Greatest Action films of All Time?

[Dave2112]

For those times when you don't want to do any deep thinking and just want to see shit blow up, American cinema has brought us the action movie. Here's my personal Top Ten, feel free to add your own.
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10 - Enter the Dragon - Bruce Lee's most popular and arguably best flick. Many of the fight scenes took martial arts films out of the chop-socki bin and made them legit. A boon of karate enthusiasts ensued after the release of this film.

9 - Shaft - The original, not the remake. Another film that took a joke genre and made it serious, this time with the Blaxploitation films of the '70's. There was no one badder than Richard Roundtree, and he played the role like it was custom-made just for him. Lots of white guys lived in fear during the disco era...

8 - The One - Simply amazing fight scenes. The "Universe Jump" scenes were awesome as well, and getting to see Jet Li fight himself over and over was a cool concept. Probably the best of the modern rebirth of karate-type films.

7 - Blade II - Better than the first, with more attitude. Watch Blade's fight with the star-chucking motorcycle dudes and you'll see where they got the "burning bulding" fight choreography in Spiderman from. It's almost move-for-move. The scene where he's fighting the UV-suited vampires in his lair utilizes many techniques seen in The Matrix.

6 - Star Wars, Episode II: Attack of the Clones Not the best Star Wars film, but the best action film of the Star Wars saga. It's pretty much all-out from the word "go". From the explosion of the senator's ship on Coruscant through the Battle of Geonosis to the three individual lightsaber duels at the end, it's a non-stop barrage to the senses. The duel between Anakin and Dooku was sadly edited short, as it had great potential...but the duel between Dooku and Yoda more than made up for it. The battle of Geonosis itself was a true visual assault, if a bit over-done.

5 - First Blood - Perhaps Stallone's finest movie after Rocky, standing far outside of his "Yo....duh..." stuff. It brought home the plight of many vets into our heads, even if it was a bit far-fetched. Spawned several ridiculous sequels and made "Rambo" a household slang term for city-dwelling hunters "baggin' dee-uhs" in the mountains.

4 - From Dusk 'til Dawn - The best vampire movie made. Well, at least the goriest. Clooney had the best lines out of many of his films (I don't believe in vampires, either...but I believe my eyes, and what I saw was fuckin' vampires!) Even Harvey Keitel got to kick some ass. Quentin Tarantino plays the psycho brother to the T, but he's pretty creepy anyway. The scene where the band is playing on instruments made from dismembered bodies would have been ridiculous if it didn't fit the scenery so damn well, and who didn't want a codpiece like Sex Machine's? Plus, Clooney's tattoos were cool enough to make Darth Maul envious. Oh...Salma Hayek is almost naked throughout, pushing this from #5 to #4.

3 - Raiders of the Lost Ark - This film made Saturday matinee-type movies cool again. Indy was the epitome of smart-bad-cool. The first twenty minutes are worth the admission alone, and the scene where he shoots the would-be dueling swordsman remains the best scene out of any film...ever. Insidious traps, icky bugs and snakes, Nazis, tanks, horse chases and melting heads make this a film you can watch over and over and never get tired of. Harrison Ford's best role, he defined the reluctant hero...like when he's fighting the huge bald guy on the airstrip and puts his hands up like "yeah, yeah...gimmee a second, will ya?" You don't even see any other adventure-type-guys using bullwhips, because Indy has become such an identifiable icon. Here's looking forward to Indy IV.

2 - Die Hard - Again, the original. Bruce Willis's finest moment. Almost played like a disaster-movie. Alan Rickman cut his teeth here to create his "exasperated evil" style for Robin Hood's Sheriff of Nottingham (his best role, IMO). The hero's ingenuity and creativity took this out of the usual "victory through superior firepower" genre, although there was plenty of that ("Now I have a machine gun...Ho-Ho-Ho). The plot was actually pretty good, too...none of us figured out that it was a robbery and not a terrorist act until they wanted us to. Plausible and pretty funny at times, too. Willis gets the best line of his career..."Yippie-Ka-Yay Mutherfucker".

1 - Terminator 2: Judgement Day - The greatest action flick ever made. It seems obvious in hindsight, but we spent the first twenty minutes of T2 assuming that Schwartzenegger's Terminator is the bad-guy and Robert Patrick is the one sent back to stop him. James Cameron even gave him a cop uniform to complete the illusion. Linda Hamilton enjoyed her best role. She went from the soft, '80's cutesy victim to one buff bitch. Superb but often overlooked were her voice-overs...flat, painful and hopeless against an inevitable future. The scenes of nuclear fire rolling through a children's playground were more effective than seeing a city flattened. Ah-nold got two career-clinging catchphrases out of this one. (Hasta la Vista, Baby; I'll Be Back) He even showed a few moments of simple, effective humor. After being told not to kill anyone and then shooting an old guard in the knees: "He'll live." The morhping of the T-1000 into its many forms was a pioneering effect in its day, and still holds up very well against modern CGI. The new DVD version with deleted scenes spliced right into the movie (ala "Lord of the Rings") is an even better view, fleshing out several vague points. Arnold, big guns, bigger explosions, liquid bad-guys, a hot ass-kickin' babe, molten steel and the coolest bar-fight around, T2 ranks as my favorite action flick.

- Dave the Lifeless

[The Pianist]

Ahhh, apart from The Matrix, any English action tends to be dodgy... nothing more than expensive explosions.

Asian stuff on the other hand... even some of the lower budget stuff has some beautiful coreography! There are amazing fight scenes everywhere from the plain speed and power of Bruce Lee, innovative wierd stuff from Jacky Chan... and commedy stuff from Jacky... Sumo Hung (I think thats whats his name)... theres heaps especially with weapon stuff... just look at Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon. And for any one that thought any of those films were hard to follow... there are worse ones, like Lone Wolf and Cub and a whole lotta strange chinese ghost stories.... but I love this stuff. TV was MADE for SBS.

Coincidently, if anyone gets the chance to watch SHOALIN SOCCER, do it! Its halarious even if its in Chinese.

[areenactor]

the longest day, a bridge too far, wind talkers, we were soldiers, pork chop hill etc.
you can't get more action that a war movie!

steve

[Neutron]

Selma Hyaks dance with the snake in Dusk To Dawn. I about blew a nut gasket when I saw it!!

Tron

[rajee]

:D Any movie directed by John Woo. :D

[red indian]

......"Death in Venice" pulsating, ripsnorting, jaw dropping smash,n,grab from start to finish, you hardly have time to breathe for fear of missing any of the thrills and spills of the gondola chase under the bridge of sighs. You can see where the inspiration came for films like "Bullet" and "Resaviour Dogs" came from.

[TklDuo-Drew]

That's an awesome list, Dave. I would probably add:

"Desparado" with Antonio Banderas
"The Rock" with Sean Connery and Nick Cage
"Con-Air" with Nick Cage
"Lethal Weapons 1 and 2"

and if it counts, "Sudden Impact" with Clint Eastwood


Drew

[HisDivineShadow]

Maybe not the greatest, but the first Predator movie comes to mind. I loooooove the minigun.:D

[kurchatovium]

Ja. The Terminator kicks ass and they are making a sequel so He'll be Back.

[AffectionateDan]

I see none of the true classics in here. Although I must tip my hat to Red Indian for his homage to Death In Venice . And The Pianist also has a point when it comes to martial arts action. Anyone ever catch Iron Monkey ?

But look here...

True Grit (we miss ya, Duke)
The Adventures of Robin Hood
The Mark of Zorro
North by Northwest
The Magnificent Seven
Silverado (okay, so it's a little more contemprary than the rest-so sue me)
The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly
The Mad Max Trilogy
ANY James Bond film

Sure, I'm leaving a plethora out, but if we named all the great ones we'd be here all month! LoL!

[HisDivineShadow]

I missed Iron Monkey. Was it good?

And I agree with you on the Mad Max Trilogy. Totally forgot about it, considering I haven't seen it in years.

[AffectionateDan]

Originally posted by HisDivineShadow
I missed Iron Monkey. Was it good?

Oh HELLLLLLLLLLL yeah... easily Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon caliber action.

[HisDivineShadow]

Must.....See......Movie......

[Strelnikov]

In no particular order:
1. "Mr. Majestyk" - Charles Bronson, screenplay adapted from a novel by Elmore Leonard.
2. "Death Wish" - Charles Bronson. The original, not the sequels.
3. "The French Connection" - Gene Hackman. One of the best car chases of all time.
4. "Bullitt" - Steve McQueen. Another great car chase.
5. "The Sand Pebbles" - Steve McQueen. Adapted from a novel (or more properly, a sea story) by Richard McKenna, who was a China gunboat sailor in the 1930's.
6. "Big Jake" - John Wayne. The Wild West with a touch of modernity, 1910 style.
7. "The Wind and the Lion" - Sean Connery. Total nonsense from a historical perspective, but plenty of turn-of-the-19th-Century action.
8. "The Rocketeer" - No big names, but well cast. Lots of great 1930's aviation, 1930's Hollywood, Howard Hughes, gangsters, Nazis - if it's not a classic, it ought to be.
9. "Quigley Down Under" - Tom Selleck. Unfortunately, it drove up the price of Sharps Rifles to the point where I would have to sell one of my children to afford one (and it's a tempting idea sometimes!)
10. "Ronin" - Robert DeNiro. I predict that this one will be a classic. Non stop action, heavy weapons, and yet another great car chase.

Strelnikov

[killedbyanangel]

The Crow: Eloquentley done, considering they had too make the second part of the flick with the star being dead. Sets were well done and so were the fighting scenes.

Total Recall: Arnolds finest movie in my opinion, with the exception of the original terminater.

Scarface: All I gotta say is: "Say 'ello to my little friend!" The gun fight toward the end was too crazy for words.

Heat: The robberies were well thought out, as were the chase scenes and gun fights. Not to mention the presence of both Al Pacino and Robert Deniro.

Gladiator: Different timeline I know, but it had to be one of the most intense films I've ever scene, one of the few I've ever been able to watch numerous times without getting bored.

Aliens: Remember when Sigourney Weaver put on the giant robotic suit to fight the mother alien?

I'm sure I have more, but I can't think of them at the moment.

[red indian]

........at least SOMEONE got the joke!! dear oh dear, dont know why i bother sometimes.

[AffectionateDan]

Originally posted by red indian
........at least SOMEONE got the joke!! dear oh dear, dont know why i bother sometimes.

LoL! I feel your pain!

[R. Davis]

Raiders of the Lost Ark, Die hard, Aliens, Fist of Legend, The Good,Bad,and the Ugly, The French Connection, Terminator 2,The Matrix, A Long Kiss Goodnight, Iron Monkey, Speed, Ronin, Mission Impossible 2, The Profeesional. Legend of the Drunken Master. I could go on, but these are some that come to mind.

[R. Davis]

Warriors Two. One of the greatest martial arts films ever made. Directed by Yuen Woo Ping. Who directed the fight scences in the Matrix movies.

[Ticklebell]

I'm not much of an action girl but I do love Total Recall. I know the lady in it who is his disguise whose head turns out to be a bomb. lol. "Time for a surprise!"
Also Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. I looooove that movie.
Mwah!

-Bell :cool2:

[BigJim]

Originally posted by red indian
........at least SOMEONE got the joke!! dear oh dear, dont know why i bother sometimes.

I don't know why you bother ever. :p


My favourite action movie? First Blood Part II. Utterly unbelievable and improbable, but wonderful for reminding people just how badly the country and some of it's citizens treated soldiers returning from Vietnam.

[red indian]

put those bitch claws away BJ!!! they need buffing.

[sceej56]

I agree with a lot of those I see listed but would add three films from the same genre - British colonial period ... "Gunga Din" with Cary Grant, Douglas Fairbanks, Victor McLaghlen; "The Man Who Would Be King" with Michael Caine and Sean Connery; and "Zulu" again with Michael Caine. These days a lot of people dismiss these films as "white imperialists shooting dark oppressed people while calling them savages" and the criticism has some small validity but if these films can't get your blod going then you need a transfusion!

[General Zod]

Some of my favorite action movies are
Cross Of Iron (war movie)
Kelly's Heroes
The Wild Bunch
The Good,The Bad,and The Ugly
A bridge To Far
Roller Ball-The new version

[The Pianist]

If anyone wants to watch a funny Japanese swordfighting Matrix rip off... go see

The Duel

Which ends with my NEW favourite quote:

Lets celebrate the occasion with a poke!

In the right context, that suits the purpose of this forum... but the movie's not the right context and they just mean to go have sex... but still... it has potential

[AffectionateDan]

There was a great film back in the late 60's/early 70's, called simply, "Duel". I *think* it was one of either Spielburg's or Lucas's first few movies before they made it big. Good action for the day, and very suspenseful. Dennis Weaver (used to love "McCloud" back then, too) versus the mysterious truck driver in cowboy boots. Good flick.

[BigJim]

Stock footage from that movie was used in an Incredible Hulk episode called Never Give A Trucker An Even Break. (The one where David Hulks-out in a phone booth.)

[Ticklebell]

Aagh! My guy friends made me watch Duel once. I wanted to put my head through a wall! I can't take the tension! I just can't! Mwah!
-Bell :cool2:

[CurtWild]

fist of legend
return of the dragon
drunken master 2
die hard 1
once upon a time in china(1,2,4)
commando

i hate threads like this....my mind always goes blank:D


:upsidedow

[TklDuo-Drew]

Did anyone mention "Breakdown" with Kurt Russell or "The Hitcher" with Rutger Hauer?
Those were both two good ones.

Drew

[buggs]

Die Hard 1 and Die Hard With A Vengance (3). I don't consider Die Hard 2 to be a true Die Hard movie. Renny Harlin really f'ed it up in my opinion. John McTiernan was supposed to direct it, but he was finishing up work on THE HUNT FOR RED OCTOBER. He had a few weeks of post prodution left, and the producers didn't want to wait. I honetsly would have loved to have seen a John McTiernan Die Hard 2. I think the acting would have been more believable, the action would have been fast and furious with that touch of implied realism that McTiernan does so well, and the script would have been much more polished. In short, it would have been light years ahead of what we instead got. Here's to wishfull thinking.

[buggs]

Duel was spilbergs first television movie assignment after doing a few episodes of Night Gallery. He shot it like a movie and it was so good for it's time that it created an instant buzz. A side note, when the truck finally goes over the cliff at the end, and when the shark in jaws sinks to the bottom after being blown up and it's fin emerges from the bloody water have the same sound effect in it. Spielberg liked a tyranosaurus rex scream from some low budget movie and used it in both occasions. Also , the hulk used alot of stock footage from their movies in their TV shows, and The Hulk saw alot of that. On the episode wiht the Hulk on the 747 airplane, most of that was lifted from Airport 75. This was common before computer special effects came along in the 90's and shows could make their own effect. I remember the episode of Knight Rider where Micheal was using explosions to stop the raging water from a damn that had just burst. Micheal had to jump the car from one side of the massive ravine to the other. You see the car speed to the edge of the cliff, then a shot of Superman from Superman 1 flying from one side of the ravine to the other, and kit landing on the other side.

[buggs]

Oops. I almost forgot my other pick for biggest action film of all time. Well it was a movie within a movie. In the 70's there was a comedy movie released called DRIVE IN. It was a comedy, kind of like Porky's, but it took place one night at a local drive in when they where popular. I can't recall off the top of my head, but I think the movie they were watching was either called DISASTER 75 or 77. Let me see if I can remember the events that happened in it in chronological order as the movie kept cutting back from the actual movie to "Disaster". First a 747 is hijacked, and the hijackers fly it into the newly built largest building (This was way 1 1/2 decades before 9-11. It was a spoof of the current disaster movies that had come out in years prior.), and the building catches on fire and all the people are trapped in it trying to escape. Then a roller coaster goes off its tracks and this starts a massive earthquake, which sinks all of California. AT the end, the sheriff, who seems to be the only one who survived the sinking, is floating out in the middle of the ocean. A shark starts chasing him and he has this furious race to beat the shark to a little island that is the last remains of California. He makes it to shore alive and stands on the beach, scanning the small island (it was really small and had one coconut tree in the middle of it like all the clichés) and he says "Whelp. I guess I better start rebuilding humanity". The movie ends with a long helicopter shot leaving the island as he just stands on it, in the middle of the ocean. I also recall (I saw this movie 1 time when I was 7 at a drive in so forgive me for my recall) that the same sheriff was on the plane that crashed, and in the building when it was burning, and on or near the roller coaster when it went off the tracks, and running through LA during the earthquake. That makes Disaster the greatest action movie of all time, and that sheriff the most kick ass action hero ever in my honest opinion.

Critics panned the movie, but they all loved “Disaster” and made note of it in their reviews. I think a few of them said that they had wished Disaster had been made into a full movie and released instead of DRIVE IN.

[buggs]

From a review

http://www.imdb.com/Title?0074433

'"Drive-In" is a B movie about a night out at the local drive-in. It's a comedy that isn't terribly funny with acting that is less than stellar. But there are two reasons to watch it anyway. One is the movie within the movie which is showing on the screen called "Disaster 76." It's a send up of all the disaster films of that era and is very funny. Maybe the filmmakers should have filmed that film instead.'

http://www.category.org/browse/video/161577/

"The main characters of "Drive-In" were forgettable, but I'll NEVER forget "Disaster '76," the "movie" that's showing at the drive-in that's the subject of "Drive-In."

"Disaster '76" was a parody of every Seventies disaster movie from Jaws to Airport '75 to The Towering Inferno and more. "Campy" was an understatement.

If you're old enough to have suffered through Seventies disaster flicks (and maybe even if you're younger), you'll chuckle at the tacky special effects and deliberately bad scripting of "Disaster '76." I wouldn't be surprised if the writers of "Airplane!" (1980) found some inspiration in this earlier flick."

[buggs]

Oops. Damn me. Drive in was 2 1/2 decades ago. My bad.