The Shadow Strays: The Indonesian New Wave

Rating: 4 out of 5.

Long before superheroes took over the screens. There were flesh-and-blood action heroes before Marvel and DC sought the niche of action cinema with their characters. Nostalgia always gets the better of me and I can’t resist returning to those action movies and characters from the 80s and 90s that paved my way to the movies. Stallone, Van Damme, Schwarzenegger, Bruce Willis, Steven Seagal, Bruce Lee… these legends and many others dominated the big screen with their epic adventures from which they always emerged victorious.

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Mission Impossible Dead Reckoning Part One: The Legend of Tom Cruise

Rating: 4 out of 5.

Mission Impossible is a registered trademark, one of the most important franchises in movie history. The adventures of that Ethan Hunt the eternal Tom Cruise, can be compared to those of the legendary James Bond. This saga was inspired by a television series that ran from the mid-60s to the early 70s that came to the big screen at the hands of Brian De Palma in 1996. That first installment is still one of the best movies in the franchise. Now comes Mission Impossible Dead Reckoning Part One, the seventh in a saga that has gained new life with the last three proposals.

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The Birth of an Action Classic: Point Break (1991)

Rating: 4 out of 5.

With the arrival of Point Break in 1991, new paths were opened in the action genre on the Hollywood scene. During the 1980s, the universe of action heroes revolved around a small group of figures led by Sylvester Stallone and Arnold Schwarzenegger. Kathryn Bigelow’s film introduced a character with new codes that, although it takes elements of the classic action figure, adds fresh touches and language that helped with the transition to the new action cinema of the 90s. Point Break would come to compete on the summer billboard with movies like Terminator 2 and Double Impact and pit a young Keanu Reeves against Schwarzenegger and Van Damme.

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John Wick: The Man, The Myth, The Masterful Assassin

Rating: 3 out of 5.

The John Wick franchise has created a modern action hero. A throne for which few have paraded in the more than 100 years of the Hollywood industry. In the era of superheroes, television series, and social networks, the grim character in the black suit, with an unfocused look and superhuman skill in handling weapons, has managed to prevail and challenge any form of entertainment that comes out to the public. This John Wick is not a character engendered from the codes of the Instagram and TikTok generation, he is a protagonist conceived almost anachronistically. It could well have been a John Wayne, a Stallone, an Arnold, a Van Damme, or a Bruce Willis. His feat is only compared to what Tom Cruise does these days, where a suit and cape weigh more than anything else.

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