I will credit Kubla for bringing this up, but it's probably high time we discussed what the greatest action films of all time are, whether they be personal favourites or just ones that are marvelously influential on the genre. Let's stick to the genre here, discuss only films you would find in the "action" section of what used to be known as video rental stores. Some are hard to classify like Braveheart since it's also an epic drama or Aliens since it's a sci-fi horror, but I'll let everyone be the judge of that as we go. And like all of these movie-type threads let's please keep it friendly, kids. Tone the the domestics or send them to PM. Bring on the adrenaline....
I guess I'll kick this off with my top 10: 1. T2* 2. Die Hard* 3. Raiders of the Lost Ark 5. Predator 6. French Connection 7. The Matrix 8. Fifth Element 9. Total Recall 10. Robocop (fuck you, I love it) *T1 and DH2 are great, I just didn't want to include 2 movies from the same series.
1) The Terminator 2) Mad Max 2 a.k.a The Road Warrior 3) Die Hard 4) The Killer 5) The Raid: Redemption 6) Raiders of the Lost Ark 7) Robocop 8) Bullet in the Head 9) Batman 10) Predator and True Lies (tie) ...off the top of my head. Imay have to edit this with more thought, since there are SO MANY awesome films to pick from.
The Rock This is my favorite movie across all genres. Exciting, funny, rewatchable and quotable. It was a critical success, too. While critical success may not seem like a big deal in its own right, think about this - let's say we travel back in time to 1996, and someone said to you "hey, there's this movie, it's a Jerry Bruckheimer action flick starring Nicolas Cage and 66-year old Sean Connery. There is a buddy cop formula, and Cage and Connery storm Alcatraz to fight a squad of Marines. Are you in?" Nobody in their right mind would respond, "yeah, that's a great idea!" But it works. The stupid expression that Cage always wears fit perfectly, because the stuff that Connery was saying and doing actually merited it. The whole movie toed the line between funny and stupid just so, and the action was exciting. Plus, the music fired you up. A great time from start to finish.
This is the one Michael Bay movie I truly like. It's still a megastupid megamovie with plot holes galore, but entertaining? You bet your ass. The great cast helps make the most of it, to boot. Oh, and fuck Con Air. Most of my friends like it, and I hate everything about it.
Con Air is in the same league as Commando. It is ridiculous and unrepentantly over the top. It is also Oscar worthy performances for John Malkovitch and Nicolas Cage's mullet. Because you can't back spin kick someone's head off, or run from an explosion without a FUCKING MULLET. As for The Rock, it is perfect in every way. If any one element is changed in it, the whole house of cards could come tumbling down, but they don't, and it doesn't. Bad Boys II is another Bay flick that always pleased me. I have a soft spot for stupid banter, and an even bigger soft spot for corpses flying all over the place in more than one scene. "What am I going to do with these big, dead ass titties?" Which brings me to The Long Kiss Goodnight. Blatant rip off of Ludlum's Bourne, but who gives a shit? It's so fucking perfect I want to beatify Shane Black and Sam Jackson. Maybe make Brian Cox some kind of kick ass duke. Die Hard. They're all awesome. 1 and 3 are just as good as each other, which is unheard of in a franchise. Some day we might get a 4th installment, but for sure Bruce Willis wouldn't be sliding off a jet fighter's wing. Lots of flicks are going to be mentioned twice (Total Recall, T2, Driving Miss Daisy). So let me say that Stallone has made some really stellar movies. He gets a lot of shit, deservedly, but at one point he seemed to care about the product. First Blood? That was a legitimate film next to all those explosions. He also made Cliffhanger and this early 1980s flick called Nighthawks with Billy Dee F'n Williams where they're hunting down Rutger Hauer's terrorist in NY. It is just awesome. Thoughtfully made, legit thriller. Maybe not an out and out action movie, but worth a mention. I would have been in this thread sooner, but I was thinking up that ham on rye line.
Nighthawks is one of Stallone's very best films and hardly anyone knows of it. Rutger is terrifying in it, and it has one of the best "gotcha" climaxes ever. It's smart and tense, I would reccomend that film to just about anybody.
If only Michael Bay stuck with making over-the-top action comedy vehicles like this, instead of all the other crap (every other movie) he has ever made. "Action" is a very general genre that includes a bunch of things. It's hard to judge kung-fu movies against gangster films against samurai pictures against Westerns. I've disqualified any picture that relies too heavily on comedy (Shaolin Soccer, Crank 2, Midnight Run) as well as anything animated. Anyways, 1. Lonewolf and Cub series (6 movies) 2. Legend of the Wolf 3. Conan the Barbarian 4. Once Upon a Time in the West 5. The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly 6. The Matrix 7. Running out of Time 8. Ong Bak 9. Ronin 10. Battle Royale 11. Drunken Master 12. Terminator 13. A Fistful of Dollars 14. For a Few Dollars More 15. Alexander Nevsky (First great action film, heh) 16. The Quest (Don't expect anyone in the world to agree with this) 17. Dragon Inn 18. Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade 19. A Better Tomorrow 20. Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
Lone Wolf & Cub 2 is the best of that series, but NONE of them are weak. I don't know if there's a single movie made that captured to essence of comic book quite like that, and that baby cart puts James Bond's Aston Martin to shame for deadly gadgets. Speaking of Bond, OCTOPUSSY. Talk aabout a fucking popcorn movie. Moore's films were silly, but this film is just about as much fun as you could ask for in a film.
1. The Dark Knight 2. The Matrix Reloaded (Fuck you, I like this one the best out of the series. The highway scene is one of my favorite chase scenes of all time.) 3. Layer Cake 4. Gladiator 5. Demolition Man 6. Crank 7. Desperado 8. Gone in Sixty Seconds 9. Payback 10. Blade Honorable mention: Beverly Hills Cop, Twister, The One, Lucky Number Slevin. I will watch all of these movies if they are on T.V. and I have 87 minutes to waste.
I was just thinking about the Bond series. I always had a soft spot for The Man With The Golden Gun. My favorite villain is also my favorite 3 tittied character. Christopher Lee is fantastic to watch. Plus he has a midget butler. Come on. I can't hate any of those movies. Not even Die Another Day, which is just terrible. Thunderball is also great. The shit that came out of Connery's mouth. Casino Royale might be my favorite movie period. It had everything. A completely believable romance that was on equal footing, a true give and take, a truly solid, complex female character. It was witty, never slow, tough fist fighting that was pretty damn real looking. My balls were in my throat twice in that flick: during the crane chase and the torture sequence. He even did spy things instead of using a laser watch to solve all his problems. It blended all these aspects of classic, engaging film making seamlessly. Just wonderful. So much more than just an action movie.
I'd find it difficult to rate a top 10, but here goes: 1) From Russia With Love (Grant was one of Bond's most dangerous opponents i.m.o., and it was a great film. Connery and Shaw were excellent. In fact, I'm going to put this one on now) 2) Die Hard With A Vengeance 3) Bullitt (Steve McQueen. Enough said. Also, that car chase... excellent) 4) T2 5) Enter The Dragon (how could all of you forget Bruce Lee??!!) 6) GoldenEye (Brosnan's 1st appearance as Bond was excellent - much better than Dalton's or Moore's films) 7) Snatch (also action-comedy, but still an excellent film) 8) Ronin 9) Crank (another action-comedy, but hilarious and over-the-top) 10) 48 Hours (another action-comedy, but Nolte and Murphy were a great team) Honourable mentions: Gone In Sixty Seconds, Demolition Man (those 3 shells...), Payback (a great choice, Popped Cherries - Maria Bello was a hottie in her day), Raiders Of The Lost Ark and Indiana Jones & The Last Crusade, Die Hard and Die Hard 2... the list will go for a long way if I don't stop here.
No love for the original Predator? I think this movie still holds up as a great action flick, I would also add Aliens (I see Alien as more of a horror movie, S was definitely an action movie). Cliffhanger is definitely up there for me as my favorite Stallone movie excluding Rocky - John Leithgow was an incredible villain.
As far as serious goes: 1&2: It's still a toss up in my mind between Terminator 2 and Die Hard. 3: The Matrix: Most cohesive movie of the three, best action. A modern classic. 4: Jurassic Park: Used to be my number 3, but it is more of an action adventure than straight action like the matrix. 5: Aliens : Totally different pace than the original. Still amazing. Another of Cameron's stepping stones towards crafting T2. 6: The Dark Knight: Good story, paced to perfection. One of the better villains of the past couple of decades. I think this will hold up better than Inception in the rewatchable department. 7:Ronin:Story is kind of shallow. Made up for with the best car chase scenes ever filmed and Bobby D being Bobby D. The Matrix Reloaded scene doesn't even compare to this movie. 8: Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade: The best of the series in my mind. More action adventure. 9: Predator: Lower than it should be because I think it brushes up against over the top cheesy characters but solid memorable action through out. 10: True Lies: An action comedy but the best parody/satirical take on the genre ever. Cameron was still on top of his game.
My list, in no particular order: 1. Predator 2. Aliens 3. T2 4. Die Hard 5. Lethal Weapon 6. Desperado-cool soundtrack, Steve Buscemi as the whitest gringo in Mexico, Quentin Tarantino getting shot in the face, Salma Hayek's absurd body and some of the most epic fight scenes. 7. Gladiator-flawed, yet one of the best. The vengeance speech still gives me chills. 8. The Killer. If the Raid lives up to this, it belongs on the list. 9. The Good, the Bad and The Ugly 10. The Matrix. If the rest of the movie was as good as the chase scene in Matrix 2, it would be on this list. God damn, that could have been the best endorsement of Ducatis and Berettas I will ever see.
My picks are in no particular order and based on pure rewatchability. When it comes to action movies, everything but the instinctual part of my brain shuts down and I yell when stuff gets blown up or shot. 1. T2 2. Desperado 3. Die Hard with a Vengeance 4. Hot Fuzz 5. Planet Terror 6. Kill Bill Volume 1 7. Man on Fire 8. Pineapple Express 9. 300 10. Crank
I tend to agree with the norms showing up here, and I'm keen to see The Raid, especially since the other half is half Indonesian, I'll make it a date night movie (hell, our first kiss followed Master of the Flying Guillotine). Some other titles I'd like to throw out there: In Bruges: Funny, sad, and witty despite some smugness of a playwright slumming it. I still think about this film all the time and for me it has enough pivotal action scenes for me to count it as such. Hard Boiled: Before beginning his US career, John Woo makes his last HK film count. Body count. Rio Bravo: I'm not a fan of John Wayne, but Howard Hawks was the man. Also has the best scene where characters break out into song. Heat: Has it's detractors, but has a lot more imitators. As a teen it took my ADD-addled brain three viewings to figure it out, but I still watch it every so often. Drive: Yeah, it's hipster fodder, but when it's this good, and others have put Jurassic Park*, Demolition Man**, and any Die Hard that wasn't the first one***, I think it gets a pass. I'd put Hannah in this hipster-action category too, which I enjoyed but I'm not up to defending here. *I love JP, but it's an adventure film. Purely semantics, but for me 'action' would have combat between human characters (or robots that appear human). **Are you kidding me? ***I kid, I kid...
A lot of movies I wholeheartedly agree on, so not to repeat: No Patrick Swayze? Roadhouse, Next of Kin, Steel Dawn. First Blood (of course Sly prostituted the character ala Rocky, but FB was awesome).
Wait, did you mean Red Dawn or Steel Dawn? I know Patrick Swayze starred in both, but I've never heard of anyone liking the latter. As for Road House, I like it personally, but I can't deny the film kind of sucks. And not because it's nonsensical, unrealistic, or any of those other irrelevant reasons. No, it sucks because the first 70 minutes (terrific, funny, and well-paced) are ruined by a needlessly melodramatic, weepy final 40 minutes that take themselves as seriously as cancer. I hate speculating, but I think someone just didn't have faith that a pure action comedy could work, and instead tried to inject gravitas and serious emotion near the conclusion, which ironically kind of fucked things up. The fact that people (myself included) like the film is a testament to how fun those first 70 minutes were. I actually thought the most recent Rambo released just a few years back was excellent, second only to First Blood in the series.
Road House is pure, brain-dead yahoo fun fare that gets ruined by (I can't believe I'm saying this) violence in the final frame. Erase that, and you have the ultimate 80's guy movie with lots of fisticuffs, macho posteuring, Tai-chi in creepy sweatpants, hilarious one-liners and a healthy dose of T&A. A bad movie? Fuck yes. But have you ever met a guy that actually hates it? The film is a pre-gaming booze ritual for my circle of friends. If you can't love a film with a line like "Pain don't hurt", you have no soul. I hope a polar bear falls on you.