It's Good Because It's Bad

We've all said it before: "It's so bad it's good." Some of the movies I look back on with the most fondness are ones which aren't generally considered to be very good. Films like Phantoms, Chill Factor, The Faculty, and Universal Soldier. Speaking of which, check this out:


That's right, Dolph and Jean-Claude will be back together in Universal Soldier 3: The Next Generation in 2010. That movie's still a ways off, but more and more these days I've been getting excited about films that honestly don't look very good. Now, you could chalk that up to me just having poor taste (which I wouldn't necessarily blame you for), but I think that it's been long enough since the types of action and sci-fi movies I loved growing up went out of style that they seem to be making a bit of a resurgence. Look at more recent movies like Slither, 12 Rounds, and even the new Rambo film for proof of this.

Essentially, I've just been getting a lot more excited about a lot of cheesy looking movies, and you know what? I'm fine with that. Some people probably hear that Jet Li, Jason Statham, Dolph Lundgren, Goldberg, and Sylvester Stallone are going to be in a new action movie called The Expendables and scoff at the idea, but I think it sounds great! In fact, that's probably one of my most anticipated movies of 2010 right now along with Iron Man 2 and the aforementioned Universal Soldiers sequel. So I figured that I'd try using my blog to turn a few people onto some movies that they might otherwise overlook. Below are trailers for some upcoming action movies which may seem laughable on the surface, but may actually prove to take you back to the days when you could just sit back and watch Arnold Schwarzenegger impale people all day and love it. I won't say that you had to grow up on movies like Commando to find an interest in these trailers, but I'm sure it wouldn't hurt.

G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra
I figured I'd start with this trailer because I'm betting that most people have either already seen it or at least heard about it by now. Chances are if you've seen the preview already you think the movie looks abysmal. Maybe that's because you loved G.I.Joe when you were younger and think that the movie looks too cheesy. If that's the case, take a moment and think about the old Joe cartoons and comic books. Doesn't knocking the Eiffel Tower over with some crazy plant virus missile thing seem like the kind of ridiculously evil plot Cobra Commander would have concocted in those issues and episodes? Hell yes it does! We're talking about a franchise that had guy named "Golobulus" who could turn people into snake-men! So watch the trailer again with that in mind and try to imagine how awesome you'd have thought this movie looked if you'd seen this trailer 20 years ago.


Gamer
Now we're getting into the nitty-gritty. In this film death row inmates are given the chance to be pardoned and released from custody if they can survive 30 rounds of "Slayers", a futuristic video game in which people at home literally control the bodies and actions of prisoners like Kable (Gerard Butler) as they play the equivalent of a modern day FPS deathmatch game with real live people.It doesn't get much cheesier than that, but if you've ever watched The Running Man with Arnold Schwarzenegger and enjoyed it, you should have an open mind when it comes to this one. Look at those explosions! Also, Michael C. Hall from Dexter is the bad guy, which I can't wait to see.


Armored
In the case of this trailer, I admit that even I may not have paid it much mind if it weren't for the cast. Matt Dillon, Laurence Fishburne, Jean Reno, Skeet Ulrich, Milo Ventimiglia, and Fred "Tremors" Ward! Sure, it's not all Brad Pitts and Clive Owens', but that's still a pretty nice round-up regardless. Basically, the new guy on a team of armored car guards doesn't think too highly of his partners' plan to rob one of their own trucks, so he locks himself up in said armored vehicle with an injured cop and all of the money, then tries to stay alive long enough to turn his "friends" in. Get that many character actors in a room and give them this concept and I'm sold. How about you?


Command Performance
I don't think I need to say too much about this one. Dolph Lundgren stars in, co-wrote, and directed this beast about the drummer of a rock band who has to fight back against a group of terrorists who have attacked a concert for some reason. Stupid? Yes. Fun? Hell yes!! The blog-o-sphere is already referring to Command Performance as "Die Hard at a rock concert". Don't lie to yourself. You want to see this movie. And if this teaser isn't enough for you, you can check out a full length trailer for Command Performance here.