1 Year Anniversary!

It's hard to believe but I have been doing the blog for a year now! Since I started writing, I have reviewed exactly 58 action movies, created an official list of my top 100 action films of all time, and written a few R.I.P. articles, action icon articles, and a few top 10 lists. I know that's not as much as so many other blogs out there but it feels good to have amassed a selection of writings.

It's funny looking back on old reviews like Transporter 1-3 and the Death Wish series. My writing style and format hadn't been honed yet and I'd love to be like George Lucas and go back and change those old ones. Since I started writing, I try to always review a whole series in order (even though I did break that rule by reviewing Expendables 3, Taken 2, and A Better Tomorrow III without having done the other films first). The whole blog isn't all at the same level of quality so I may try to balance it all one day but for now there's lots of quality reviews. I always tried to make reviews informative to new readers so anyone could read up on a film and discover new ones within the review.

The best movies that I discovered or watched for the first time while writing for this blog were Above the Law (1988), A Better Tomorrow III (1989), Die Hard With a Vengeance (1995), Black Death (2010), Eastern Condors (1987), End of Days (1999), The Last Boy Scout (1991), Red Scorpion (1989), Rambo III (1988), Universal Soldier: Day of Reckoning (2012), and First Blood (1982). Quite a number of those films are definitely going to make their way to the top 100 action films of all time list at the end of the year. You can count on that.

The worst movies that I discovered while writing for this blog were Transporter 3 (2008), The Expendables 3 (2014), A Good Day to Die Hard (2013), RoboCop (2014), Death Wish V: The Face of Death (1994), and The Hunted (2003). Contemporary sequels and remakes don't usually fare well. You can tell that I try to avoid movies I know will be bad. However, it seems most of the bad movies I ended up reviewing were films that tended to be sequels or reboots to franchises that were once great. I'm also normally a positive reviewer and you will note that I always make sure to point out the positive even in disappointing films like Max Payne (2008), Live Free or Die Hard (2007), Windtalkers (2002), and Dragon Eyes (2012).

I also branched out by reviewing 4 direct to video releases. I know that doesn't sound like much in comparison to other action blogs but I used to be a person who disowned DTV releases. I am now a person who embraces them and loves nothing more than to see whatever the next Scott Adkins, Danny Trejo, or Gary Daniels DTV is.

I reviewed four franchises in their entirety for the first time too; the Death Wish series, the Rambo series, The Transporter trilogy, and the Die Hard series. I also reviewed the three official canon films of the Universal Soldier franchise and skipped the two DTV releases and Universal Soldier: The Return.

There were also several icons who repeatedly popped up in my reviews. Surprisingly, Bruce Willis popped up the most out of anyone.

Bruce Willis (7)
Dolph Lundgren (5)
Sylvester Stallone (5)
Charles Bronson (5)
Steven Seagal (4)
Chow Yun Fat (4)
Jean Claude Van Damme (4)
Jason Statham (4)
Sammo Hung (3)

And there you have it. Some statistics and patterns I realized as I perused over my year of reviewing. I look forward to another year and hope that anyone who is reading from wherever you are enjoys.