It blows my mind that John Singleton was only 23 when he was nominated for Best Director for his work on one of the best movies of the 1990s, Boyz N The Hood.  It’s not like I was growing up in gated communities with butlers and tennis courts, but it was nevertheless startling and, to a degree, educational to see for the first time life in the ghettos of South Central Los Angeles.  The cast of Boyz N The Hood all went on to have some pretty interesting and impressive careers, so let’s see what they’ve been up to since 1992.  After the jump, take a look at where the cast members of Boyz N The Hood are now.*

*hat tip to A.C. from the ‘Wood

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Last week, we took at look at the cast of John McTiernan’s Predator and what they’ve been up to since 1987.  About the time of its release, Predator had as big an impact on me as a movie could, and it’s another McTiernan movie – Die Hard – that had a similar impact.  Die Hard worked so well, for me, because gone was the hulking supermen action hero, replaced instead by a blue-collar, drinking, cursing, regular man’s man.  John McClane, in a way, revolutionized action heroes, and Die Hard very much revolutionized action movies.  In fact, I’d argue that it’s one of, if not the, best action movie of all time.

A large part of Die Hard’s draw is its great cast.  It launched Bruce Willis’ career, and Alan Rickman is great in pretty much everything.  But what about the rest of the cast?  After the jump, take a look at what Willis, Rickman, and the rest of the cast of Die Hard has done since Die Hard’s release in 1988.

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It’s hard to believe, but Predator was released over 20 years ago.  I don’t know that it’s my favorite movie, but for a long time it was, and I still consider it to be a perfect blend of action and sci-fi.  Along with Die Hard – also directed by John McTiernan – Predator impacted me more than any other movie from the 1980s.  Predator still holds up well today: the straightforward yet clever story, the mystery of the alien itself (which has since been butchered), the special effects (powered by the legendary Stan Winston), Alan Silvestri’s ominous score, and last but certainly not least, the cast.

One of the things that I love about Predator is that the alien isn’t killing a bunch of average Joes.  Instead, he’s ripping the spines out of some of the baddest, biggest, meanest dudes on Earth, all equipped with top-of-the-line military firepower.  Many of the movie’s cast members went on to have some pretty remarkable careers, some of which were completely outside the realm of film.  I decided to see what the cast of Predator has been up to over the past 20+ years.  Keep reading to find out.

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