From the late ‘80s to mid ‘90s, certain elite critics (the late David Chute leading the pack) sold the legend or more precisely the promotional hype about the florid, anti-realistic, furiously kinetic brand of John Woo-stamped action cinema. Chute and others filing from the proverbial “China desk.” Everyone fell for it, and I’m not saying it wasn’t a signature genre or a real-deal “thing” (it obviously was), but thank God that era is over and done with.
Because to me it was always more about the “sell” than the actual cinematic reality, which is to say the flaunting of brazen, high-style cartoonish-ness. Action-driven (or more precisely action-opera driven and certainly fighting the principles of physics tooth and nail) as opposed to plot- or character-driven.
New York / Vulture‘s Bilge Elbiri is celebrating all the same. “Absurd, grotesque, sublime”, etc.
