Top Action Stars – 8 Movie Collection (DVD)

For the hardcore action buffs, Mill Creek Entertainment offers up an eight pack from fans of Jean Claude Van Damme, Steven Seagal, and Dolph Lundgren. While a few of the titles are from their days of box office domination, the rest of the films are their more recent action adventures with one word titles to present a vague idea of what the movie entails.

Van Damme stars in “Universal Soldier: The Return,” the 1999 sequel to the classic action film where Van Damme must fight new soldiers in the form of Michael Jai White and wrestler Bill Goldberg. Though not as beloved as the original, it’s still a pretty decent follow-up. “Knock Off” stars Van Damme as a fashion designer who has to team up with Rob Schneider to uncover an illegal crime ring in the fashion world.

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Independence Day (1996)

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Roland Emmerich’s “Independence Day” is one quarter of a very decent albeit cliche alien invasion film, and three quarters an unwatchable adventure film. What opens with looming shadows and hovering space ships devolves in to a buddy comedy with catchy one-liners and plot twists much too convenient to buy. Even for a science fiction film about huge alien space ships. Apparently the government can see asteroids coming from miles away and predict when one will pass, but they can’t see space ships the size of two continents enter the atmosphere.

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The Lone Ranger (2003)

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Back in 2003, Warner had the bright idea to pretty much take the “Smallville” concept and apply it to the Lone Ranger. Rather than featuring a very young superhero, we were given a very young pulp hero. Except, they changed everything about the original hero. And tried their best to pass off a white cowboy hat and black mask as cool for modern audiences. There’s even a guitar version of the William Tell Overture in the closing credits. Guitars are cool, right? There’s a reason why Lone Ranger is a pulp character. He’s a wonderful superhero, but adjusted to contemporary style is not going to work.

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Bambi (1942)

Narrative wise, there isn’t much to “Bambi” and its story that garners a lot of subtext or undertones. Bambi is born, he learns about the world, his mom dies, he becomes a man, falls in love, and the end. For the rest of the world “Bambi” is a bonafide masterpiece, but objectively it’s a very stripped down and basic animated movie that feels so much more like an animation experiment than it does a movie.

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The Lion King (1994)

The-Lion-KingWhether Disney did or didn’t plagiarize Osamu Tezuka’s “Kimba the White Lion,” we’ll never truly know. What I do know for certain is that “The Lion King” is still one of the best cinematic experiences I’ve ever had, and my number two animated film of all time. It’s a bold mixture of 2D animation, and amazing CGI that combines to tell a rather adult and complex tale about revenge and destiny.

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Dumb & Dumber (1994)

I wonder if the Farrelly Brothers knew they were creating a potentially epic storyline when they invented Harry and Lloyd. There are comedy characters that are good enough for one movie, and then there are character duos like Harry and Lloyd, both of whom may be having adventures well in to their sixties. Harry and Lloyd are perpetually moronic best friends oblivious to how utterly dumb they are.

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The Three Stooges (2012)

The Farrelly Brothers, after a long stretch of production issues, have seemingly taken The Three Stooges and turned it in to their own unofficial sequel to “Dumb and Dumber.” Except the Three Stooges are now the unofficial ancestors to Harry and Lloyd, three inept and woefully moronic men unaware that everything they do is beyond social norms. The world around them is vastly different to the world they inhabit. With a shockingly respectable cast of folks like Jennifer Hudson, Jane Lynch, Larry David in drag, and model Kate Upton (mainly cast for a money shot of her in a bikini), the Farrelly’s come with all guns loaded for the sake of keeping the comedy moving non-stop. As a hardcore fan of the trio, I was open to the potential that the Farrellys would do justice to the classic comedy team, and thankfully they pull it off for the most part.

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