The Last Action Heroes: The Triumphs, Flops, and Feuds of Hollywood’s Kings of Carnage
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‘A blast’ – Ian Rankin
‘A joyous celebration of 80s action cinema’ – Robbie Collin, Telegraph
‘Vastly entertaining’ – The Times
The behind-the-scenes story of the action heroes who ruled 1980s and 90s Hollywood and the beloved films – from Die Hard to The Terminator – that made them stars.
This wildly entertaining account of the golden age of the action movie charts Sylvester Stallone and Arnold Schwarzenegger’s carnage-packed journey from enmity to friendship against the backdrop of Reagan’s America and the Cold War. Revealing fascinating untold stories of the colourful 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 – it chronicles the rise of the invincible action hero who used muscle, martial arts or the perfect weapon to save the day. And how, as the 1990s rolled on, the glory days of these macho men – and the vision of masculinity they celebrated – began to fade.
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.
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‘Highly entertaining’ – Sunday Telegraph
‘A rollicking, anecdote-packed tribute to the cavalier days’ – Literary Review
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Additional information
| Publisher | Picador, Main Market edition (24 Aug. 2023) |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Paperback | 352 pages |
| ISBN-10 | 1529058503 |
| ISBN-13 | 978-1529058505 |
| Reading age | 18 years and up |
| Dimensions | 17.8 x 2.8 x 23.4 cm |
by Mr. Sean C. Alexander
Nick de Semlyen’s second book is again a deep dive into the egos, successes, failures and ultimately histories of a group of affilated characters for whom the 1980s became a commercial peak in Hollwood. But while ‘Wild and Crazy Guys’ examined the emergence of some of that decade’s most famous faces from the ranks of Saturday Night Live, this book is all about the muscle. Schwarzenegger, Stalloine and their fellow action Goliaths rose fast and hit hard during am era when Hollywood doubled down on the big budgets and populist cinema that had emerged in the second half of the 70s, all but ending the final golden age of American cinema. While some like Stallone found fame came slowly and not without its years of near misses and wrong paths, Schwarzenegger arrived like his titular Terminator with the express purpose of making money and becoming the biggest film star in the world. That he successed, and defined an entire era’s output at a time whan a cash splurging Hollywood spent big to make big, is all the more remarkable given his humble roots and family background in a tiny Austrian village. The ones who followed – Bruce Willis, Jean Claude Van Damme, Steven Seagal – each had their own USP, and Stallone himself had two iconic creations that have endured into the 21st Century. But while Rocky and Rambo became punch-drunk and war fatigued long before they hung up their gloves and assault rifles, Schwarzenegger possessed the business acumen to recognise the difference between success and failure.,and treat both of those illusions the same.
Replete with all the nostalgia of finding these films through word of mouth, video store browsing and watching violent mayhem in the comfort of one’s own living room, Last Action Heroes is a testament to an era before the advent of digital effects where the action was real. De Semlyen’s work at the coalface as first writer and now editor of Empire magazine has given him a first hand view of events in real time, but it’s the nostalgic buzz these films still afford him that comes through most. One liners, big explosions and the sheer gall of redefining Hollywood’s economic structure will never again be achieved with brute force and brawn the way it was here.
by Amazon Customer
A great book. Very easy and fun to read, with so many interesting bits of information as well as great cover
by magic
Very well written comfort read
by Patrick W. E. Walker
Really enjoyable read, highly recommended.
by JordanMBKing
A fascinating subject and one that truly speaks to me as a child of the 80s and teenager of the 90s. Has some very intriguing titbits, never knew Jean Claude Van Damme, the epitome of fitness, was a cokehead and had an affair with Kylie Minogue. Equally I knew Dolph Lungdren was plenty smart but I never realised he had an IQ of 160, he is quite literally a genius! Really puts the boot into Steven Seagal but perhaps deservedly so. Unfortunately it is very flatly written and misses a great many subjects which we would life to hear about, Lungdren’s service in the Swedish Marine Corps for instance and it skips several important films, Van Damme in Death Warrant, Willis in The Last Boy Scout, Arnold in Cactus Jack etc So it’s okay but I’d like a lot more depth
by JordanMBKing
Just finished the last hour of this audiobook, which I was simultaneously desperate to listen to and yet also hesitated to finish – I genuinely didn’t want it to be over. Bronson Pinchot was such a fantastic choice of narrator for this, a warts-and-all celebration, summation, and exploration of yet another bunch of ‘Wild And Crazy Guys’ – namely Sylvester ‘Sly’ Stallone, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Jackie Chan, Jean Claude Van Damme, Bruce Willis, Dolph Lundgren, Chuck Norris, and… err… Steven Seagal, who took my “He sounds a bit dodgy but how bad can he really be?” expectations and managed to stoop far, far lower even so.
I always had a slight apprehension towards the 80s/90s action movie era, because it always seemed so “You had to be there!” to me. Of course I saw the most famous films of the era in my own time, Die Hard/Terminator/Predator/Police Story etc., but the rest always felt like I had no way in to them that worked for me. Thanks to this book, I truly have been given a chance to really place myself in that moment in history now – I have a sense of the time, the mood, the egos and how they became the way they did, and of what all of it meant to those who participated but also to those who were watching those films and learning from them. The stories are so rich and the interviews are so illuminating, and everything ties together seamlessly and satisfyingly!
If there is anything however of which I am now sure, it’s that I do need to see Seagal’s SNL appearance, and I do need to see Dolph Lundgren’s Maximum Potential fitness video – they both sound… revelatory, to say the least.
Can’t wait for the next lot of Wild & Crazy Guys (or indeed Gals) to show up in the next tome for the audio library – and my actual bookshelf, of course! It’s a “Five stuntmen making Seagal mess himself out of five” from me!