Stallone. Statham. Lundgren. Li. Explosions. Fists.

There’s no point in deceiving myself: I like 1980s style action cinema, the kind I grew up with (Big Trouble in Little China, Missing in Action, Die Hard, the Rambo movies, the Lethal Weapons). These films have a tangibility about their action, where much contemporary action cinema feels too polished, too clean. Also, I admire Sylvester Stallone. He’s liberated third world countries and fought a one-man Vietnam, and he usually exits these battles stronger and meaner than before (even if said third world country is left in ruin). Over the past thirty five years, he has built an image of unrestrained machismo where muscles are many and dialogue is limited. But Stallone has gotten old, and his macho style is long since out dated, replaced by the brooding vacuousness of many male teen idols. That doesn’t seem to bother Stallone.

For his directorial effort The Expendables, Stallone gathers some of B-cinemadom’s most familiar names: Jason Statham (arguably the current king of B-action cinema); Chinese export Jet Li; Dolph Lundgren (another 1980s behemoth long past his prime, memorable in 1992’s Universal Soldier and Preacher from Johnny Mnemonic); Mickey Rourke (Johnny Handsome), looking freshly tenderised as always; perpetual bad guy Eric Roberts; and entertainer-athletes such as Randy Couture and Stone Cold “Beer Me!” Steve Austin. These men all adhere to Stallone-esque notions of masculinity, where the size of your first determines social standing as well as who is standing.

Stallone’s team is sent on a dangerous mission into South America to root out a drug problem; things get complicated, stunts get ridiculous and fights get loud. In between are some badly rendered explosions, some adequate bare fist fighting, and some delightful jokes about how small Jet Li is. All in all, The Expendables hearkens back to a time where a small group of Americans could save a country while eradicating some social evil (such as obliterating drug dealers). I have to admit to enjoying the cheesiness of the dialogue, and the warm feeling in my heart seeing Stallone and some other 1980s icons share an all-too-brief scene in a church. I also appreciated that the film was edited like a Tony Scott movie, even if some scenes are too kinetically cut.

The Expendables is what is often referred to as a “guilty pleasure”. But why feel guilty about something that you like? And really, who doesn’t like Stallone? The Expendables 2, featuring Chuck Norris and Jean-Claude Van Damme, will be released in 2012. I’ll be there. 

Note: Peter Berg’s superior The Rundown playfully addressed similar content, but with less cheese, and more Rock.

Gathering bits and pieces to assemble the dream

Ramin Bahrani is surely the father of new American social realism. His debut film, Man Push Cart, had its centre a Sisyphean struggle of a food vendor, Ahmed, attempting to establish some financial security in New York in the aftermath of some major personal setbacks. Much as I admired Man Push Cart, it left me cold. (It may have had something to do with the spartan soundtrack and the way in which a few sparse notes are used to hammer home a leitmotif.)

In his follow-up feature, the superior Chop Shop, Bahrani immerses himself into a disenfranchised community where every day is a battle for socio-economic survival, and often at great cost. The film is set in a community built around scrap metal and car parts on the outskirts of Queens, where blue collar workers can spend their entire lives without leaving the area known as the Iron Triangle. Not that the people are downtrodden; life is hard, but the inhabitants know it as such, and understand that you do what you have to do to get by. It’s in this setting that the film first introduces young Ale (Alejandro Polanco) and his older sister Isamar (Isamar Gonzales). 

Ale has a dream: to buy his own vendor cart so that he and his sister can live with greater financial security (there are no parents, and most adults in the film come across as ethically dubious). It’s a coming of age tale without a saccharine coating. In one affecting scene, Ale understands something about his sister, and against what one might expect, orders her to do what she must but does not want to. The scene is heart breaking because there is no alternative for these characters, and because a young boy expects a measure of sacrifice from his sister. Some things become less and less important as they inch toward their dream. 

Some of the characters in the film are people starring as themselves; the dialogue is often improvised and adds to the film's realism. The child actors, all amateurs, are nothing short of astounding, and while the film isn’t exactly easy viewing – its world of hardship is far removed from what American cinema usually shows us - Bahrani manages to make it a surprisingly uplifting affair. The director immersed himself into the community to study their ways; with Chop Shop Bahrani becomes in his directorial methods something of a filmmaker-anthropologist, and he manages to construct an authentically inhabited world that feels at once dangerous and safe, strange and familiar.

Where vampires don't glitter

Stake Land is a post-apocalyptic drama about sacrifice and survival framed against the backdrop of an America overrun by vampires. Independently produced, it is directed by Jim Mickle and stars co-writer Nick Damici as Mister, a middle aged, worn faced man who becomes a mentor to the recently orphaned young Martin (Connor Paulo) as they make their way to the possibly mythical New Eden, one of the last major human outposts away from the vampires. The protagonists’ travelling from one town to the next as they make their way towards New Eden also provides Stake Land with the opportunity to develop some road movie dimensions as the travellers engage with a variety of other characters who help – and hinder – them on their way.

The vampires are not the traveller’s biggest problem. There are other humans who view the vampires as some sort of divine blight visited upon the land. Here Mickle delivers some blood stained religious commentary while skilfully retaining some horror traits: there are gruesome deaths, lots of blood, staking and suffering. Meanwhile, the film seems to promote the nuclear family as the one last hope of humankind, as the travellers first meet a nun (Kelly McGillis, unrecognisable to those who yearned after her in Top Gun) and a teenage girl (Danielle Harris). Mickle is intelligent enough to know that the nuclear family, at least in the horror drama, has run its course, and Stake Land excels at confounding many expectations. (It does, unfortunately, have one or two bizarre "Karate Kid" training sequences.)  

Stake Land is sombre and violent; it occupies a space somewhere between the blood thirst of 30 Days of Night and the survival-elements of I am Legend. That said, those expecting an all-out blood bath with be disappointed as the film’s focus is on its human characters, not on blindly meeting genre fan expectations. It's a low budget wonder - check out the "making of" and the webisodes on the DVD extras to see exactly how much of a miracle the film is.    

Mark the date: 11.11.11

With Bryan Singer's critically maligned (but much adored by me) Superman Returns behind us and the Henry Cavill starring "Man of Steel" directed by Zack Snyder in 2013, here's something to tide superhero fans over for the time being - and it's for a good cause to boot. South African entertainment personality Daniella Pellegrini helped bring the Kryptonian to life by producing the new film, Superman: Requiem. 

The film is labeled a "fan film", and I am often excited to see what those individuals operating outside the studio system have to add to an existing character and its universe. (Remember the Lord of the Rings prequel film some time ago?) You will be able to watch the film for free on the website www.themanofsteelisback.com from the 11th of November.  

From the press release: 

‘Superman: Requiem’, a new feature-length high production value Superman fan-film, will stage its World Premiere in support of the Christopher & Dana Reeve Foundation on November 7th at London’s Odeon, Covent Garden. The film continues from events seen in previous films, and Superman has firmly established himself as the unquestionable saviour of mankind, but when Lex’s son Alex Luthor discovers a way to remove most of Superman’s powers, the Man of Steel must find a way to prove to the world that he is still a Super Man. 

Almost 300 individuals will be attending the red-carpet event, including all of the main cast and crew, as well as other VIP’s and special celebrity guests and many of the world’s press, and fans are being encouraged to join the cast and crew and meet them as they walk the red carpet into the event.

The premiere, in addition to celebrating the completion and release of the film which has taken 18 months to produce, will be raising funds for the Christopher and Dana Reeve Foundation which increases awareness and funds research that develops treatments and cures for paralysis caused by spinal cord injury and other central nervous system disorders.

‘Superman: Requiem’ on the web: www.themanofsteelisback.com

‘Superman: Requiem’ on Facebook: www.facebook.com/SupermanRequiem

‘Superman: Requiem’ on the Twitter: @SupermanRequiem