I loved action films as a kid. My Dad didn’t shy away from showing me the heavy R-Rated fare either. Because of that, whenever I played with my dolls, Barbie was always a fashion model/action hero. One of my favorite Barbie “stories” I played involved Barbie in a Mortal Kombat-esque death fight where she would scissor kick Ken out of the fighting ring onto the spikes below (aka, from the dining room chair to the carpet).

Since I still love action films, and since I still love dolls, I thought I’d dedicate some photos to some of the most influential action films I saw as a child. These movies helped shape my ideas and feelings about action films…and films in general.

Put yourself in Spielberg’s shoes: It’s 1993, you’ve just delivered one of the largest box-office blockbusters of all time and a stunning testament to the sacrifices of the Jews during World War II. Cumulatively the two films you directed back-to-back in the same year win an armful of Oscars (including best picture for Schindler’s List) and rake in more than a billion dollars worldwide. It just so happens that the light-hearted one with dinosaurs rakes in about three times as much cash as the one about a real human event that had a devastating impact on the world.

For all intents and purposes, The Matrix is perhaps more like the original Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope than The Phantom Menace. This is due in large part to the influence of Joseph Campbell in helping to inform the rise of Neo.

Despite the heavy title, this article is not an attempt to declare either Star Wars Episode 1: The Phantom Menace or The Matrix as being a “better” film. Honestly that kind of discussion has no place on this site, and I might argue, in this decade. The real purpose of this article is to simply examine the public and critical reception of the film, then and now, by placing the film in the context of the 90s.

Demolition Man, if anything, acts as antidote to Last Action Hero. The balance of Action and comedy has been shifted, with Stallone’s effort weighing more heavily on action. Stallone looks the part too. He’s as big as ever.

In 1993, three very seemingly different blockbuster films were released: Last Action Hero, Jurassic Park and Demolition Man. Jurassic Park was of course a huge success, Demolition Man a middling success and Last Action Hero, after all was said and done was alleged to have actually lost money.

Our intention this month was not to focus on any one specific film, but instead to analyze the genre as a whole. You’ll notice we also included in our video montage a few “not so blockbusters,” films like Waterworld and Wild Wild West. That’s because we’re interested specifically in the process of formulating a great blockbuster summer tentpole film from the studio perspective. These films cost more, and as such are more of a gamble in the eventuality that they flop.