was the term action as its own unique genre used routinely in terms of promotion and reviewing practices. The first Chinese-language martial arts films can be traced to Shanghai cinema of
19312-610: Was only shown as being applicable to white middle-class women. Purse found that these women were empowered at the price of women of other ethnicities. This is seen in Aeon Flux (2005) where Sithandra dies protecting Aeon and Rain's death to make way for Alice in Resident Evil (2002). The Shamen The Shamen ( / ˈ ʃ eɪ m ɛ n / SHAY -men ) were a Scottish psychedelic band, formed in 1985 in Aberdeen , who became
19454-417: Was released on 10 August. The film would go on to gross $ 527.8 million worldwide, becoming the highest-grossing U.S.-Chinese co-production of all time. In 2019, Statham reprised his role as Deckard Shaw again in Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw , a spin-off of the Fast & Furious franchise focusing on his and Dwayne Johnson 's characters. The film grossed $ 758 million worldwide, becoming
19596-414: Was scheduled for production in late 2016 and announced to open as Mechanic: Resurrection . The film went on to become highly commercially successfully in international film markets grossing $ 109.4 million worldwide. According to Forbes , the film was Statham's "seventh-biggest earner" and most commercially successful solo film venture of his career. In February 2017, he starred alongside Gal Gadot in
19738-512: Was signed on to reprise his role as Lee Christmas in The Expendables 2 in 2012. In 2013, Statham had a cameo appearance at the end of Fast & Furious 6 as the brother of the film's antagonist Owen Shaw ( Luke Evans ). He reprised the character, this time as the main antagonist, in Furious 7 , which was released in April 2015. He also starred opposite James Franco in the thriller Homefront , written by Sylvester Stallone , and headlined
19880-450: Was spotted by the sports modelling agency Sports Promotions while training at London's Crystal Palace National Sports Centre . He was signed by Tommy Hilfiger , Griffin, and Levi's for various modelling contracts during their 1996 spring and summer collections. In 1997, he became a model for the clothing brand French Connection . A spokesperson for the high street clothing chain said, "We chose Jason because we wanted our model to look like
20022-475: Was their first to experiment with beat machines and samples, fused with their psychedelic rock sound. However, the newfound sound proved too radical for co-founder and vocalist Derek McKenzie, who left the band in late 1987 to study at university. The Shamen were suddenly one crucial player short. Help was at hand from the Glaswegian Will Sinnott (23 December 1960 – 23 May 1991), aka Will Sin, who joined
20164-491: Was well received by both critics and audiences, and helped put Statham in the public eye; for his role, he was paid £ 5,000. Statham's second collaboration with Ritchie came with Snatch (2000), which earned more than $ 80 million at the box office. For his role in Snatch , he was paid £15,000. He was then able to break into Hollywood and appeared in two films in 2001: the science fiction action horror film Ghosts of Mars and
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