Best action films

[Lord Mhoram]

The French Connection is a fantastic movie.

[ItisWritten]

Indiana Jones not an action hero?

Okay, I get the classification you're squeezing "action" into, but Raiders is all about the action sequences. Sure there's exposition and thinking and fantastical elements, but even John McClane doesn't endure more pain than Jones. Uh, well, there's that glass in foot . . .

I can't tell you how many times I've watched Die Hard, but we still pull it out every Christmas.

[matrixman]

Conservatively speaking, I've seen Die Hard 120-150 times...

...I'd lose track after about the 30th viewing of anything. I'm sure I've watched Empire Strikes Back or Raiders at least that many times, but it gets fuzzy after that.

I watched Raiders again just recently, and it still holds up well. I'd call it an action film (and a great one at that) because I can't think of any other category that fits it better. Ok...how about historical fantasy?

But my #1 pick for greatest action movie would have to be Terminator 2. I guess it all depends on what each of us thinks constitutes great action in a movie. I seem to enjoy action-filled movies more when there is some sci-fi stuff going on. Predator is another great example.

Anyway, T2 has just about everything I want or need to thrill me in an action movie, even if it may not be considered pure action.

[wayfriend]

Do martial arts movies count as action movies? Like Crouching Tiger, for example.

I think Kill Bill was pretty awesome for an action movie.

[bloodguard bob]

I was 15-18 when i first saw these, here's a breakdown.

*action adventure*
Raiders of the Lost Ark
Big Trouble in Little China
Crocodile Dundee

*police thriller/crime drama*
The French Connection
Bullit
Dirty Harry

*sci-fi action/adventure*
RoboCop
Total Recall
Terminator

*martial arts action/adventure*
Police Story
The One
Lionheart

*war/military action*
Commando
Rambo
Universal Soldier

*straight-up action*
Die Hard
Cobra
Action Jackson
Hard to Kill
Lethal Weapon
The Punisher

[Cail]

Fair enough. The French Connection, however, does have the mother of all chase scenes in it.

Meh, I think that award goes to Ronin.

I can't watch T2 anymore. There's a 45-minute stretch in which absolutely nothing happens other than cutsie Terminator crap and Linda Hamilton's rants. The stuff at the steel mill is great, as is the mall shootout, but there's not much more to it.

I dunno, maybe I'm giving Raiders too much credit, but I don't think it belongs in the action genre (or certainly not the same genre as Cobra).

[matrixman]

I think Kill Bill was pretty awesome for an action movie.

Agreed!

I'd also add True Lies to my Arnold Action list.

Also, The Mummy movies with Brendan Fraser and Rachel Weiscz.

The Road Warrior awed me back in the day, but I haven't seen it in a long time. I don't think it holds the same lustre for me today.

[Cail]

Good call on The Road Warrior. Great chase at the end and good story leading up to it, but flaccid as far as action pics go.

True Lies was good since Jimmy Cameron decided not to include a screaming child in it (which would be my main complaint about both Aliens and T2)

[danlo]

Big Trouble in Little China

wow what a film!!! What about Breakdown? Another Kurt Russell film with never a dull moment (my heart was still beating fast an hour after it ended! . I'm sure Cail won't classify it as "action" but Cliffhanger kicked some serious ass!!!

Switchback (which I saw back to back with Breakdown) with Dennis Quaid, Danny Glover and Jared Leto a damm cool flick too...(just couldn't get into the "Lethal Weapon" films either...)

[Cail]

I'd classify Breakdown as a thriller, and a damn good one.

Cliffhanger was utterly improbable (Sly running around on top of a frozen mountain in a t-shirt), but a good action flick.

BTiLC is simply one of the coolest films ever made.

[danlo]

So I take it you haven't seen Switchback...or if you have would you just say it's a serial killer movie?

[dlbpharmd]

The French Connection is a fantastic movie.

That's what everybody says, and yet I didn't like this film.

[Cail]

So I take it you haven't seen Switchback...or if you have would you just say it's a serial killer movie?

Nah, Switchback was a Hitchcockian thriller. Decent movie.

[Usivius]

A Gunslinger wrote:
Fair enough. The French Connection, however, does have the mother of all chase scenes in it.
Meh, I think that award goes to Ronin.

totally agree.

[matrixman]

Action movies really didn't exist prior to the '70s, and really came into their own in the '80s. War movies (early ones like TDD or Kelly's Heroes) generally don't have sustained action, though they are clearly (along with westerns) the forerunners of the great action films.

It's hard to look back at the old action films now, but stuff like Dirty Mary Crazy Larry, Vanishing Point, The Getaway, and White Lightning, while the genesis of the genre, simply can't hold a candle to the great action flicks of the '80s.

You summed it up well - it all rings true for me, anyway! When I think about favorite action films, I always start from the 80's. I've only seen a few movies from the 70's (and earlier) that might be considered "action" but even then, they move along at a more...leisurely pace. I'm thinking mainly of the Clint Eastwood films from that time - the early Dirty Harry ones and the Man With No Name westerns. Anyway, Dirty Harry is more of a crime drama, right?

How about Bonnie & Clyde? I've never seen it, but know of it by reputation. It's often cited/blamed for opening the way for more bullet-ridden action and violence in 70's movies.

The Wild Bunch was another 70's film controversial for its violence. I've only seen the film's final big shootout, which was gleefully over-the-top. Makes me wanna see the rest of the movie.

But yeah, then the 80's came along, and for whatever reason big screen action got ramped up in intensity. Did the arrival of Stallone and Schwarzenegger bring about that change? Was it the influence of the successful Hong Kong martial arts movies? Was it the tag-team of Lucas and Spielberg upping the ante, accelerating the pace of movies in general and inspiring/forcing other would-be action moviemakers to be more ambitious in response?

Someone like James Cameron seems to fit that description. I know he had paid his dues through working on the low-budget productions of Roger Corman - not quite the glamour of Spielberg. But the blockbuster successes of Spielberg and Lucas could only have inspired a big thinker like Cameron to be just as ambitious when his turn came.

I put on T2 last night just to see if it still worked for me, and yep, it did! It's funny but Raiders and T2 are kind of connected in my mind, in the sense that T2 was the first movie to totally own me as a moviegoer since Raiders - an exact separation of a decade.

(Then in 2001, Fellowship of the Ring showed up and that movie owned me. Now that this arbitrary pattern is known to me, I'll be half-expecting some film in 2011 to do the same. )

It's not fair to T2 for me to call it just action, anyway. I should put it in with sci-fi, since it's a movie about ideas, too - a way of thinking about the world. Raiders is terrific action, but it's not all that deep, unless you want to get into a theological discussion about the Ark, which doesn't interest me. But T2 (and the whole Terminator series) hits close to home, it works on modern fears of nuclear annihilation and technological hubris.

Okay, I better stop before this post goes completely off the rails.

[Marv]

The Wild Bunch was another 70's film controversial for its violence. I've only seen the film's final big shootout, which was gleefully over-the-top. Makes me wanna see the rest of the movie.

Oh yeah, I love the Wild Bunch. More shots fired in that movie than in the entire Mexican revolution!

[Farm Ur-Ted]

Big Trouble in Little China

wow what a film!!! What about Breakdown? Another Kurt Russell film with never a dull moment (my heart was still beating fast an hour after it ended! .

If you're talking Kurt, you can't forget Diehard on a Plane (aka Executive Decision). That movie rocked.

Diehard on a Boat (aka Under Siege) was also pretty good. Diehard in a Flood (aka Hard Rain) kind of sucked. Diehard in the Desert (aka Broken Arrow) totally blew. Diehard on a Bus (aka Speed) was one of the best. Let's not even talk about Diehard on a Train (Under Siege 2).

I agree, Diehard is the greatest action film of all, and I really don't think there's a close second. It is by far the most influential of all of the big action movies.

[Usivius]

I also agree with that sentiment... Die Hard has it all: great directing, excellent writing, good supporting cast (Hans is beautifully played and is a role-model for movie villians for decades after), Bruce is excellent, and great action sequences. Seldom are you left going, "aw c'mon! that's rediculous!"...

[SothuTheUnfetterdOne.]

"Now I have machine gun ho-ho-ho" was one of the best lines ever delivered
by Alan Rickman right up there with"turn to page 394"

awesome

[The Laughing Man]

The Bourne series is quite worth watching over again, as well as the Transporter.....


but to say Steve McQueen wasn't ACTION? He's the freakin KING and Father of all action movie guys....he was the first, and all the rest only followed him.....