Mindless Action: Lucky

Almost a decade ago we stumbled across an impressive and fun action short from Australia, aaaaaand instantly forgot the name of it. After several bouts of searching the internets for any sign of it, we mostly gave up the search. But recently while looking into stuntman/filmmaker Nash Edgerton (who's known for his stunt work for The Matrix movies, the Star Wars prequels, and for stunt doubling for his brother Joel Edgerton), we discovered Nash had written, directed, and starred in a short film to feature his amazing stunt skills. And as it happens, that's the short we saw all those years ago! Check it out and see what kept us obsessed for so long...

Mindless Action Movies: The Raid

Nothing washes a bad day away like watching this movie, it's so satisfyingly wall-to-wall action! We first saw The Raid as a bootleg a co-worker lent us and the dubbing was a little... off. Clearly it was a DIY job by the bootlegger, but they didn't have a full grasp on how to translate Indonesian to English. There were a few key points where the subtitles suddenly were in what I assume to be Indonesian and plot points that revolved around things like animal hospital drugs... Though it did make for an interesting watch, were happy when we could buy it on DVD with professional translators supplying the subtitles!


The plot unfolds something like this: A group of tactical police officers are on their way to raid an apartment complex run by a notorious drug lord. Halfway to the top floor, the drug lord finds out they're in the building and offers free housing for life to the person who brings him an officer's head. The games begin.

Sounds familiar: Anyone who's also seen Dredd might think that one of these films ripped off the other, but that's not true. They were filming simultaneously on completely different continents, completely unaware of the other's existence. And even though the physical landscape of each film is similar, each is very much so a different movie and both are in our top five favorite action movies.

The action: This movie is the definition of non-stop. There is little story here, but that's only because they didn't leave any time to give you any.

The sequel: The Raid 2: Berandal is also very good. Not nearly as mindless, but just as action packed and about 100x more stylish.

Mindless Action Movies: Ozploitation List

These fit the tone of our movie this month as they are all exploitation action movies. However these are all specifically Ozploitation exploitation, and the Australians are really good at mindless action, especially when there are cars involved.

Chain Reaction: A nuclear waste storage facility suffers a breach after an earthquake and nuclear waste is headed straight for the ground water. One facility engineer sees the danger and tries to save the thousand of people in harms way, however his boss would rather just keep the whole thing hush-hush. This movie is at it's core a car chase movie, though it tries desperately to convince you otherwise. Bonus: it has a killer score!

Stunt Rock: A sort-of mockumentary about stunt man Grant Page and the theatrical hard-rock band Sorcery. You'll see a trailer for this gem at this month's screening, but allow me to explain it a bit without ruining a single second of that: This movie was literally made to highlight the unrivaled stunt man that is Grant Page, the band is a total after thought to tie the movie together. This is a movie made of pointless action, frosted with ridiculous band antics.

Man From Hong Kong: I have written about this movie before and I don't often say this but, you really should just check out that post. There's too much so much to say and I've already said so much of it!

Turkey Shoot: A human hunting movie mashed up with an exploitation prison movie, this one's got it all. (I also wrote about this one before, if you're interested.) Over the top characters, asinine plot points, and actors in actual danger while filming. It's not to be missed.




Bonus movie:

Mad Max: There are few Ozploitation movies that reach the action heights that Mad Max does, though this movie isn't so much mindless perse, but you can tune in and out and still enjoy it.

Mindless Action: Police Story

Jackie Chan is the king of action movies that need no plot, and Police Story is no exception as the story was purely afterthought. But that lands this movie squarely in the mindless action category because if you drift in and out of the story, you won't enjoy it one iota less.

The plot unfolds something like this: Jackie Chan is a police officer tasked with keeping a witness safe who, for the most part, doesn't want to be kept from the person she's going to testify against. Subsequently, that person frames Jackie for murder and the only person that can clear him is the witness herself.

The action: Some of the most ambitious, well shot, and ultimately endlessly
ripped off stunts (like in Bad Boys 2, or Tango and Cash), it's hard not to call this movie a classic.

Mindless action: This movie might fit our theme best this month as the story was literally written to tie the larger stunts in the movie together.

If you've never seen Police Story, you're missing out...