James Cameron Crowns Die Hard His Favorite Action Movie
Terminator and Titanic filmmaker James Cameron crowned Die Hard his all-time action champ on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, tipping his hat to the genre classic that still sets the bar for big-screen mayhem.
James Cameron did two things this week: teased another run at Terminator and crowned his favorite action movie. He also reminded everyone he still loves making giant, industrial-strength spectacles for theaters. In other words, a very Cameron week.
Yep, he wants to make another Terminator
Cameron says he plans to dive into a new Terminator project after the dust settles on Avatar: Fire and Ash. He was blunt about the challenge: getting the sci-fi right in a world where real tech keeps closing the gap.
There are a lot of narrative problems to solve. The biggest is how do I stay enough ahead of what is really happening to make it science fiction?
Honestly, fair point. The man helped define the genre with The Terminator and Terminator 2: Judgment Day, and Hollywood has been chasing that high ever since with mixed results. If he is stepping back in, he wants to be out in front of reality, not trailing it.
His favorite action movie? He did not pick himself
While promoting Avatar: Fire and Ash on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, Cameron played along with Colbert's quick-hit questionnaire. When asked for his favorite action movie, he stalled with an 'Ooooh,' joked about whether he could choose one of his own, and then went straight for it: Die Hard. The crowd loved it, and Cameron broke down why.
- 'Best one-liner.'
- 'Best villain death.'
- 'Best Christmas movie.'
Another pop from the audience after the Christmas bit, and Colbert cracked that it was going to be his next question anyway. Easy win.
If you want new Cameron action right now, he has a 3.5-hour answer
Avatar: Fire and Ash is in theaters, running over three and a half hours, in 3D, at 48 frames per second. It is very much the big-screen, big-format version of moviegoing. Critic Chris Bumbray (JoBlo) dug it specifically for that theatrical punch, saying the whole package delivers something you just cannot replicate at home, no matter how fancy your setup is. He also notes the long runtime moves surprisingly fast, the immersive tech still does its job, Cameron seems engaged with the material, and this one is likely to be another crowd-pleaser. There is even an Aliens nod tied to Sigourney Weaver's Kiri that should get a loud reaction.
So: Die Hard gets the crown, Terminator could be gearing up again once Pandora clears the runway, and in the meantime Cameron is trying to make your eyeballs earn their ticket price. Sounds about right.