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Feb 1, 2016 · The torture sequence, a hoary cliche by itself, is never gratuitous in a Shane Black film — it is a catalyst for his hero’s redemption. Common theme Redemption is the key theme of...
- 10 Last Action Hero
- 9 The Predator
- 8 Lethal Weapon 2
- 7 The Nice Guys
- 6 The Last Boy Scout
- 5 The Long Kiss Goodnight
- 4 Iron Man 3
- 3 Kiss Kiss Bang Bang
- 2 The Monster Squad
- 1 Lethal Weapon
We should attribute the critical failure of the Arnold Schwarzenegger-driven blockbuster Last Action Heroto the fact that Shane Black merely did a re-write of Zak Penn's original script, which was then hacked apart by Columbia Pictures before production. Still, no matter how reviled the movie was by contemporaneous critics, Black's DNA remains firm...
Possibly the most underrated offering from the Predator franchise,The Predator was one of the few times Shane Black actually directed one of his own action scripts. While not exactly beloved among critics, the movie made well on its budget with a successful theatrical release due largely to Black's adherence to the intimate, action-ensemble cast id...
If Black's take on the Lethal Weapon sequel script is to be believed, Executive Producer Joel Silver may have done the film a disservice by making Black's script, originally titled Play Dirty, into a more studio-friendly, comedic version. While it's fun to speculate how Black's original, darker version of Lethal Weapon 2 may have turned out on-scre...
Arguably the funniest script on this list, The Nice Guysalso marks Black's most well-executed film. At the time of its creation, Black may have been the only person in Hollywood who understood Ryan Gosling's potential for comedy, and Gosling's turn as wannabe-sleuth Holland March produced some hilarious readings of such iconic Black lines as "You k...
Known nowadays as much for his $1.75 million payday (a record at the time) for The Last Boy Scout screenplay, this may be Black's most prototypical work. The screenplay's irreverence, ultra-violence and complete disregard for the plausibility of its action sequences are the hallmarks that we have grown to love in Black's screenwriting. Though under...
Another 90s action movie, another record-setting payday for Shane Black — as the bidding war for this script netted him a cool $4 million dollars. While Black enthusiasts will invariably say he earned every dollar of that fee, The Long Kiss Goodnightwas not the box office-boon that New Line Cinema had hoped for, possibly owing to audiences of the t...
It's nothing less than poetic justice that in 2010 Robert Downey Jr., then one of the biggest actors in Hollywood, hand-picked Shane Black to direct the third installment of Marvel's Iron Man franchise. It was a return of favor, as less than a decade earlier Black took a chance on Downey Jr. to star in Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, a film that assuaged majo...
While barely earning back its budget at the box office,Kiss Kiss Bang Bang is one of Black's most beloved films for its perfect marriage of Black's writing to Downey Jr.'s narrative voice. The film also proved that Black's talent as a Director was undeniable and made great use of Val Kilmer's diverse talents at a time when he, too, was mostly forgo...
While anyone under the age of 40 might convulse at finding The Monster Squad this high in the Shane Black script rankings, any 80s baby worth their salt knows how crucial this movie was to any Halloween sleepover back in the day. Not only did it dare to unite Dracula, Frankenstein, The Mummy and Wolfman into a murderer's row of movie monsters, it a...
It can be hard to imagine a world without the Lethal Weapon franchise, but there was a time when few knew the name Mel Gibson, fewer still Danny Glover and nobodyhad heard of Shane Black. The original script for this movie was so good, not even meddling studio executives could have messed it up. Say what you want about Gibson, he was born to play R...
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Jul 30, 2023 · Narratively and emotionally, the movie doesn’t need more than what’s featured, and it sounds like cutting the gratuitous material was done for the betterment of the film.
- The Nice Guys (2016) Rotten Tomatoes Score: 91% After the success of Iron Man 3, Black returns to his Lethal Weapon roots with a buddy action film about a private eye who teams up with an enforcer to find the only eyewitness of a politician's daughter thought to be dead.
- Kiss Kiss Bang Bang (2005) Rotten Tomatoes Score: 86% After being rejected by the Academy of Motion Pictures and the failure of The Long Kiss, Goodby, Black decided to step out of his comfort zone and write a romantic comedy.
- Lethal Weapon (1987) Rotten Tomatoes Score: 80% Shane Black's first script after graduating from U.C.L.A. is about a suicidal cop and his family-oriented partner who take on a drug syndicate run by ex-special forces.
- Iron Man 3 (2013) Rotten Tomatoes Score: 79% After losing director John Favreau, who had spearheaded the first two films, Robert Downey turned to his Kiss Kiss Bang Bang director Shane Black to write and direct the series's final installmen t. Black's emphasis on wall-to-jokes and other strong narrative choices divided fans in this trilogy's last film.
- The Exorcist (1973) Let’s start with my favorite movie. Noir? Yup. From the compromised ex-boxer priest to the plodding, sardonic detective, the budding evil gives purpose to their wearying lives of quiet desperation.
- Dirty Harry (1971) Simple premise, yet a tour de force of cinematic set pieces. You can pluck any of a half dozen sequences and teach them in film class.
- Night Moves (1975) If The Big Sleep was the quintessential evocation of Raymond Chandler, this ‘70s thriller is surely birthed from his successor, Ross MacDonald.
- No Country For Old Men (2007) Crime as literature, pure and simple. Violence that is clumsy, erratic, shocking – even comical. Look and learn.
Aug 15, 2016 · A new video essay dives into what makes violence in Shane Black movies so special when there is violence in nearly every movie made today.
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May 19, 2016 · Black sees the magic in the worlds of action movies, and his films have galvanized the genre where so many others have grown crusty with misogyny and a terminal lack of invention.
