HLS Movie Awards Nominees : Best Stunt Work
Welcome to the first HLS Movie Awards Nominees list, this will be coming out every Friday until the HLS Movie Awards on April 16th. There are eight different categories, Best Stunt Work, Streaming Award, Best Score, Best Screenplay, Best Cinematography and Visuals, Best Actress, Best Actor, and Best Movie of 2020. I want it very clear I am only talking about movies that were specifically released IN 2020 between January 1st to December 31st; Not when they premiered at a festival, but when they premiered for the public whether that be in theaters or on a streaming service.
This weeks nominees are for the category Best Stunt Work in a movie released in 2020. This really was not a strong year for this category sadly, but that is primarily because big action movies with stunt great stunt work are theater movies but with so many theaters shut down the movies were held onto for 2021. But, there were still four very worthy contenders for this award and here they are in alphabetical order.
I feel like it is definitely necessary to note that some of the clips I have put on here are from R rated movies so they might be gruesome or contain explicit language, just a heads up. because this is a more visual category I will let the videos do most of the talk for me.
Birds of Prey - Director Cathy Yan
Birds of Prey is easily the best action we have gotten from the DCEU hands down, and has its' case for best stunts and action work in any DC movie. You just have to applaud Margot Robbie for going above and beyond in her stunt work adding to the realism of it actually being her on multiple stunts instead of one of the many talented stunt actors.
Extraction - Director Sam Hargrave
Everyone talked about the twelve minute long one shot in this movie that is just exhilarating. What this movie lacked in storytelling more than made up for it in above the bar stunt coordination and amazing action. This was the ultimate audition tape for Sam Hargrave, I cannot wait to see what he does next, let's get this man a big budget superhero movie.
Guns Akimbo - Director Jason Lei Howden
Guns Akimbo is just a brutal videogame mess of action that is just a delightful turn your brain off and enjoy movie. The mixture of brutality and comedy is just awesome. The bright florescent colors and shifting camera tilts are worth the price of admission showing off the incredible stunts and action.
TENET - Director Christopher Nolan
John David Washington is already big right now but his career is about to sky rocket. I imagine multiple studios are currently fighting over him to helm their next superhero franchise. For me this movie's stunt work is Christopher Nolan finally learning how to make real gritty action as I think we have all seen the hilarious clips from his Batman movies that have a couple laugh out loud moments looking back on. Tenet does not, this action packed spy mystery film has excellent stunt work.
