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The 50 Best Action Movies of the 21st Century Thus Far

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H

HIGH DEF JEFF

Banned
Also no mention of which Vice version.
I always liked the boom your in the club opening of the theatrical but the boat race from the directors cut is the second best looking sequence in the movie..and the Trudie flower scene is pretty creepy too.
 
S

Sane_Man

Member
I don't usually complain about lists but this is the worst list I have ever seen!

Miami Vice is so so awful. Foxx and Farrell were horrendous. No chemistry at all.
 
F

Fancy Clown

Member
Bobby Roberts said:
I think the sentiment is based on a read of Raid 2 that sees the movie as being more movie, not necessarily better. Just more.

The more that was there is not good more.

So Raid 1 ends up seeming like a better movie to them because it's all the parts that work, glued together as efficiently as possible, without the hour of wheel-spinning mediocrity glued to it.
Click to expand...

Mmm I don't like it better because it's more tho. It's like 30 minutes too long, I certainly agree. But what's there is better. It's a good sign for an action movie when I can describe to you the different fight scenes in the movie and they don't all sound like the same thing.

The whole thing is more operatic and lush, both visually and in terms of its scope and ambitions. It's a crazy two and half hour city spanning gangster martial arts movie where they go balls to the walls with every single fight in the movie. Raid 1 is a great punchy, economical action movie but it's kinda drab and repetitious by the end.

I like John Wick 2 for similar, albeit lesser, reasons.
 
S

Sgt. Kabukiman

Banned
The Raid 1 & 2 are both amazing films but I also prefer the first one by a tiny margin. It's simple and to the point. 2 adds another hour of story stacked on top of the skeleton of the first one, which was a good way for the film to differentiate itself. It's a pretty good story and 2 looks so much better than 1 but in the end, I appreciate the first one's simplicity.

Plus, that 2v1 boss fight at the end is still the action scene to beat imo.
 
D

Discotheque

Banned
Raid 2s story was whatever. The tradeoff of losing the faster pacing was a much better looking movie tho, with evans getting even better than ever with framing the action. And the variety of the action scenes stepped up big time

It's more than worth it for me.
 
L

Lan Dong Mik

And why would I want them?
I really go back and forth on which Raid movie I prefer but when it comes down to making a decision it's still the original. I absolutely love The Raid 2 though. The kitchen fight scene alone rivals some of the best scenes in the original. Raid 2 had some really great characters as well.
 
R

Ridley327

Member
Sgt. Kabukiman said:
The Raid 1 & 2 are both amazing films but I also prefer the first one by a tiny margin. It's simple and to the point. 2 adds another hour of story stacked on top of the skeleton of the first one, which was a good way for the film to differentiate itself. It's a pretty good story and 2 looks so much better than 1 but in the end, I appreciate the first one's simplicity.

Plus, that 2v1 boss fight at the end is still the action scene to beat imo.
Click to expand...

I'd like it a lot more if they didn't cut away to whatever was going on that no one cared about with the drug lord and the dirty cop about halfway through. It was such a boneheaded editing decision.

Keeping strictly to the fight between Rama and the assassin for its entire duration was the smartest damn thing you could have done. Cutting away from that fight for even a frame would have been a disaster.
 
B

Boney

Banned
opened and saw collateral

nope.gif

ShaoranWright said:
miami vice

5Pai3K8.gif
Click to expand...

what's this from?

looks like panty&stocking?
 
R

Rockandrollclown

lookwhatyou'vedone
Raid 1 is a lot more of what I like out of my action movies than Raid 2. I've watched Raid 1 several times, Raid 2 is a movie where I just skip around and watch some of the fights.
 
F

Foggy

Member
If you feel Raid 2 is needlessly bloated and you prefer how lean Raid 1 is, I got no qualms with that line of thinking. But an intimation that Raid 2 is just Raid 1 inflated then I think it's an unfair reading of the movie. There's a reason the prison fights act as stylistic transitions between part 1 and part 2, action-wise.
 
E

Expendable.

Member
matrix-cat said:
Non-Stop.

NON-STOP.

This guy has the gall, the MOTHERFUCKING TEMERITY, to include an Olivier Megaton movie on a list of the 50 Best Action Movies of the 21st Century. Olivier Megaton.

Oliver

Megaton
Click to expand...

You might want to check those credits again. The brilliant Jaume Collet-Serra directed Non-Stop.
 
S

Sgt. Kabukiman

Banned
Ridley327 said:
I'd like it a lot more if they didn't cut away to whatever was going on that no one cared about with the drug lord and the dirty cop about halfway through. It was such a boneheaded editing decision.

Keeping strictly to the fight between Rama and the assassin for its entire duration was the smartest damn thing you could have done. Cutting away from that fight for even a frame would have been a disaster.
Click to expand...

You're not wrong. You can tell that Evans progressed a lot as a director between the two films. I go back and forth between the end fight of 1 and the kitchen fight with the assassin in 2. The latter is certainly better executed from a technical perspective but the music, the fact that it's 2v1, the absolute butality and charisma of the villain and the insane choreography keep me going back to watch the end of 1 more than I should. It's imperfect but extremely impactful.

It reminds me of the difference between Evil Dead 1 & 2. The second one is definitely the better film but there is a raw energy in the first one despite it amateurish nature that is hard to beat.
 
F

Foggy

Member
The Raid 2's final fight has a much better sense of rhythm, better camerawork, better choreography, and just better action storytelling. As much as I enjoy the 2v1 Mad Dog fight, the "story" of the fight is the fight as a whole and it ends becoming just a tad tedious up until a couple sequences before the end of it. Raid 2's final fight has multiple chapters that transition effortlessly and tells its story brilliantly. In my mind, it's a masterclass in martial arts storytelling.

Expendable. said:
You might want to check those credits again. The brilliant Jaume Collet-Serra directed Non-Stop.
Click to expand...

This isn't the first time I've seen him called brilliant, I think Faraci has as well. I'm curious where this sentiment has come from. He's always come across has very workmanlike. A very competent director with a low ceiling and no signature to break through it.
 
P

Pomerlaw

Member
Triggerhappytel said:
Where's the link to the rest of the 50? I can only see the top 10.

EDIT - for anyone interested in the full list: https://thefilmstage.com/features/the-50-best-action-movies-of-the-21st-century-thus-far/

50. Shoot 'Em Up
49. Hanna
48. Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence
47. Three
46. Fast Five
45. The Good, The Bad and the Weird
44. Dredd
43. Edge of Tomorrow
42. Elite Squad
41. District 9
40. 13 Assassins
39. Skyfall
38. District B13
37. Unleashed
36. The Bourne Identity
35. Drug War
34. Hero
33. 300
32. Ip Man
31. The Guest
30. 30. SPL: Sha Po Lang & SPL II: A Time for Consequences
29. Casino Royale
28. Exiled
27. Jack Reacher
26. A Bittersweet Life
25. Man on Fire
24. Sleepless Night
23. Non-Stop
22. Time and Tide
21. Inception
20. Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation
19. Why Don't You Play In Hell?
18. Blackhat
17. Crank and Crank: High Voltage
16. Spider-Man 2
15. Hot Fuzz
14. The Dark Knight
13. Apocalypto
12. Minority Report
11. The Raid: Redemption
10. Collateral
9. The Grandmaster
8. John Wick
7. Haywire
6. The Bourne Ultimatum
5. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
4. Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol
3. Mad Max: Fury Road
2. Kill Bill
1. Miami Vice
Click to expand...

wtf
 
D

Discotheque

Banned
HIGH DEF JEFF said:
Also no mention of which Vice version.
I always liked the boom your in the club opening of the theatrical but the boat race from the directors cut is the second best looking sequence in the movie..and the Trudie flower scene is pretty creepy too.
Click to expand...

As great as that boat race was I miss the throw you into the shit approach they went with in the theatrical cut.
 
S

SCULLIBUNDO

Banned
So James Cameron comes back from a twelve-year hiatus to bless mortal eyes with the best action since 99's The Matrix and doesn't even get a mention on a top 50 list that includes Jack Reacher and Greengrass' garbage-cam of all things.

Miami Vice being the top is the icing lol.
 
F

Fularu

Banned
Vigilant Walrus said:
I made a list like this in another thread about best action movies since the Matrix. I've not ranked them in a particular order, but stuck with them according to their release from 2000. The Matrix (1999) was a revolution and a new beginning for action movies. It showed that they could also a deep philosophical layer. Normally action movies were not know to have any semblance of a good story. As much as we love all the old Arnold and Stallone flicks of the 80s, they were barely held together by a plot. We watched them because they were fun, not because the story sucked us in. I think the Matrix helped show that Action films can be more, and also that fighting choreography is a legit art.
Click to expand...

It's EQUILIBRIUM, not EQUBRILUM of however you've spelled it several times in your two long posts :p
 
R

Ridley327

Member
Skulldead said:
No "Man from nowhere" and "OldBoy"


Also no "Ong bak" and "The protector"

This list of shit
Click to expand...

There are a lot of reasons to take fault with this list, but Oldboy isn't an action film by any stretch of the imagination. Yes, it does have one really great fight scene in it, but one great fight scene doesn't make it into an action film.
 
Insane Metal

Insane Metal

Gold Member
SCULLIBUNDO said:
So James Cameron comes back from a twelve-year hiatus to bless mortal eyes with the best action since 99's The Matrix and doesn't even get a mention on a top 50 list that includes Jack Reacher and Greengrass' garbage-cam of all things.

Miami Vice being the top is the icing lol.
Click to expand...

Jack fucking Reacher ahead of Elite Squad (the second movie is better, by the way), Ip Man, District B13, Skyfall, Bourne, and Casino Royale. Fucking lol.
 
F

Foggy

Member
Ridley327 said:
There are a lot of reasons to take fault with this list, but Oldboy isn't an action film by any stretch of the imagination. Yes, it does have one really great fight scene in it, but one great fight scene doesn't make it into an action film.
Click to expand...

It also has the fight at the end and against the punks at the beginning. I wouldn't call it an action film but it's as much an action film as Why Don't You Play in Hell or Bittersweet Life or even The Guest.

I just read the blurb on Non-Stop. Oh lawd...
 
R

Ridley327

Member
Foggy said:
It's as much an action film as Why Don't You Play in Hell or Bittersweet Life or even The Guest.

I just read the blurb on Non-Stop. Oh lawd...
Click to expand...

Oh don't get me wrong, The Guest shouldn't be on there at all, either. It's a great film, but it has no place being on a list of action films.
 
B

bud

Member
everyone's shitting on miami vice being the number one, but what is even more comical is the inclusion of blackhat.
 
R

Romars202129

Member
This might be the most questionable list of anything I've ever read. Miami Vice no 1?
I'd bet anything it's not even Colin Farrell's no 1.
 
H

HyperZone<3

Member
there are some really great, fully worthy and underseen films on the list.

Time and Tide (Tsui Hark's underrated work that pre-dated a looooong slump)
A Bittersweet Life (still my favorite Korean gangster movie)
and Johnnie To's Exiled and Drug War are fine choices as well (although I'd put Vengeance above Exiled, but that's just me).
13 Assassins might be Takashi Miike's most accessible film, its also one of his very best.

Some of them aren't really action films per se (Elite Squad, Why Don't You Play In Hell?, The Guest).

So, lots to criticize and laud here.
 
H

HIGH DEF JEFF

Banned
bud said:
everyone's shitting on miami vice being the number one, but what is even more comical is the inclusion of blackhat.
Click to expand...

I couldnt even think of what to say about Blackhat being on there..im a irrational michael mann apologist but that was the movie i had no defense for..and ive seen the "exclusive" directors cut he showed at BAM last year. Its one of the worst movies ive ever seen and to include it in an ACTION list just proves my point that the list is going for controversy not accuracy.
 
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