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[jett]

1.- Terminator 2
2.- Speed Racer
3.- Kill Bill Vol.1
4.- Aliens
5. Predator
6.- Mad Mad Fury Road
7.- The Matrix
8.- Die Hard
9.- Avatar
10.- Gladiator

Speed Racer is the odd man out here I guess, but I don't care, it's one of my all-time favorites, and it is an action movie after all.

p.s. I'm liking the lack of superhero movies in this thread. They truly don't deserve to be anywhere near spitting distance a list like this, which is actually kinda sad.

 

[Sephzilla]

Mighty fine list ya got there.

 

[deleted]

1. Raider of the Lost Ark - not only one of my most beloved Action(Adventure) movies, it's near the top of my most loved films as well.
2. Terminator 2 - see above.
3. Die Hard - all sings point to a weird movie (old Sinatra vehicle, Willis is not an action star at the time and most likely too old to become one etc.) and it is one of the best action pieces of all time.
4. Mad Max: Fury Road - A movie like this in this day and age shouldn't exist. And yet it does!
5. Kill Bill Vol. 1 - It oozes style and is expertly done.
6. Aliens - a true classic and one of the best sequels of all time.
7. Predator - I almost forgot.
8. True Lies - the in between 'small' Cameron project that became one of the best action flicks. One of Schwarzeneggers best!
9. Desperado - Ahead of it's time in many ways, still better than most. El Mariachi tried the formula, this kinda remake, kinda sequel perfected it.
10. Matrix - It may not have aged that well, in parts because of the sequels, but when it came out it was mindblowing. Clever and really well shot.

Honorable Mentions:

• World's End - some of the best shot Action sequences where you never expected them! Gorgeously shot and to look at. One of Jackie Chans choreographers was involved and it shows!
• Hot Fuzz - does Action at least as nice as many of the movies it pays homage to.
• Face/Off - My favorite Woo movie. Absurd in the best way and over the top cool.
• The Protector - I really like the way it's shot. And the stairway action scene is amazing.
• Dredd - I liked the Stallone movie back then as a child, and was sceptical this one could deliver. It more than did. Loved it.
• Bad Boys 2 - THE Michael Bay movie and my guilty pleasure action movie. It is krass, it is over the top, politically uncorrect and a genre parodie sometimes. Nevertheless, I like it. If you hate everything Bay has done, ignore it. This is the pinnacle of movies like The Rock, Armageddon and Bad Boys.
• Lethal Weapon 2 - 80s in all the best ways. The first one was way more serious, this one more fun and it showed that the series had staying power

I will keep an eye on this thread for suggestions. I love watching action movies and I'm sure I haven't seen all the best yet.

 

[FUBAR McDangles]

1. Predator
2. Aliens
3. Mad Max: Fury Road
4. Terminator 2
5. John Wick

 

[Bobby Roberts]

Did somebody compare Hard Boiled to a Michael Bay film? Talk of a madman.

I'd have said the same thing, until I rewatched it recently for the first time in about 10 years. It's got a lot (and I mean a lot) of the same problems something like Bad Boys & The Rock have.

The rest of his filmography after that film sorta bears out that he's always had those predilections, and he's basically lost his ability to keep them tamped down or mitigated their negative effects. He's supremely influential and those early movies opened a lot of people's eyes as to what you can do with the genre. But going back and looking at those films now - there's a lot of bloat, shit exposition, cardboard characterization, and sometimes, yeah: there's some janky, poorly shot action in there amidst the mindblowing "holy fuck he got that on camera" sequences.

I still love Hard Boiled. It's not like I sold off my blu-ray (and Criterion Laserdisc!) after the rewatch. It's just not good enough to stay in my top 10, is all.

 

[Blader]

This is hard because how do you define action movie? Is Star Wars an action movie? The Good, the Bad and the Ugly? The Dark Knight? All of these would be among my all-time favorites, period, and they do contain action, but do those count as action movies?

So, I don't know. But leaving out some major kind-of-actiony-but-maybe-not-action-movie movies, I guess I'd settle on something like this:

1. The Matrix
2. Casino Royale
3. Kill Bill Vol. 1
4. Aliens
5. Die Hard
6. Leon: The Professional
7. The Bourne Ultimatum (the whole trilogy really, but I'd single out Ultimatum as having the best fights/setpieces)
8. Die Hard with a Vengeance (I have a soft spot for this, being my first Die Hard, but I think it's legit entertaining too)
9. Scott Pilgrim vs. the World
10. Raiders of the Lost Ark


I'm severely lacking in HK action movie exposure. Loved Ip Man though.

Matrix - It may not have aged that well, in parts because of the sequels, but when it came out it was mindblowing. Clever and really well shot.

You shut up now, it's aged excellently!

 

[Sephzilla]

I really wanted to put Hot Fuzz in my top 10 but I had a really hard time bumping one of my other ten out for it.

 

[True Savior]

This is hard because how do you define action movie? Is Star Wars an action movie? The Good, the Bad and the Ugly? The Dark Knight? All of these would be among my all-time favorites, period, and they do contain action, but do those count as action movies?
!

In my own definition I would say no , no and no. And i definitely have a very hard time categorizing some choices in this thread as an action film. At least in comparison with others.

 

[Secret Fawful]

I really wanted to put Hot Fuzz in my top 10 but I had a really hard time bumping one of my other ten out for it.

Same here. If I WEREN'T counting animation, Hot Fuzz would probably easily take one of those slots.

 

[Discotheque]

The dark knight is defo an action movie. I think pretty much all superhero films rest within that genre

 

[Foggy]

I'd have said the same thing, until I rewatched it recently for the first time in about 10 years. It's got a lot (and I mean a lot) of the same problems something like Bad Boys & The Rock have.

The rest of his filmography after that film sorta bears out that he's always had those predilections, and he's basically lost his ability to keep them tamped down or mitigated their negative effects. He's supremely influential and those early movies opened a lot of people's eyes as to what you can do with the genre. But going back and looking at those films now - there's a lot of bloat, shit exposition, cardboard characterization, and sometimes, yeah: there's some janky, poorly shot action in there amidst the mindblowing "holy fuck he got that on camera" sequences.

I still love Hard Boiled. It's not like I sold off my blu-ray (and Criterion Laserdisc!) after the rewatch. It's just not good enough to stay in my top 10, is all.

Bay's biggest problems have always been his sense of humor and budgets that he's been saddled with that forces him to make some terribly uninteresting and "sheer force of power" movies. His best movies have always been Bad Boys, The Rock, Bad Boys 2, and Pain and Gain(imo). If John Woo had gotten the keys to Bay's playground, he absolutely would be crapped on by everyone under the sun(replace 12 year old humor with suffocating melodrama). So I agree with you, but I also don't think it's nearly as grave an insult as a lot of people might take it. If Bay had stayed relatively mid-budget, I definitely believe he'd at least have as storied a career as John McTiernan or Mark Lester. Hell, I'll even go as far as to say he could've been action cinema's Ridley Scott since he's a much more interesting visual director than McTiernan and Lester. Maybe even moreso than Richard Donner or Walter Hill, but I guess that just comes down to taste.

Woo's legacy is that he crafted an enduring and amazing visual language for action films. The visual language of the post-metal detector shootout of The Matrix just straight up doesn't exist if it wasn't for the visual language Woo pioneered, particularly from the warehouse shootout in Hard-Boiled. I would never sweep his faults under the rug. They're there, but when I watch a lot of his films, they feel a bit beside the point. At least as far as I'm concerned.

 

[Garlador]

My top 10 (in no order):
1 - The Matrix
2 - Terminator 2
3 - Die Hard
4 - The Rundown
5 - Dredd
6 - Last Action Hero
7 - Total Recall
8 - Robocop
9 - Captain America: The Winter Soldier
10 - 300

 

[Bobby Roberts]

His best movies have always been Bad Boys, The Rock, Bad Boys 2, and Pain and Gain(imo). If John Woo had gotten the keys to Bay's playground, he absolutely would be crapped on by everyone under the sun(replace 12 year old humor with suffocating melodrama). So I agree with you, but I also don't think it's nearly as grave an insult as a lot of people might take it.

Exactly. I chose Bad Boys & The Rock to make my comparison specifically because I think those are still the two best examples of Bay's work. If this list had to stretch out to top 20 or 30, one of those might make it. Hard Boiled definitely would.

Bay gets used as a shorthand insult (and I do it sometimes, myself) but its not like he hasn't done good work. I remember Bad Boys and The Rock landing in the mid-to-late '90s, and action fans were fucking THRILLED with them. And they had good reason to be.

But yeah, the further both those directors went in their careers, the more they seemed to pursue exactly the wrong muses at exactly the wrong scale.

 

[More_Badass]

1) The Raid 2
2) Terminator 2
3) The Matrix
4) Mad Max: Fury Road
5) Aliens
6) Die Hard
7) The Good, The Bad, The Ugly
8) Judge Dredd
9) Edge of Tomorrow
10) John Wick

 

[Firemind]

Does Armageddon count as an action movie? ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°) 

 

[BumRush]

1. Terminator 2
2. Aliens
3. Raiders of the Lost Ark
4. Gladiator
5. Mad Max Fury Road

 

[spliced]

1. True Lies
2. The Matrix
3. Rumble in the Bronx
4. Nick of Time
5. The Fugitive

 

[dvdjamm]

1 - Hard Boiled
2 - The Raid 2
3 - T2 Judgment Day
4 - Fist Of Fury
5 - Fist Of Legend
6 - The Raid
7 - Die Hard
8 - The Mission
9 - Kung Fu Hustle
10 - The Matrix
11 - The Killer
12 - Drunken Master 2
13 - The Bourne Ultimatum
14 - Infernal Affairs
15 - The Man From Nowhere
16 - Flashpoint
17 - The City of Violence
18 - Casino Royale
19 - Last Man Standing
20 - A Bittersweet Life
21 - Mad Max Fury Road
22 - John Wick
23 - Furious 7
24 - Kingsman The Secret Service
25 - Mission Impossible Ghost Protocol


sorry for going overboard

 

[NorthernIX]

1 - Terminator 2
2 - Total Recall ( Arnie version )
3 - Mad Max: Fury Road
4 - Die Hard
5 - Matrix Reloaded
6 - Aliens
7 - Predator
8 - The Raid
9 - Robocop ( original )
10 - Dredd

 

[deleted]

You shut up now, it's aged excellently!

Some of the ideas it touched upon don't make as much sense with the added context of the other two movies.
It's not like Star Wars where everything bad happens before the classic Trilogy and therefore can be ignored a bit easier, the bad stuff concludes this one and is always in the back of my mind when I watch it again.

That said, it is probably still my most watched movie and I enjoy it every time I see it.

 

[LaNaranja]

I can't really be the only one who loves The Long Kiss Goodnight right? Even Samuel L. Jackson has said that it is his favorite movie that he has worked on.

 

[Zeus Molecules]

I'm surprised Mad Max Fury Road is on so many list. Specifically not that people think its in the top 10 but that so many do.

 

[Bobby Roberts]

I can't really be the only one who loves The Long Kiss Goodnight right? Even Samuel L. Jackson has said that it is his favorite movie that he has worked on.

Nah, it's fun as hell. But it's also a Renny Harlin movie. As such, there are... limits to its overall quality built in.

Fun as hell, though.

 

[bonesmccoy]

I wouldn't put Raiders #1, but that's a damn fine list OP.

 

[Verendus]

1. Predator (1987)
2. Die Hard (1988)
3. Terminator 2 (1991)
4. The Matrix (1999)
5. Police Story (1985)
6. Aliens (1986)
7. The Man From Nowhere (2010)
8. Drunken Master 2 (1994)
9. Commando (1985)
10. Fist of Legend (1994)

Difficult list to make. Plenty of other action movies that I really love. The top three are interchangeable for me depending on the day.

 

[Monocle]

1) Mad Max: Fury Road
2) Kill Bill Vol. 1
3) The Matrix
4) Terminator 2
5) Aliens
6) Die Hard
7) Predator
8) Scott Pilgrim vs. The World
9) John Wick
10) The Raid

Honorable mentions:

Kingsman
Starship Troopers
300
Equilibrium
District B13
The Matrix Reloaded
Speed Racer (if it counts)


All but the top three are interchangeable, so...

Also, I left out a lot of Wuxia movies like Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, Hero, and Curse of the Golden Flower. A few Jackie Chan movies belong in the honorable mentions, but I can't remember their titles.

I'm surprised Mad Max Fury Road is on so many list. Specifically not that people think its in the top 10 but that so many do.

If anything, it should be on more.

 

[Akahige]

p.s. I'm liking the lack of superhero movies in this thread. They truly don't deserve to be anywhere near spitting distance a list like this, which is actually kinda sad.

I'm trying to think of one superhero movie with best ever spectacular action sequences, I can't do it. Wanted & Dredd are two comic book adaptations I'd put in the top twenty best action movies but they aren't superhero flicks. People love to talk about the action scenes in Captain America: The Winter Soldier but I just don't see way the those scenes are shot and edited as anything special, the editing really takes away from the possibly good fight choreography.

 

[GamerJM]

This topic is making me realize how much I don't really care for straight-up action movies, at least non-superhero ones (I don't really think it's fair to count most of those since I don't really like them because of their "action," typically). Predator is dope though, and I still need to watch Alien/Aliens and Terminator/T2.

 

[thenexus6]

BLADE RUNNER

COMMANDO

RUMBLE IN THE BRONX

THE MATRIX

RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK

 

[Moonkid]

I haven't seen any old school Kung Fu flicks or Hong Kong action aside from Hard Boiled so my list is going to be a bit skewed.

1. The Raid.
2. Die Hard.
3. Edge of Tomorrow.
4. Hard Boiled.
5. Man from Nowhere.
6. Aliens.
7. The Good, the Bad, and the Weird.
8. Starship Troopers.
9. The Raid 2.
10. Mad Max: Fury Road.

Was a bit hesitant to put the last one on there because I haven't seen any other Mad Max film but it left a big enough impression compared to what else I've seen which really is not much.

 

[hiredhand]

1. The Killer
2. Drunken Master II
3. Escape From New York
4. Aliens
5. Raiders of the Lost Ark
6. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
7. Robocop
8. The 36th Chamber of Shaolin
9. The Terminator
10. The Rock

 

[deleted]

Mine will undoubtedly be an unpopular list, but here we go.

1) The Avengers
2) Die Hard
3) Speed Racer
4) Scott Pilgrim vs. the World
5) The Matrix
6) Iron Man 3
7) Captain America: The Winter Soldier
8) Terminator 2
9) John Wick
10) Live Free or Die Hard

That are mostly pretty recent films - not bad, but recent.. May I ask how old you are?

 

[vio]

1.Aliens <------------------------------ Only one that really matters.
2.Starship Troopers
3.The Matrix
4.Mad Max FR
5.Robocop

 

[Blade30]

01. Mad Max - Fury Road (2015)

02. Terminator 2 - Judgement Day (1991)

03. Matrix (1999)

04. Aliens (1986)

05. Ip Man (2008)

06. Predator (1987)

07. John Wick (2014)

08. Lethal Weapon 2 (1989)

09. Die Hard 1 (1988)

10. Blade (1998) it's a personal favorite

 

[Zukuu]

1. The Matrix
2. Terminator 2
3. Rambo
4. Die Hard
5. 300

 

[MisterFalcon]

1. Die Hard
2. Mad Max: Fury road
3. The Bourne Identity
4. Hard Boiled
5. True Lies
6. The Good, The Bad and the Weird
7. Captain America: The Winter Soldier
8. Robocop
9. John Wick
10. The Eagle Has Landed

 

[Sojgat]

1. Commando (Mark L. Lester, 1985)
2. Hard Boiled (John Woo, 1992)
3. The Terminator (James Cameron, 1984)
4. The Matrix (Andy Wachowski & Lana Wachowski, 1999)
5. Terminator 2: Judgment Day (James Cameron, 1991)
6. Mad Max: Fury Road (George Miller, 2015)
7. Die Hard (John McTiernan, 1988)
8. Time and Tide (Tsui Hark, 2000)
9. Point Break (Kathryn Bigelow, 1991)
10. Universal Soldier: Regeneration (John Hyams, 2009)

I was going to do an honourable mentions list, but it got stupidly long.

 

[TEJ]

1: enter the dragon
2: die hard
3: bloodsport
4: commando
5: terminator 2
6: the raid
7: ip man
8: ong bak
9: tony jaa's the protector
10: first blood part 2: rambo

p.s. I'm liking the lack of superhero movies in this thread. They truly don't deserve to be anywhere near spitting distance a list like this, which is actually kinda sad.

I love superhero flicks but most of them lack high quality action outside of the second captain america title and bits of the avengers.

 

[munchie64]

1. Die Hard
2. Terminator 2
3. Raiders of the Lost Ark
4. Mad Max: Fury Road
5. Kill Bill Vol. 1
6. Aliens
7. The Raid
8. Police Story
9. The Matrix
10. Hot Fuzz

Boring list

 

[Currygan]

I don't consider Indiana Jones action, so no mentions from me


1) Predator
2) Hard Boiled
3) Die Hard
4) Terminator 2
5) The Hunt for the Red October
6) Face/Off
7) The Adventures of Robin Hood
8) Bullit
9) The Killer
10) Aliens

 

[Magic Mushroom]

I'd have said the same thing, until I rewatched it recently for the first time in about 10 years. It's got a lot (and I mean a lot) of the same problems something like Bad Boys & The Rock have.

Woo's action scenes alone, and this is a thread about action movies after all, absolutely destroys Bay's action scenes. There is more artistry in that one take in the hospital than in Bay's entire filmography and I kinda like Bad Boys and The Rock.

 

[Jesus Carbomb]

I really need to watch The Good, The Bad and The Weird.

 

[Secret Fawful]

Another thing I hate about my list and the whole thing in general is that myself and pretty much everyone else in here won't have seen much of one of the biggest action subgenres of all time: wuxia. Movies like Detective Dee and the Mystery of the Phantom Flame and A Chinese Ghost Story and basically any Tsui Hark movie are going to get no mentions, which is too bad as it's a huge subgenre that deserves to be noticed and probably has more than a few entries that would knock stuff down on these lists. Ahh well. Just wanted to make people aware of it.

 

[Firemind]

I don't remember much of that period of time except Once Upon a Time In China which I still rewatch. I mean, the last Tsui Hark directed film I saw was Seven Swords, which was awful.

 

[WadiumArcadium]

p.s. I'm liking the lack of superhero movies in this thread. They truly don't deserve to be anywhere near spitting distance a list like this, which is actually kinda sad.

Yet Avatar does? The special effects and good 3D are the only things it has going for it.

1) Raiders of the Lost Ark
2) Aliens
3) Mad Max: Fury Road
4) Terminator 2
5) The Raid
6) The Matrix
7) Die Hard
8) Captain America: The Winter Soldier
9) Dredd
10) Hot Fuzz

 

[Secret Fawful]

I don't remember much of that period of time except Once Upon a Time In China which I still rewatch. I mean, the last Tsui Hark directed film I saw was Seven Swords, which was awful.

Detective Dee was really, really good. I haven't seen Seven Swords yet, but Hark can still drop a great action movie. There's a lot more in wuxia than just him, though.

 

[inm8num2]

1: enter the dragon

FINALLY! I was waiting for someone to vote for Enter the Dragon. That's probably a top 10 action movie for me.

 

[SuperInuit]

1) Mad Max 2
2) The Raid 2
3) Mad Max Fury Road
4) Big Trouble in Little China
5) Raiders of The Lost Ark

 

[Big Chief Crazy Cone]

1. Die Hard
2. Terminator 2
3. The Raid 2
4. Face/off
5. Fearless (Jet Li)
6. Hard Boiled
7. The Matrix
8. The Rock
9. Speed
10. Commando

 

[George Oscar Bluth II]

p.s. I'm liking the lack of superhero movies in this thread. They truly don't deserve to be anywhere near spitting distance a list like this, which is actually kinda sad.

I really like superhero films (obviously), but they just can't compare to all the other action films out there. Captain America: The Winter Soldier and Spider-Man 2 are two of my favourites in terms of action and just superhero film in general, but they don't make the list. I do appreciate the practical action in TWS, though.