The symbiosis between action and comedy is obvious as the martial arts skills of Michael Jai White, no doubt about it.
I don’t want to bore you explaining the mainstream definition of a funny action movie because it is just some action, mixed with some funny moments.
Pretty straightforward, isn’t it?
I also don’t want to give you stodgy facts like for example the first ever action film made is considered to be Edwin Porter’s “The Great Train Robbery” from 1903; or, the first ever comedy film is known to be Louis Lumière’s “The Sprinkler Sprinkled” from 1885.
Instead, I will use my magical explaining powers to enlighten you about what we will consider as a Funny Action Movie (F.A.M.) for the sake of this pretty little website.
A Funny Action Movie is an action flick that usually pretends to have a serious, intense atmosphere, which is very often destroyed by numerous unattended flaws and catastrophic goofs.
In other words, the comedy, or the fun, is totally unintentional but also natural. It simply derives from the execution of the very movie.
It is not all about technical flubs and mistakes.
It is mostly about plot holes, stiff acting, expressionless gazes, ridiculously directed action scenes/stunts, poor CGI effects, funny/uncensored one-liners and all that, taking part in a supposed to be a serious action movie, where the main characters have serious issues to deal with.
In most of the cases, a F.A.M. is an action film which is released directly to video (or directly to DVD/Blu- Ray).
If you are curious, there could be many reasons for a movie not to have a theatrical release: lack of public interest, negative reviews, low budget of the releasing company, disputed content, small niche market, etc.
That is why it is not a big surprise that such films are often considered to be with generally lower technical and artistic quality than the films which live to see a theatrical release.
Similar terms for those movies are for instance “b-movie” or if the quality is even poorer- “C-movie” or “Z-movie”. To go deeper, there are also movies which belong to the psychotronic genre– movies, entirely ignored by the critics but wholeheartedly enjoyed by their groups of fans. Briefly, these movies are so bad that they are great. Their weirdness is their trademark which has evolved into a brand new genre.
Of course, there are numerous examples of action (and not only) movies belonging to the F.A.M. category, which were released on the big screen and have a huge million dollars budget.
An action film with a theatrical release doesn’t mean that it is flawless or Oscar worthy. Just try not to laugh watching “The Running Man”, “Raw Deal”, “Hard Target” or “Conan the Barbarian”. It is not possible.
Funny Action Actors
Let me introduce you some of the most common actors who brightly shine in Funny Action Movies. In fact, most of them give so big luster to their action films that you might need sunglasses.
So give it up to:
- the “muscles from Brussels” Mr. Jean-Claude Van Damme
- the one and only Arnold Schwarzenegger
- the American ninja Michael Dudikoff
- the charming Olivier Gruner
- the man who will always gladly break your arms- Steven Seagal
- the blue-eyed, expressionlessly gazed Gary Daniels
- the Swedish karate machine Dolph Lundgren
- the most complete fighter in the world Scott Adkins
- the other American Ninja David Bradley
I’m beginning to have a writer’s callus, so I’m putting an end to this list right here, but be sure that there are plenty of other actors who are part of this F.A.A. list. With your help, I will add more and more with the time passing by.
If you have a suggestion for an actor whose movies are not reviewed on this website, feel free to shout this out!