Action Films: This major genre type includes films that have tremendous impact, continuous high energy, lots of physical stunts and activity, possibly extended chase scenes, races, rescues, battles, martial arts, mountains and mountaineering, destructive disasters (floods, explosions, natural disasters, fires, etc.), fights, escapes, non-stop motion, spectacular rhythm and pacing, and adventurous heroes - all designed for pure audience escapism with the action sequences at the core of the film.

Action films and adventure films have tremendous cross-over potential as film genres, and road films often overlap with action films. (See the adventure film genre listings for examples of these action/adventure pictures.) Both types of films come in a variety of forms or genre-hybrids: sci-fi or space, thrillers, crime-drama, war, horror, westerns, etc. Oftentimes, action films are great box-office hits, but lack critical appeal because of their two-dimensional heroes or villains.

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he first great category of cinematic epics are the silent epics. The first American epic was early cinematic pioneer D. W. Griffith's Biblical spectacle Judith of Bethulia (1914), a little known four-reel feature film weaving together two Apocryphal stories about the 40-day Assyrian siege of the walled Judean city of Bethulia. Griffith's most influential and complex film, noted for its technical virtuosity and dynamic editing (although controversial for its southern point of view) was the first blockbuster film The Birth of a Nation (1915). It reproduced the Civil War and Reconstruction Periods (including various battles, Lincoln's assassination, and the aftermath) and told of the war's effects upon two families (the Northern Stonemans and the Southern Camerons) with a specific ideological slant that distorted its historical veracity. This almost three-hour film's screenplay was based upon Thomas Dixon's novel and play The Clansman.

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The genre is predominantly a version of fantasy films ( Star Wars (1977)), but can easily overlap with horror films, particularly when technology or alien life forms become malevolent (Alien (1979)) in a confined spaceship (much like a haunted-house story). Quite a few science-fiction films took an Earth-bound tale and transported it to outer space: High Noon (1952) became Outland (1980), The Magnificent Seven (1960) was spoofed in Battle Beyond the Stars (1980), Enemy Mine (1985) was essentially a remake of Hell in the Pacific (1968) with Lee Marvin and Toshiro Mifune, and the chariot race of Ben-Hur (1959) was duplicated in the pod-race of Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace (1999).

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There was a parallel tradition of serials both in the United States and in Europe. In Europe, the motion picture serial was a close relative to today's TV series, with longer, self-contained episodes or segments. France, with pioneering auteur director Louis Feuillade, provided several magnificent chapter plays, including the five-part Fantomas (1913-France), the influential 10-part masterpiece Les Vampires (1915-France) with Musidora as villainous Irma Vep, the 12-episode Judex (1916-France), and Tih Minh (1918-France). Germany contributed the popular six-episode silent serial Homunculus (1916-Germany). Also, in the 1920s, Fritz Lang made the following two silent films in two-parts: the crime thriller Dr. Mabuse (1922-23), and Die Nibelungen (1924) (in two parts: Siegfried, and Kriemhilds Rache, aka Kriemhilde's Revenge)

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Adventure Films are exciting stories, with new experiences or exotic locales. Adventure films are very similar to the action film genre, in that they are designed to provide an action-filled, energetic experience for the film viewer. Rather than the predominant emphasis on violence and fighting that is found in action films, however, the viewer of adventure films can live vicariously through the travels, conquests, explorations, creation of empires, struggles and situations that confront the main characters, actual historical figures or protagonists.

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Cast:

John Cusack, Minnie Driver, Dan Aykroyd, Joan Cusack, Alan Arkin, Jeremy Piven, Hank Azaria, Mitchell Ryan

Review:
Grosse Pointe Blank should come with a warning against advertisement-induced expectations which might diminish a viewer's appreciation of the film. The previews and TV commercials make the movie look like a frothy romantic comedy. In
Martin's profession is a bit more exotic than that of any of his former schoolmates. After joining the army and spending five years as a covert operative for the CIA (during this stint, he killed the President of Paraguay with a fork), he went into business for himself as a hit man. Over the years, Martin has developed quite a reputation. His latest job requires him to return to Grosse Pointe, Michigan during the weekend of his ten-year high school reunion. So, on the advice of his reluctant therapist (Alan Arkin), he agrees to try to patch things up with his one true love, Debi (Minnie Driver), and attend the event. Things don't exactly go as planned, however. A rival hit man (Dan Aykroyd) shows up, and soon bullets are flying all over Grosse Pointe.



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Starring Adrien Brody
Forest Whitaker
Maggie Grace
Clifton Collins Jr.
Cam Gigandet
Fisher Stevens
Travis Fimmel
Ethan Cohn

Review:

Travis is a guy trying to make ends meet. He's working part time in a retirement community helping out with the various patients, and they seem to like him. But when budget cuts hit the community, Travis quickly finds himself out of a job.

While attending a peace rally with a friend of his, Travis comes across a girl who's being hit upon and she wants nothing to do with the guy putting the make on her. Travis steps in and almost defies his peaceful nature by getting ready to punch the guy. His cooler head prevails and soon he's off with the girl, named Bay, and both find kindred spirits in each other.


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Social dramas or "message films" expressed powerful lessons, such as the harsh conditions of Southern prison systems in Hell's Highway (1932) and I Am a Fugitive From a Chain Gang (1932), the plight of wandering groups of young boys on freight cars during the Depression in William Wellman's Wild Boys of the Road (1933), or the lawlessness of mob rule in Fritz Lang's Fury (1936), or the resourcefulness of lifer prisoner and bird expert Robert Stroud (Burt Lancaster) in John Frankenheimer's Birdman of Alcatraz (1961), or the tale of a framed, unjustly imprisoned journalist (James Cagney) in Each Dawn I Die (1939). In Yield to the Night (1956), Diana Dors relived her life and crime as she awaited her execution. A tough, uncompromising look at New York waterfront corruption was found in the classic American film, director Elia Kazan's On the Waterfront (1954) with Marlon Brando as a longshoreman who testified to the Waterfront Crimes Commission. The film drew criticism with the accusation that it appeared to justify Kazan's informant role before the HUAC.

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Director Brian De Palma's earliest, heavily-stylistic films (often with reconstructed scenes from other films) are particularly reminiscent of Hitchcock's tense horror thrillers, with themes of guilt, voyeurism, paranoia and obsession. Similar plot elements include killing off a main character early on, switching points of view, and dream-like sequences, in the following:

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Jessica Chastain made a splash earlier this year at Sundance in director Jeff Nichols’ fantasy drama Take Shelter starring Michael Shannon and kept the momentum going by earning strong reviews for her performance as a fifties housewife in Texas opposite Brad Pitt as her stern husband in director Terrence Malick’s The Tree of Life.

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