Top 10 Action Movies You Forgot Were Awesome
#10: “3:10 to Yuma” (2007)
Top 10 Fight Scenes You Forgot Were Awesome
A decade before he made the definitive Wolverine movie with Logan, James Mangold got Batman together with Superman's dad for a bit of good old-fashioned gunslinging. Russell Crowe is a dangerous outlaw who lawmakers will pay good money to see brought to justice. Christian Bale is a rancher too poor to say no to a payday, no matter how dangerous the assignment. And in an old West setting where everyone has a score to settle and a gun to settle it with, their journey is far from easy. Like a lot of modern Westerns, it didn’t really get the attention it deserved but thanks to two magnetic leads and six-shooters aplenty, 3:10 to Yuma is a fantastic throwback to a bygone era.
#9: “The Man from U.N.C.L.E.” (2015)
Top 10 90s Movies You Forgot Were Awesome
Another modern take on old-school action, The Man From U.N.C.L.E is a Cold War caper about a pair of elite spies from either side of the divide who are forced to work together. Of course, when agents the size of Henry Cavill and Armie Hammer butt heads, they’re liable to level entire city blocks, and the two end up crashing their way through Italy. Even when they aren’t throwing haymakers at each other, the constant bickering and one-upmanship between this Herculean odd couple makes The Man From U.N.C.L.E an absolute riot. And with a supporting cast that includes Alicia Vikander, Elizabeth Debicki, Jared Harris, and Hugh Grant, this is well worth seeking out.
#8: “F/X” (1986)
Top 10 Movies You Forgot Dominated The Box Office
The action genre is overflowing with tropes and cliches, but that creates plenty of room for meta-movies like F/X to turn the whole thing on its head. Roland Tyler is a special effects expert stuck plying his trade on low-budget gore-fests. Everything changes, however, when the Justice Department offers him a fat stack of cash to help stage the assassination of a mob informant so he can disappear into witness protection. However, after a sneaky double-cross, Tyler finds himself in the middle of his very own B-movie where the bullets and the blood are far too real. Widely praised by critics for its smart take on the genre, F/X never quite seemed to find the audience it deserved.
#7: “Haywire” (2011)
Steven Soderbergh has pretty much proven that he can make a stone-cold classic in any genre - from heartwarming tales about male strippers to eerily accurate pandemic predictions and basketball-centric sports dramas shot entirely on iPhone. So when he decides to make a no-holds-barred action flick, you know it’s going to be good. MMA star Gina Carano brings her bone-breaking talents to this tale of a former black ops agent on a bloody quest for revenge. How a film that sees Carano ragdolling the likes of Channing Tatum, Ewan McGregor, and Michael Fassbender didn’t become a smash hit, we’ll never understand. Still, it’s one of the slickest action-thrillers in recent years.
#6: “Shoot ‘Em Up” (2007)
Top 10 Classic Movies That Were HELL to Shoot
Action cinema, like all of cinema, is in a constant conversation with itself as newer movies re-use, re-mix and subvert those that came before. While watching John Woo’s seminal action thriller Hard Boiled, Michael Davis was so struck by a scene in which the hero takes part in a gun battle while protecting a baby, that he decided to build a whole new film around it. The result sees Clive Owen’s badass drifter teaming up with Monica Bellucci’s prostitute-with-a-heart-of-gold to protect a little one from a crew of assassins and henchmen led by Paul Giamatti. Its amped-up, all-action style divided critics at the time and saw it struggle at the box office, but fans of Woo’s over-the-top, gun-fu stylings would be remiss not to check it out.
#5:“The Rundown” (2003)
Top 20 Action Movies That Were Better Than We Expected
Back in 2003, Dwayne Johnson was still trying to crack Hollywood with movies like The Rundown, which saw him playing a bounty hunter who travels to Brazil for one last job. Using Johnson’s WWE days to full effect, The Rundown boasts some truly bone-crunching fight scenes, while also offering an early indication of the comedy chops and charisma that would one day make him pure box office gold. Sadly, that wasn’t the case back in 2003 and the film failed to recoup its budget, but it’s a fun jungle romp that is even more interesting in retrospect.
#4: “Smokin’ Aces” (2006)
Like horror films, the great thing about action movies is that their casts are often a fascinating grab-bag of up-and-comers, ailing stars, A-listers and non-actors. Smokin’ Aces is one of the best examples of this, bringing together all-stars like Ray Liotta, Ben Affleck, Chris Pine and Ryan Reynolds along with the likes of Common and Alicia Keys for a good old-fashioned bounty hunt. An informant with a $1 million price on his head and a whole bunch of folks on his trail - that’s all the plot the movie really needs to set up a thrilling series of high-octane collisions. Worth checking out for the cast alone, double-y so for all the fun they have trying to murder each other.
#3: “Cliffhanger” (1993)
When you’ve already got one of the most beloved action franchises of all time to your name, it’s easy to imagine how your other efforts might get overlooked. But though it may not have become a titanic franchise like Rocky or Rambo, Sly Stallone’s Cliffhanger still has an awful lot to recommend it. This includes a zany, rock-climbing-related heist plan, John Lithgow playing a psychotic British crime boss and some great set-pieces from action maestro Renny Harlin — who brought those same talents to The Long Kiss Goodnight a few years later (xref). The whole film is a goofy blast and Stallone’s star power at the time was enough to make it a commercial hit, but it seems to have been somewhat forgotten since.
#2: “Last Action Hero” (1993)
Top 10 Action Movies Where the Bad Guy Wins
Like F/X but a bit more family-friendly, Last Action Hero uses the unwritten rules, tropes and cliches of action cinema to provide a clever deconstruction of the genre while also serving up plenty of explosive action. When a young boy is sucked into an Arnold Schwarzenegger movie, the muscle-bound supercop is the only one that can save him. Essentially a Schwarzenegger movie about Schwarzenegger movies, Last Action Hero is able to skewer the silliest aspects of ‘80s action cinema while also acting as a heartfelt tribute to it. It failed to land with critics or audiences at the time, but has been undergoing a steady re-evaluation in the years since. Before we unveil our top pick, here are a few honorable mentions. “Red Cliff” [aka “Chibi”] (2008-09) An Epic Reminder That John Woo Is Still One of the Greatest Action Filmmakers Ever “Rolling Thunder” (1977) A Bleak, Bloody Story About a Vietnam Vet’s Eventful Return Home “Ricochet” (1991) A Criminal Tale of Revenge That Goes to Some Shockingly Dark Places “City on Fire” (1987) Chow Yun-fat Became a Star with This Undercover Thriller “The Grey” (2011) Liam Neeson Fighting Wolves. That’s It. That’s the Movie
#1: “Edge of Tomorrow” (2014)
Top 10 The Edge of Seventeen Moments
Groundhog Day is a classic movie in which Bill Murray relives the same day over and over and slowly learns to better himself. But you know what Groundhog Day didn’t have? Giant mech suits fighting weird squid-like aliens in a battle for humanity’s survival, that’s what! Fortunately, Edge of Tomorrow is here to correct that oversight. Tom Cruise plays a hapless media relations professional who finds himself on the frontlines alongside an iconic super-soldier-like officer played by Emily Blunt. Each time Cruise dies, the day resets, giving the pair plenty of chances to work out a way of ending the war. With some stunning battle sequences that mix World War II iconography with sci-fi weaponry, Edge of Tomorrow is one of the best action movies of the last decade.
