Bloodsport was #4 on my list, my favorite of the JCVD films. My brother and I literally used to throw down a few mattresses or something and fake kumite.

Bloodsport was my #1, depending on what mood I am in this is my favorite movie of all time. I seen it for the first time when I was 6 or 7 years old(probably 1991ish) and it was a life changing ordeal. To me it is the greatest martial arts movie ever made. It is a carbon copy of Enter The Dragon but its soooooo much better in every way conceivable. It all starts with the soundtrack, few things in this world get my blood going like the music from Bloodsport, every song for every scene is so fucking perfect. The characters all representing different fighting styles from around the world, the fight scenes being booked like a pro wrestling thing with all the guys selling and pantomiming and everything, all the facial expressions and theatrics were big parts of all the fight scenes just like pro wrestling, plus I just love how the whole tournament plays out in linear fashion showing you who wins every fight leading up to the final showdown.



This movie had a huge influence on two of my favorite things ever, Street Fighter II and the early days UFC. This was the fucking world I grew up in, Bloodsport, Street Fighter, WWF, and Royce Gracie era UFC where it was literally like real life Bloodsport movie. The movie's influence on pop culture and martial arts can not be denied, it was huge. Also the influence this movie had on my life is equally as undeniable, my big dream that I had was going to Japan and fighting in Pride FC, that all traces back to watching Bloodsport as a young boy. 

There is a documentary about Cannon Films and there was a talking head in it talking about where the company went wrong, instead of doing what they did with a movie like Breakin' where they were able to put out a low budget movie about something that was on the brink of being really popular(Break dancing) instead they were spending huge money on He Man and Superman movies and paying Sly outrageous money for Over The Top. But really when you think about Bloodsport Cannon Films really did that, look how huge Street Fighter and UFC ended up being! It all really goes back to Bloodsport.

What makes the movie so great to me is the goofiness charm about it. The Mentos commercial chase scene and the "On My Own" montage where he see's Chun Li's reflection in the bus window and he's doing the splits on top of the building(what a great fucking shot of that city skyline though, looks EPIC on my 4K curve). Plus there are dozens of little moments and lines that always make me laugh or smile, "OK USA!", "Dux, like put up your dukes right?" or that time the guy who wipes up the blood steals the gold tooth or anytime the monkey fighting guy is on screen.  



The final fight accomplishes a great feat in that it gets my adrenaline going to the max while also making me belly laugh. Come on man, to me this is what movies are all about, inspiration and fun. I watch this movie EVERY time I see it on while I'm channel surfing, it is the most rewatchable movie ever, if you were to strand me on a desert island for the rest of my life with only 1 movie to watch it would probably be this.

7. First Blood 

Back there I could fly a gunship, I could drive a tank, I was in charge of million dollar equipment, back here I can't even hold a job *parking cars*!

Released 

1982 

Credits

Director: Ted Kotcheff 

Novel: David Morrell 

Screenplay: Michael Kozoll 

Cast 

Sylvester Stallone (John Rambo)

Richard Crenna (Trautman)

Brian Dennehy (Teasle)

Bill McKinney (Kern)

Jack Starrett (Galt)

Critical 

7.7/10 (IMDB)

88% (RT Critics)

85% (RT Audience)

Box Office 

Domestic Gross: $47,212,904

Worldwide Gross:  $125,212,904 

I consider this a bit of an upset , I expected Rambo to be higher with being as iconic of a pure action hero you can find but I guess I can't be too surprised either way since I'm also not a Rambo guy. I was just assuming based on pop culture reverence.

First Blood is definitely the best and totally different from all the other Rambos. A much better tale about the difficulty of reassimilating back home after the shit show that was Vietnam. I feel like the reputation established by subsequent Rambos kinda make people feel forget that there was actual some legit thematic substance to the first one.

I figured the substance of the first movie would hurt it's standing a bit. From a pure "80's action" standpoint I nearly considered putting part 2 on my list ahead of the original. I still like the guerrilla tactics of the first one and Stallone's emotional breakdown is still probably the best scene he's ever done.

Jul 15, 2018 17:53:33 GMT 🤯 said:

First Blood is definitely the best and totally different from all the other Rambos. A much better tale about the difficulty of reassimilating back home after the shit show that was Vietnam. I feel like the reputation established by subsequent Rambos kinda make people feel forget that there was actual some legit thematic substance to the first one.

Couldn't of said it better myself.   First Blood was #7 on my list and is easily the best of the Rambo series.

 

I watched through the whole Rambo series on my 4K rig just a few weeks ago, this was the first time I had ever properly watched the first one unedited from start to finish and I loved it, really good story that I enjoyed. I don't know that I liked it more than part 2 but it is a fine movie, probably more of a drama/suspense though. Part 2 is over the top in all the right ways pure 80's action flick, 3 is cool too but overall I'm just not super gonzo crazy about the series like I am with other movies of that ilk.

Wait, what's the sequence of the Rambo films? First Blood is the first one?

Jul 15, 2018 22:42:09 GMT Emperor said:

Wait, what's the sequence of the Rambo films? First Blood is the first one?

Yeah.  There's some confusion is titles.  There's First Blood, others call it just Rambo, some call it Rambo: First Blood.  And even some think that First Blood was the title to Rambo II.

I'm with UT on this one. Never really got into the Rambo series but expected First Blood to place higher. Come to think of it, I've seen bits and pieces of First Blood a million times (my brother was a big fan) but I'm not 100% sure I ever watched it (or any Rambo movie) from start to finish all in one sitting. Pfft. And here I am fancying myself an 80s action movie aficionado....

Jul 15, 2018 23:20:35 GMT Baker said:

I'm with UT on this one. Never really got into the Rambo series but expected First Blood to place higher. Come to think of it, I've seen bits and pieces of First Blood a million times (my brother was a big fan) but I'm not 100% sure I ever watched it (or any Rambo movie) from start to finish all in one sitting. Pfft. And here I am fancying myself an 80s action movie aficionado....

I'm sure the big gaping hole in my movie viewing is coming up shortly. I have not seen a single second of any Lethal Weapon movie (besides the trailers), there I said it.

If we're in confessional mode, I'm not sure I've ever seen Bloodsport and/or confuse it with all other Jean Claude Van Damme movies (minus Street Fighter, of course).

An even better version of the scene I posted earlier... I've always thought Sly was underrated as an actor and this scene shows this very well.

First Blood is definitely the gem of the franchise, the Rambo's are great balls to the wall action movies, but First Blood was truly something special. Some of Sly's finest acting, fantastic character study of a man suffering from pretty clear PTSD being pushed too far. The rest play out like your typical action, but First Blood was a tragedy as much as anything. I almost would have preferred Rambo dying at the end to really drive it all home.

6. RoboCop 

Dead or alive, you're coming with me!

Released 

1987 

Credits 

Director: Paul Verhoeven 

Writer: Edward Neumeier 

Writer: Michael Miner 

Cast 

Peter Weller (Alex Murphy/Robocop)

Nancy Allen (Anne Lewis)

Ronny Cox (Dick Jones)

Kurtwood Smith (Clarence Boddicker)

Miguel Ferrer (Robert Morton)

Critical 

7.5/10 (IMDB)

89% (RT Critics)

84% (RT Audience)

Box Office 

Domestic Gross: $53,424,681

At the Oscars 

- Nominated for Best Sound 

- Nominated for Best Film Editing 

Fucking loved RoboCop as a kid. Then when I revisited it in college and better understood that it was a work of satirical pastiche, I grew to love it even more.

There are bits of RoboCop 2 that I sometimes misremember as being part of RoboCop 1, but even excluding those false memories... Man, RoboCop was the fucking bomb.

Seeing the selected quote for RoboCop makes me also want to see a RoboCop vs. Terminator crossover where the T100 goes "Come with me if you want to live" and then Murph immediately follows up with "Dead or alive, you're coming with me".

This whole list minus Bloodsport seems like 9 movies I simply gotta get around to watching. There's a ton of these action movies I've never seen. In fact if you guys knew how many classics I have yet to see... I'd probably not be allowed to submit lists anymore. If nothing else the countdowns do provide a nice backlog.

I don't know if Rambo will come up in discussion again, so I wanted to bring up Rambo 2, and how it's categorized as "just a stupid action flick"; yes, exactly, that's what I love about it. This might be blasphemous, but I feel it's practically every bit as enjoyable as other films of the ilk, like Predator and Commando (and that's saying a lot.)

Robocop just barely missed my list. It was one of my final cuts right along with Roadhouse. 


10.Bloodsport
9.
8.Commando
7.First Blood
6.
5.
4.
3.
2.
1.

I almost would have preferred Rambo dying at the end to really drive it all home

That's how it played out in the novel and how it originally would have played out in the film. Stallone saw the potential for a franchise and had the writers change the ending.

I cut RoboCop for Bloodsport. I liked that movie slightly more, even if RoboCop is full-on 80s action movie camp, which I love.

First Blood just missed my list too. My list of about 15 films got cut to 10 by how much I could re-watch them, nostalgia factor, etc etc. I've only seen First Blood once and I liked it, but it didn't quite make the cut.

1.
2. Star Wars V: The Empire Strikes Back
3.
4.
5.
6.
7. Commando
8.
9.
10. Bloodsport

I had Robocop at number 6 for it's sheer violence, cheesy dialogue and classic stop motion animation. I also love the backstory of Murphy and the setting of a run down Detroit.

1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6. Robocop
7. First Blood
8.
9.
10. Bloodsport

I completely blanked on Robocop when working on a list/trying to guess the Top 10. Needless to say I did not vote for it.

Robocop is another one I saw once or twice a long, long time ago (a story which is likely to repeat itself a few more times in this countdown) and remember almost nothing about beyond the basic premise. Even though I know it's not true I always initially think of Robocop as a cheesy kids movie whenever it gets brought up. Chalk it up to the gimmicky premise, I suppose. Or I can just do what I usually do and blame WCW.

I suppose. Or I can just do what I usually do and blame WCW

Funny you should mention that....




Arn and Ole deserved Oscars for keeping a straight face through that

I believe i had Robocop at 3 or 4 on my list, absolute classic, i like part 2 just as much if not just a bit more.

5. Aliens 

Get away from her, you bitch! ~ Ripley

Released 

1986

Credits 

Director: James Cameron 

Writer: James Cameron 

Writer: David Giler 

Cast 

Sigourney Weaver (Ellen Ripley)

Carrie Henn (Newt)

Michael Biehn (Corporal Hicks)

Paul Reiser (Burke)

Lance Henriksen (Bishop)

Critical

8.4/10 (IMDB)

98% (RT Critics)

94% (RT Audience)

Box Office 

Domestic Gross: $85,160,248

Worldwide Gross: $131,060,248 

At the Oscars 

- Winner for Best Visual Effects 

- Winner for Best Sound Effects

- Nominated for Best Lead Actress 

- Nominated for Best Art Direction

- Nominated for Best Sound 

- Nominated for Best Film Editing 

- Nominated for Best Original Score 

Really happy that Aliens didn't crack the top three like I expected it to , as it's already been on a few countdowns.

I classify Aliens as more of a horror film than an action film, and it also doesn't have the campy/nostalgic feel of most 80s action flicks because it's an actual really good movie. So I left it off my list.