Winter is coming, Game of Thrones is not. Luckily, a hot new pop-up channel opens on 18 May and will keep us warm until 10 June.
Starring the likes of Bruce Willis, Sylvester Stallone, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Jet Li, Scott Adkins, and Jean-Claude Van Damme, the baddest good guys are on your screen in their toughest incarnations before they all came together to give us The Expendables.
Why do we love them so? Besides the awesome effects and ass-kickery, there are the guaranteed action movie clichés that keep us coming back for more. In celebration of our latest pop-up channel, we’re finding the finest. Check them out below and tell us which ones you spot on M-Net Movies Bang Bang Heroes pop-up channel 109.
- Cars that crash always explode.
- Jumping through glass unscathed.
- Flicking a cigarette into petrol to cause a gigantic explosion.
- The extended kiss between the good guy and his girl.
- Taking off a motorcycle helmet to reveal you're a woman.
- Bullets never run out
- Everyone wears sunglasses
- It only takes one bullet to make something explode.
- Always turning your back on a massive explosion, 'cause no one ever looked cool facing one.
- It rains when the hero is sad.
- Everyone’s greased up so that their muscles really pop on screen.
- The hero is always a guy – what's up with that?
- Roundhouse kicks!
- The hero loses his whole family.
- Bombs are defused at 0:01.
- Crossing a precipitous ravine over a rope bridge.
- You have a gun in each hand and can shoot both while riding a motorcycle.
- The villain is either from Russia, Germany, or South Africa, and the actor can’t pull off the accent.
- Sweep the leg.
- The bad guy always explains his reasons before trying to kill the hero, giving the hero time to devise a daring escape.
- Michael Ironside is the villain.
- Fixing your injuries with gunpowder…what could go wrong?
- Training montages.
- Overly sexualised montages.
- The henchman is almost always mute.
- You can’t fire me, I QUIT!
- You must deliver a one-liner before you kill someone, otherwise it’s a waste of a kill. Like: “See you ladder”, then you push the guy off a ladder.
- And thanks to Simon Pegg and Nick Frost: “firing your gun in the air and going aaarrrrgh!”
What is your favourite action movie cliché? Share it on social media using #MMBangBang.