I dont see anything good about Jet Li, I haven't seen any movies where his martial arts skills are shown as realistically as Steven Seagal's used to be. And I think the action genre is dead, and its because like stated before its way to complicated now. I think there is a simple way out, they need to take a few risks on some new on heard of action heros. Back when Stallone and Arnold were running the show, they gave Seagal, Van Damme, and Jeff Speakman a shot at around the same time, 2 of them gained worldwide fame, and Speakman at the very least made a few good movies and earned a living. I think they need to keep the storylines alittle more down to earth, I know its an action movie and things will have to be blown out of porportion someway or another, but enough wacko ideas where we are living in a computer, or someone was treated like a dog his whole life, even complete with a state of the art leach. I also believe that the stories should be able to be summed up in a few strong words...aka Revenge, betrayal, etc. No more pg13 action movies, these movies need to be marketed again to the older adult male. Rated R....No more politically correct bull****- leave that for more serious actors and their snoozefests. As I still believe, forget actors, an action hero lives and dies on his personality, his background and most importantly his look. If he has these 3 key ingredients, the roles he should be cast in will match him perfectly...For example I think Nico was acted excelently by Seagal, he was a tough guy who happened to be a cop and take no ****...I don't expect him to be joking and juggling balls during the movie for comedic praise like Matt Damon would attempt.
Come to think of it almost every successful action hero was just given a chance to shine....Van Damme had a small part as a villain, and that small part alone cast him in a little movie called Bloodsport? Exactly a star was born...Michael Ovitz convinced WB to let Seagal star in his own action piece, another star was born...Even Stallone had to beg for a chance to star in Rocky...and another star was born. Its a shame that now all these companies are doing is trying to have one actor play every role...I don't care how good of an actor, say Tom Hanks is as good as he may be he could never pull of a Seagal movie, and Seagal couldnt do one of his...This they must understand if they want to bring back the genre...I remmeber back when i was young action movies where all that people wanted to see, they were everywhere and they really kicked ass. You cant kick ass with a pg13 rating.
Hollywood wise up action movies were your #1 grossing genre for years and its about time you gave it some thoguht again.