Action Adventure Notes

Explain the main features of action/adventure films and provide examples to support your ideas, referring to at least two action adventure films: -

• Rush Hour
• Hancock

Include:-

Representation

Institution

Media Language - Storyline and Plot, Structure, Oppositional Characters, Journey/Quest, Action Sequences. 

The main features of a typical Action Adventure film always will involve a hero and a villain. 

Rush Hour:- This film is about a young girl who gets kidnapped by a couple of guys, two police officers then get on the case to find her and are represented as 'Heroes'. They are both represented as good guys who are out to fight crime and evil. The Institution is New Line Cinema and Roger Bimbaum. The main characters are Jackie Chan and and Chris Tucker. With time running out they must join forces to catch the criminals and save the eleven year old chinese girl named Soo Yung. Both main characters carry a gun and ID cards which connotes power and heroism. They are represented in this way for the audience to feel afraid of them both as they have power and weapons which would scare people. The language used in this film is not standard english and does include a few swear words and slang which may not be suitable for the younger audience. Throughout the storyline, both characters go on a journey together to find out exactly where the girl is and are concerned about her safety which signifies that they are caring and hardworking. the villain phones up Soo's father to threaten him and say that they will kill his daughter if they do not give them money.

Hancock:- This film is about a hard-living superhero who is in a questionable relationship with his wife as she does not know that he is a under cover superhero till later on in the film. The institution is columbia Pictures, Relativity Media, Blue Light. The main characters in this film are Will Smith, Charlize Theron, and jason Bateman. The storyline is based on Hancock and how he becomes the most hated man in Los Angeles, even though he saved many peoples lives, he ruined a lot of peoples property and it costs the country millions. Hancock is extremely powerful and can destroy things with his bare hands. This connotes power and strength. He is represented in this way as he is both the hero of the country and the one everyone is afraid of. 

New Action Adventure Films

The Matrix:

Synopsis:

Thomas A. Anderson is a man living two lives. By day he is an average computer programmer and by night a malevolent hacker known as Neo. Neo has always questioned his reality but the truth is far beyond his imagination. Neo finds himself targeted by the police when he is contacted by Morpheus, a legendary computer hacker branded a terrorist by the government. Morpheus awakens Neo to the real world, a ravaged wasteland where most of humanity have been captured by a race of machines which live off of their body heat and imprison their minds within an artificial reality known as the Matrix. As a rebel against the machines, Neo must return to the Matrix and confront the agents, super powerful computer programs devoted to snuffing out Neo and the entire human rebellion.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0133093/

Directors and writers: Andy Wachowski, Lana Wachowski
Stars: Keanu Reeves, Laurence Fishburne and Carrie-Anne Moss.
Rating: 15
Duration: 136 minutes.
Released: 11th June 1999.

Why So Serious?

http://www.whysoserious.com/

When the website has fully loaded,the first thing that was said was, 'This is a GCN traffic update' and a lot of commotion is heard in the background and people asking for help which connotes a bank robbery taken place by the joker, this is because a bank is mentioned. The first thing that caught my eye was the Jokers To Do list. It has a loads of jobs that he wants to complete some of which are; 'Make everyone everywhere look like me' this signifies that he is very vain or it connotes that he thinks he is absolutely amazing and everyone should look like him. 'Send cops down the wrong lane' which obviously signifies his character or being a very cheeky joker, who thinks doing and saying the wrong things is hilarious. When you click on to it, it comes up with a newspaper article which is titled, The Ha Ha Ha Times which denotes that this was written about the Joker. This website is similar to the poster because it has similar use of colour which is quite dull and dark. The poster and the website both have the words 'why so serious' which is another similarity. It is also similar because the poster is made up of Joker cards and the website was made for the Joker and has pictures of the Joker on there. They are different in the respects that the website doesnt have 'The dark knight' written on it anywhere, the webasite is not an image made up of Joker cards, however they both have a few quotes that were said in the film which makes it similar.

Action Adventure Movies

The three Movies i have chosen are...

- Rush Hour

- Hancock

- Avatar

Rush Hour

- 79% Rated                                               
- Genre: Action/Adventure, comedy
- Rated: pg 13
                                       - Released December 4th 1998
                                       - Distributor: New Line Cinema
                                       - Running Time: 1hr-38 mins
                                       - Directed by: Brett Ratner
                                       - Written by: Jim Kouf and Ross LaManna
                                       - Stars: Chris Tucker and Jackie Chan
                                       - Box Office Budget: (estimated) - $33,000,000
                                       - Production Company: New Line Cinema and Roger Birnbaum
Reviews from Rotten Tomatoes:
"I didn't have very high expectations for this film, and it was much better than I thought it was going to be."
"Terrific entertainment"

Hancock

- Genre: Action, crime, fantasy, comedy

- Release Date: 2nd July 2008

- Director: Peter Burg

- Writers:- Vincent Ngo, Vince Gillian

- Stars: Will Smith, Charlize Theron and Jason Bateman

- Rated: pg 13

- Running Time: 1hr-32minutes

- Distributor: Columbia Pictures

- US Box Office: £227.9M

- 67% Rating

- Production - Columbia Pictures, Relativity Media, Blue Light

Reviews from Rotten Tomatoes:

"This is a different take on the superhero genre with an interesting, offbeat twist."

"The structure of Hancock is a bold risk that supplies more storytelling ambition than your more typical summer popcorn blockbuster."

Avatar

- Director: James Cameron

- Writer: James Cameron

- Stars: Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldana, Sigourney Weaver

- Release Date: December 17th 2009

- Budget: $237,000,000 (estimated)

- 92% Rating

- Genre: Action/Adventure, Mystery, suspense, science fiction and Fantasy

- Rated: pg 13

- Running Time: 2hours-50 mins

- US Box Office:£760.5M


Reviews from Rotten Tomatoes:
"As a fantasy epic, Avatar is an undeniable victory ... but outside of the narrow confines of immersion he's managed, it's also quite limited."
"As adventure movies go, it is impressively new in every way except the way that matters most -- storytelling. Its look will last. But its heart won't go on."

Walkers Television Advert

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VoT0Me5T8_4

This advert advertises Walkers Crisps. The advert itself is based on short story about how your sandwich could be more exciting with Walkers Crisps.
This advert includes celebrity Endorsements like JLS which will also help the sales rise, also get more people buying the crisps based on the advert itself.
At the beginning of the advert, the music playing is JLS: One Shot.
This may be because they are trying to tell you that you only get one shot, to buy these walkers crisps as they are that spectacular. After that it shows a man talking about how Walkers Crisps can be that little bit more exciting which may make you want to listen on for more. Or it could just simply make you want to carry on watching. It then shows a bunch full of six formers in a normal school assembly with a slight twist. The school teacher invites JLS onto the stage and everyones face lights up. This may be to show that with Walkers Crisps everyone is happy! The advert then continues on to people meeting up with others and people making sandwich with Walkers. This may show that Walkers makes everyone happy and it makes your sandwich that one bit more tastier. It also has a small slogan which says... "Any Sandwich is more exciting with Walkers" which obviously means no matter what sandwich you have, its always better with Walkers. At the end of the advert it has a website for people to go on to see what other exciting flavours they have to offer and much more!

Perfume Print Advert

This Perfume Print Advert is for the perfume 'Calvin Klein' 'Beauty'

It has a white background which may represent purity and cleanliness. It is very simple with only black and white with a few shadows and a model on the front. The lady is wearing a simple white dress which blends her into the background. This may be because they want to focus more on the product than the actual model; so people remember the name and the company get more sales. The perfume brand is written on top of the ladies white dress in black to make it stand out and quite eye-catching. The name of the perfume which is beauty is also written in black on top of her white dress to make the name stand out to the audience also. The typography has been written in simple and capitals. The perfume bottle is in the bottom right hand corner which is quite bold and noticable to the audience. The target audience would be women from 18-50 who just like to smell good. It represents freshness and cleanliness as its a perfume which is a product to make you smell good. As long as you like perfumes this will be perfect for you!

Action Adventure Trailer - The Chronicles Of Narnia

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wxfb1l-hMxU

Genre: Action and Adventure, Family
Director: Michael Apted
Run Time: 115 Minutes

The Chronicles Of Narnia is an Action Adventure film for the whole family to watch. It is based on brothers and sisters going on an adventure which involves barriers along the way.