By Anant Mathur (August 20, 2003)
There was a time when movie stunts were fun to watch. A time when the stunts seemed like the real thing. A time when action sequences were filled with excitement. That time is slowly fading away; we are now in an age of wired stunts. Jackie Chan, perhaps the most popular actor, known for doing his own stunts, is no longer doing his own stunts. His new film "The Medallion" is a prime example of wired stunts. Jackie Chan, action superstar, is hanging on wires in "The Medallion". A man who made a name for him, doing his own stunts, is hanging on wires, it's a damn shame!
Gone are stunts like…Bruce Willis jumping from a multi-story building and breaking through the window in "Die Hard". These days, stunts are done on wires. The actors fly through the air and fight each other, doing all sorts of ridiculous looking spin moves in the air. For one the stunts look totally fake, you can easily tell when the actor is on wires. Secondly, there's no creativity in stunts anymore, they all look the same, every new film seems have the same stunts. It's not fun or exciting, rather, it's quite boring to see. I personally, hate watching these films. The worst part is when they show these stunts in slow motion, it is the dumbest thing on film; it looks even worst than at actual speed.
It all started with a film called Couching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. I have no idea why this film was so successful, but ever since the wire stunts in this film…Hollywood has gone bonkers for wire stunts. And now the trend seems to moving towards Bollywood. "Aawara Paagal Deewana" had wire stunts a-plenty. But Bollywood is playing it smart, they're at least putting an effort into making the stunts look real. In this respect, Bollywood is one step ahead of Hollywood. It is safe to say that Bollywood stunts look far more realistic these days than Hollywood films. Kaante, The Hero and Aawara Paagal Deewana are a good example of this, made at a fraction of the cost of Hollywood films; these motion pictures have better story, acting, direction and stunts.
There was a time when Amitabh Bachchan, Dharmendra, Sunny Deol, Sanjay Dutt, Akshay Kumar and Shahrukh Khan would do stunts and would make it seem like it was all happening for real. That time seems to be fading away, perhaps they're trying to keep actors safe or maybe just trying out new technologies. Whatever the reason, I still prefer the "old school" way of doing stunts to these wired gizmos. I want to see Sunny Deol, Shahrukh Khan and Bruce Willis jump from rooftops, doing car chases, and dance on top of a speeding train; that's what films are all about.
Perhaps Hollywood and Bollywood should take a look back once in a while and realize that they shouldn't tamper with things that don't need fixing. Hopefully, these wire stunts will be just a fad and fade away quickly and we will have the good old stunts back and be able to enjoy action films once again!
There was a time when movie stunts were fun to watch. A time when the stunts seemed like the real thing. A time when action sequences were filled with excitement. That time is slowly fading away; we are now in an age of wired stunts. Jackie Chan, perhaps the most popular actor, known for doing his own stunts, is no longer doing his own stunts. His new film "The Medallion" is a prime example of wired stunts. Jackie Chan, action superstar, is hanging on wires in "The Medallion". A man who made a name for him, doing his own stunts, is hanging on wires, it's a damn shame!
Gone are stunts like…Bruce Willis jumping from a multi-story building and breaking through the window in "Die Hard". These days, stunts are done on wires. The actors fly through the air and fight each other, doing all sorts of ridiculous looking spin moves in the air. For one the stunts look totally fake, you can easily tell when the actor is on wires. Secondly, there's no creativity in stunts anymore, they all look the same, every new film seems have the same stunts. It's not fun or exciting, rather, it's quite boring to see. I personally, hate watching these films. The worst part is when they show these stunts in slow motion, it is the dumbest thing on film; it looks even worst than at actual speed.
It all started with a film called Couching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. I have no idea why this film was so successful, but ever since the wire stunts in this film…Hollywood has gone bonkers for wire stunts. And now the trend seems to moving towards Bollywood. "Aawara Paagal Deewana" had wire stunts a-plenty. But Bollywood is playing it smart, they're at least putting an effort into making the stunts look real. In this respect, Bollywood is one step ahead of Hollywood. It is safe to say that Bollywood stunts look far more realistic these days than Hollywood films. Kaante, The Hero and Aawara Paagal Deewana are a good example of this, made at a fraction of the cost of Hollywood films; these motion pictures have better story, acting, direction and stunts.
There was a time when Amitabh Bachchan, Dharmendra, Sunny Deol, Sanjay Dutt, Akshay Kumar and Shahrukh Khan would do stunts and would make it seem like it was all happening for real. That time seems to be fading away, perhaps they're trying to keep actors safe or maybe just trying out new technologies. Whatever the reason, I still prefer the "old school" way of doing stunts to these wired gizmos. I want to see Sunny Deol, Shahrukh Khan and Bruce Willis jump from rooftops, doing car chases, and dance on top of a speeding train; that's what films are all about.
Perhaps Hollywood and Bollywood should take a look back once in a while and realize that they shouldn't tamper with things that don't need fixing. Hopefully, these wire stunts will be just a fad and fade away quickly and we will have the good old stunts back and be able to enjoy action films once again!
© Anant Mathur. All Rights Reserved.
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