As brutal as the lockdowns and quarantine have felt, we like to look for silver linings. For many of us, this means more excuses to escape reality via television and movies. Action films are high up on our list of escapist genres. There's something weirdly therapeutic about watching a character kick major ass. Instagram meme creators such as @snackytuna and @bread_loafington take the heroes (think Sylvester Stallone and Mr. T) of testosterone-filled movies and make them the subjects of some seriously relatable and self-deprecating memes. While the image macros don't pass the Bechdel test, they're still extremely entertaining. If you like what you see, give these accounts a follow on Instagram. We think they deserve it.
action movies
Via Cracked
Everybody assumes Keanu Reeves' John Wick's greatest skill is his ability to headshot 20 dudes in five seconds, but what if his actual greatest ability is being a super nice guy and a great friend? Carly Snowdon and Jordan Breeding dive straight into the shadowy weeds to discuss the qualifications of an expert assassin, what it means to be a good friend, and whether there will ever be a better action franchise than "The Raid."
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Via Cracked
While it may seem like the world is opening up to a spectrum of masculinity, Hollywood has never really wavered in its portrayal of action hunks and their opinion of what a man should is supposed to be like. Our friends over at Cracked take a short but in-depth look at these oiled-up muscly tropes in this video, as well as clichés regarding male intellect and, of course, height.
Everyone's favorite protector of animals and destroyer of bad guys is getting a whole lot of meme attention following insane box office numbers last weekend. John Wick 3 nudged Avengers: Endgame from the top of the box office, and lovers of Keanu Reeves, dogs, and actions movies have been showing their appreciation in meme form - mostly on the r/dankmemes subreddit. To pay homage to the defender of canines, we've put together an assortment of John Wick memes, new and old, to satisfy you until John Wick 4 comes out.
If you aren't familiar with the impressive art form known as "parkour," it's essentially an extra fancy way of moving from point A to point B in obstacle-course fashion, also combining gymnastics and probably a general lack of fear.
This guy is clearly a pro, so we hope we don't have to tell you to not try this at home, dummy!
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Via Chris Stuckmann
The action genre got kickstarted in the '70s with movies like Enter the Dragon, Dirty Harry, and The French Connection. They enjoyed a golden age in the '80s with too many amazing movies to count. The '90s were also pretty damn good with entries like Jurassic Park, Independence Day, and The Matrix. Ever since the '90s, however, action flicks have been on a steady decline. What gives?
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By Unknown
It's no secret that once Hollywood finds a formula for success, it sticks to it for, like, forever (see Avatar 8: Electric Blue-galoo in theaters Christmas 2027!). It's so pervasive in fact that even the trailers are basically carbon copies of each other, and they all use this one ridiculous editing style. Seriously, like 99.9% of all action movie trailers ever have done this.
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