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Title details for The Last Action Heroes by Nick de Semlyen - Available

The Last Action Heroes

The Triumphs, Flops, and Feuds of Hollywood's Kings of Carnage

by Nick de Semlyen
Bronson Pinchot
Audiobook
1 of 2 copies available
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1 of 2 copies available
The behind-the-scenes story of the action heroes who ruled 1980s and ’90s Hollywood and the beloved films that made them stars, including Die Hard, First Blood, The Terminator, and more.
“Entertaining . . . This is a book that makes you ache for the days when the movie screen belonged not to men who dress in superhero capes but to those who lift weights.”—Washington Examiner
A NEWSWEEK BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR
The Last Action Heroes opens in May 1990 in Cannes, with Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sylvester Stallone waltzing together, cheered on by a crowd of famous faces. After years of bitter combat—Stallone once threw a bowl of flowers at Schwarzenegger’s head, and the body count in Schwarzenegger’s Commando was increased so the film would “have a bigger dick than Rambo”—the world’s biggest action stars have at last made peace.
In this wildly entertaining account of the golden age of the action movie, Nick de Semlyen charts Stallone and Schwarzenegger’s carnage-packed journey from enmity to friendship against the backdrop of Reagan’s America and the Cold War. He also reveals fascinating untold stories of the colorful characters who ascended in their wake: high-kickers Chuck Norris and Jackie Chan, glowering tough guys Dolph Lundgren and Steven Seagal, and quipping troublemakers Jean-Claude Van Damme and Bruce Willis. But as time rolled on, the era of the invincible action hero who used muscle, martial arts, or the perfect weapon to save the day began to fade. When Jurassic Park trounced Schwarzenegger’s Last Action Hero in 1993, the glory days of these macho men—and the vision of masculinity they celebrated—were officially over.
Drawing on candid interviews with the action stars themselves, plus their collaborators, friends, and foes, The Last Action Heroes is a no-holds-barred account of a period in Hollywood history when there were no limits to the heights of fame these men achieved, or to the mayhem they wrought, on-screen and off.

  • Creators

  • Publisher

  • Release date

    June 6, 2023

  • Formats

    • OverDrive Listen audiobook

      • ISBN: 9780593668139
      • File size: 287823 KB
      • Duration: 09:59:37

  • Languages

    • English

  • Reviews

    • Publisher's Weekly

      April 10, 2023
      De Semlyen (Wild and Crazy Guys), editor of Empire magazine, delivers a testosterone-fueled ode to action movies of the 1980s and ’90s. He goes behind the scenes of the biggest hits of Sylvester Stallone, Arnold Schwarzenegger, and Jean-Claude Van Damme, among others, telling, for example, how Jackie Chan saw 1983’s Project A as his attempt to achieve in the U.S. the stardom he already had back in China, and how tensions brewed on the set of Die Hard (1988) when Bruce Willis refused to follow the director’s blocking because he feared it would reveal his hair was thinning. Becoming an action hero takes hard work, as demonstrated by the punishing workouts Arnold Schwarzenegger followed to bulk up, but de Semlyen suggests the era’s hypermasculinity had a dark side, with Steven Seagal facing numerous sexual assault allegations throughout his career. Still, the author shows plenty of love for the high-adrenaline classics he discusses, and fans of Reagan-era blockbusters will eat up tales from the sets of Conan the Barbarian, Rocky IV, and Predator. Additionally, de Semlyen’s astute analysis takes this up a notch (he suggests that ’80s action films satisfied audiences’ appetite for moral simplicity and “a renewed sense of purpose” after the disillusionment of Watergate and the Vietnam War). This packs a punch.

    • Library Journal

      Starred review from June 10, 2024

      Empire magazine editor de Semlyen (Wild and Crazy Guys) offers a studied yet humorous look at action-movie stars of the 1980s and 1990s. He highlights Sylvester Stallone and Arnold Schwarzenegger, whose bitter rivalry is the continuing storyline in an analysis that includes Chuck Norris, Jean-Claude Van Damme, Jackie Chan, and more. All are buff, physical action stars who relied on brawn and violence to defeat the bad guys, providing simple entertainment in the bleak post-Vietnam era. The author describes the considerable physical demands of this work; eventually, as these actors began to age, audience attention shifted to younger actors with different, less hypermasculine sensibilities. Actor Bronson Pinchot is the perfect narrator for this blend of history, humor, and film criticism. He employs a deliciously sarcastic tone and spot-on comedic timing when relaying the absurdities of this world, such as Stallone and Schwarzenegger comparing (and later increasing) the size of their knives. Pinchot is adept at conveying gossip in an insider tone while still relating the importance of the action-hero genre in American movie history. VERDICT Film buffs will greatly enjoy this deft production of a tome that takes an irreverent but thorough look at a pivotal movie genre.--B. Allison Gray

      Copyright 2024 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Formats

  • OverDrive Listen audiobook

subjects

Languages

  • English

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