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“Try to imagine what cinema would look like without them. Collaborating with behind-the-camera talents including John Landis, Ivan Reitman, Carl Reiner, and John Hughes-and fellow stars such as Tom Hanks, Robin Williams, and Golden Hawn-this new wave would produce a litany of big, brash blockbusters and evergreen oddities: National Lampoon's Animal House, The Jerk, The Blues Brothers, Caddyshack, 48 Hrs., Trading Places, The Man with Two Brains, Beverly Hills Cop, Ghostbusters, Fletch, Coming to America, and Scrooged, to name but some. That list alone makes a compelling case that this period is as good as things have ever gotten for big-screen comedy.
Quentin Tarantino certainly thinks so. "I think the '80s is the worst decade, with the '50s being the second worst, in the history of Hollywood," the director said in 2015. "The only movies from the '80s that I find myself really, really hanging on to, oddly enough, are the silly comedies. They're the ones that you have the most affection for.”
― Wild and Crazy Guys: How the Comedy Mavericks of the '80s Changed Hollywood Forever
Quentin Tarantino certainly thinks so. "I think the '80s is the worst decade, with the '50s being the second worst, in the history of Hollywood," the director said in 2015. "The only movies from the '80s that I find myself really, really hanging on to, oddly enough, are the silly comedies. They're the ones that you have the most affection for.”
― Wild and Crazy Guys: How the Comedy Mavericks of the '80s Changed Hollywood Forever
“The following February, Chan appeared for the first time on David Letterman’s talk show. “The number-one box-office star in the world,” hyped the host. “We’re not talking about here in New York. We’re not talking about Phoenix. We’re talking about the world.” An ebullient Chan, in a white turtleneck and black blazer, proceeded to smash a glass on Letterman’s desk before clambering onto it and kicking a succession of bottles toward the audience. Then, taking over the host’s chair, he barked, “Now—interview!”
― The Last Action Heroes: The Triumphs, Flops, and Feuds of Hollywood's Kings of Carnage
― The Last Action Heroes: The Triumphs, Flops, and Feuds of Hollywood's Kings of Carnage
“One morning as Eddie Murphy stepped out of his Porsche in NYC, his foot came down into a curl of dog crap. Gingerly taking off his expensive, now-besmirched Italian shoes, he left them on the street and walked on. Another pair was hurriedly couriered direct to his feet.”
― Wild and Crazy Guys: How the Comedy Mavericks of the '80s Changed Hollywood Forever
― Wild and Crazy Guys: How the Comedy Mavericks of the '80s Changed Hollywood Forever
“Cannon Films […] already had a Vietnam script for its own kicking around. Impressed by Norris in a way they had not been by Van Damme, Golan and Globus signed him up to a five-film contract and greenlit both of the war pictures, to be released as Missing in Action and Missing in Action 2.
The first was set during the conflict itself, with Norris’s character, American POW Jim Braddock, tormented by his Vietnamese captors. One torture scene called for Braddock to be hung upside down from a tree, a sack placed over his head, and a ravenous rat placed inside it. After a violent tussle, it would end with the reveal that Braddock has bitten the creature to death, rather than vice versa. “They were getting ready to do this scene, and I see all these mountain rats in cages,” remembers Norris. “I say, ‘Where’s the fake rat?’ No one says anything. So I say to the director, ‘How are you going to do this scene?’ And he says, ‘I haven´t really thought about it that much.’”
Norris faced a choice: cancel the scene or have an actual rat killed and placed inside his mouth (the American Humane Association had clearly not been invited on set). But he didn’t see it as a choice at all. He ordered the animal killed, bit into its bulbous, furry corpse, and was hoisted up for the scene, shaking to simulate a struggle while fake blood poured down the rope.
“The blood is coming down into my mouth, mixed with the saliva of the rat. I’m shaking all over, and finally I’m about to throw up,” Norris says, shuddering. “All I can taste is this rat in my mouth and I’m thinking I’ve got the bubonic plague from doing this with a mountain rat. But the scene was good.”
Norris’s wife, Dianne, refused to kiss him for a week.”
― The Last Action Heroes: The Triumphs, Flops, and Feuds of Hollywood's Kings of Carnage
The first was set during the conflict itself, with Norris’s character, American POW Jim Braddock, tormented by his Vietnamese captors. One torture scene called for Braddock to be hung upside down from a tree, a sack placed over his head, and a ravenous rat placed inside it. After a violent tussle, it would end with the reveal that Braddock has bitten the creature to death, rather than vice versa. “They were getting ready to do this scene, and I see all these mountain rats in cages,” remembers Norris. “I say, ‘Where’s the fake rat?’ No one says anything. So I say to the director, ‘How are you going to do this scene?’ And he says, ‘I haven´t really thought about it that much.’”
Norris faced a choice: cancel the scene or have an actual rat killed and placed inside his mouth (the American Humane Association had clearly not been invited on set). But he didn’t see it as a choice at all. He ordered the animal killed, bit into its bulbous, furry corpse, and was hoisted up for the scene, shaking to simulate a struggle while fake blood poured down the rope.
“The blood is coming down into my mouth, mixed with the saliva of the rat. I’m shaking all over, and finally I’m about to throw up,” Norris says, shuddering. “All I can taste is this rat in my mouth and I’m thinking I’ve got the bubonic plague from doing this with a mountain rat. But the scene was good.”
Norris’s wife, Dianne, refused to kiss him for a week.”
― The Last Action Heroes: The Triumphs, Flops, and Feuds of Hollywood's Kings of Carnage
“But if the romance element of the film had been dialed down, the violence was increasingly cranking up. The finale in Val Verde—a country that de Souza had invented—was big to begin with. Then things got crazy. “In the script, there was some plausibility,” says de Souza. “The dictator is living on a private island, so there were maybe a dozen security guards. But during the shoot, Mark saw a sneak preview of Rambo [First Blood Part II] and realized how many people get killed in that. He said, ‘We’ve got to have a bigger dick than Rambo. We’ve got to slay more people.’ And suddenly there were 150 extras getting killed. It got out of control.”
― The Last Action Heroes: The Triumphs, Flops, and Feuds of Hollywood's Kings of Carnage
― The Last Action Heroes: The Triumphs, Flops, and Feuds of Hollywood's Kings of Carnage
“Cannon Films […] already had a Vietnam script for its own kicking around. Impressed by Norris in a way they had not been by Van Damme, Golan and Globus signed him up to a five-film contract and greenlit both of the war pictures, to be released as Missing in Action and Missing in Action 2.
The first was set during the conflict itself, with Norris’s character, American POW Jim Braddock, tormented by his Vietnamese captors. One torture scene called for Braddock to be hung upside down from a tree, a sack placed over his head, and a ravenous rat placed inside it. After a violent tussle, it would end with the reveal that Braddock has bitten the creature to death, rather than vice versa. “They were getting ready to do this scene, and I see all these mountain rats in cages,” remembers Norris. “I say, ‘Where’s the fake rat?’ No one says anything. So I say to the director, ‘How are you going to do this scene?’ And he says, ‘I haven´t really thought about it that much.’”
Norris faced a choice: cancel the scene or have an actual rat killed and placed inside his mouth (the American Humane Association had clearly not been invited on set). But he didn’t see it as a choice at all. He ordered the animal killed, bit into its bulbous, furry corpse, and was hoisted up for the scene, shaking to simulate a struggle while fake blood poured down the rope.
“The blood is coming down into my mouth, mixed with the saliva of the rat. I’m shaking all over, and finally I’m about to throw up,” Norris says, shuddering. “All I can taste is this rat in my mouth and I’m thinking I’ve got the bubonic plague from doing this with a mountain rat. But the scene was good.”
Norris’s wife, Dianne, refused to kiss him for a week.”
― The Last Action Heroes: The Triumphs, Flops, and Feuds of Hollywood's Kings of Carnage
The first was set during the conflict itself, with Norris’s character, American POW Jim Braddock, tormented by his Vietnamese captors. One torture scene called for Braddock to be hung upside down from a tree, a sack placed over his head, and a ravenous rat placed inside it. After a violent tussle, it would end with the reveal that Braddock has bitten the creature to death, rather than vice versa. “They were getting ready to do this scene, and I see all these mountain rats in cages,” remembers Norris. “I say, ‘Where’s the fake rat?’ No one says anything. So I say to the director, ‘How are you going to do this scene?’ And he says, ‘I haven´t really thought about it that much.’”
Norris faced a choice: cancel the scene or have an actual rat killed and placed inside his mouth (the American Humane Association had clearly not been invited on set). But he didn’t see it as a choice at all. He ordered the animal killed, bit into its bulbous, furry corpse, and was hoisted up for the scene, shaking to simulate a struggle while fake blood poured down the rope.
“The blood is coming down into my mouth, mixed with the saliva of the rat. I’m shaking all over, and finally I’m about to throw up,” Norris says, shuddering. “All I can taste is this rat in my mouth and I’m thinking I’ve got the bubonic plague from doing this with a mountain rat. But the scene was good.”
Norris’s wife, Dianne, refused to kiss him for a week.”
― The Last Action Heroes: The Triumphs, Flops, and Feuds of Hollywood's Kings of Carnage
“But that never happened, and while Staying Alive became one of 1983’s big money-spinners, critics were unimpressed by the thin love-triangle story, the gauche theatrics, the songs by Stallone’s brother Frank, and the bizarre ending in which a triumphant Tony announces, “I wanna strut!” and then does just that, down a New York street. “From the several close-ups of Tony’s blue-jeaned rear-end,” observed Vincent Canby’s review, “he seems less to be struttin’ than to be cruisin’.”
― The Last Action Heroes: The Triumphs, Flops, and Feuds of Hollywood's Kings of Carnage
― The Last Action Heroes: The Triumphs, Flops, and Feuds of Hollywood's Kings of Carnage
“Hollywood would never be the same again. Because what was possible, this scruffy and slightly shambolic band had proven, was absolutely anything. They had battled ghouls, made a giant action movie based around blues music, set the template for the buddy-cop film, and inspired millions around the world to memorize and repeat their quips. They had even, on occasion, made people cry.
Not all of their material has aged well, and some of it wasn't even funny at the time. But there is no denying that their vast ambition, raw talent, and total disregard for the rules combined to create a movement that was beloved, influential, and truly special. Their movies have been remade, spun off, and homaged to death, and fans still dress up as Ghostbusters, Blutos, and Blues Brothers (the mutant troll-babies from Nothing But Trouble, not so much). Hollywood scouts now keep a close eye on TV sketch shows, particularly SNL, as well as web series on the cutting edge of comedy, in the hopes of finding the next big star. And studio comedies have become raunchier, weirder, bigger, and looser, always chasing that elusive alchemy that happened in the 1980s, when a bunch of very silly men were given very large sums of money and allowed to go play.”
― Wild and Crazy Guys: How the Comedy Mavericks of the '80s Changed Hollywood Forever
Not all of their material has aged well, and some of it wasn't even funny at the time. But there is no denying that their vast ambition, raw talent, and total disregard for the rules combined to create a movement that was beloved, influential, and truly special. Their movies have been remade, spun off, and homaged to death, and fans still dress up as Ghostbusters, Blutos, and Blues Brothers (the mutant troll-babies from Nothing But Trouble, not so much). Hollywood scouts now keep a close eye on TV sketch shows, particularly SNL, as well as web series on the cutting edge of comedy, in the hopes of finding the next big star. And studio comedies have become raunchier, weirder, bigger, and looser, always chasing that elusive alchemy that happened in the 1980s, when a bunch of very silly men were given very large sums of money and allowed to go play.”
― Wild and Crazy Guys: How the Comedy Mavericks of the '80s Changed Hollywood Forever
“For eight months he trained four hours a day, devouring chicken, taking courses in archery, survivalism, and SWAT combat. The result: a chiseled edifice of musculature that made Rocky look like a slob. Co-star Julia Nickson, hired to play Vietnamese love interest Co Bao, would later joke, “It’s one of the few movies I’ve done where the guy looks better than the girl.”
― The Last Action Heroes: The Triumphs, Flops, and Feuds of Hollywood's Kings of Carnage
― The Last Action Heroes: The Triumphs, Flops, and Feuds of Hollywood's Kings of Carnage
“Some off-the-cuff sequences were shot to introduce the squad at the start of the movie—a destined-to-be-iconic close-up of Schwarzenegger’s and Weathers’s bulging biceps as they grip hands was insisted upon by Joel Silver.”
― The Last Action Heroes: The Triumphs, Flops, and Feuds of Hollywood's Kings of Carnage
― The Last Action Heroes: The Triumphs, Flops, and Feuds of Hollywood's Kings of Carnage
“Stallone’s directing fee for Staying Alive was relatively paltry—$1 million—but he threw himself into the project, spending months working with Travolta to perfect the latter’s body, just as he had reshaped himself for First Blood. For Travolta, the experience was an almost spiritual one. In Saturday Night Fever, hero Tony Manero had had a Rocky poster on his bedroom wall. It turned out the actor himself, eight years younger than Stallone, was just as starstruck. “Sly is gorgeous,” Travolta said with a grin. “To have Sly’s kind of body would be beautiful.” He worked out furiously, bronzed his skin, and followed the dietary instructions laid out by Stallone to the calorie.”
― The Last Action Heroes: The Triumphs, Flops, and Feuds of Hollywood's Kings of Carnage
― The Last Action Heroes: The Triumphs, Flops, and Feuds of Hollywood's Kings of Carnage
“All Americans love Jackie. Some just don’t know it yet.”
― The Last Action Heroes: The Triumphs, Flops, and Feuds of Hollywood's Kings of Carnage
― The Last Action Heroes: The Triumphs, Flops, and Feuds of Hollywood's Kings of Carnage
“There were days on Rhinestone, let me tell you, when I’d think to myself, ‘Wow, it sure was safer walking through the jungle carrying a gun,’ ” he said. “A lot easier.”
― The Last Action Heroes: The Triumphs, Flops, and Feuds of Hollywood's Kings of Carnage
― The Last Action Heroes: The Triumphs, Flops, and Feuds of Hollywood's Kings of Carnage
