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  • In some kind of rough order from those I've seen:

    • Kung-fu Hustle
    • Blade II
    • Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
    • Battle Royale
    • Hero (2002)
    • Tokyo Gore Police
    • Old Boy (2003)
    • House of Flying Daggers
    • Shanghai Noon
    • Versus
    • Minority Report
    • Kill Bill 1 and 2
    • Hellboy
    • Serenity
    • Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith
    • Equilibrium
    • Spider-Man (2002) and the other Raimi offerings
    • Once Upon a Time in Mexico
    • Smokin' Aces
    • Ong Bak
    • IP Man
    • Banlieue 13
    • District 9
    • Batman Begins and other Nolan Bat films
    • Meatball Machine
    • Machine Girl
    • Night Watch (and Day Watch)
    • Shoot 'Em Up
    • Children of Men
    • V for Vendetta
    • Resident Evil
    • Iron Man
    • Sin City
    • Crank
    • Shaolin Soccer
    • Hot Fuzz
    • Zatoichi (2003)
    • Underworld
    • Æon Flux
    • Zebraman

    Worst:

    • League of Extraordinary Gentlemen
    • House of the Dead 2 - I had to bump up my rating for House of the Dead so I could give this the lower rating

      • they’re all bangers

        My criteria was if I had some free time and the film came to mind, would I go "hell yeah, get that on!".

        they cover many genres and styles

        Which made it tricky picking one favourite as they are very different. I gave Kung-fu Hustle the top slot because it is so good but it is a bit niche and some of the others make better recommendations to people depending on their taste in films. Versus is probably got a higher position than most people would give it but I was obsessed with the film when it came out and it would lead, by circuitous routes, to the films I describe as New Japanese Gore (Tokyo Gore Police, Meatball Machine and Machine Girl make this list too).

        you’re the only one so far who understands that the 2000’s are a decade.

        Yeah, I was a bit confused by that "2000s" is a decade but "so far" suggests they meant "of the 21st Century" or "since the Millennium". However the list was big enough already so I stopped there.

  • In my mind the best action movies are the movies where the action shines the most and bad plot doesn’t get in the way. I haven’t seen John Wick which I’ve heard excels in this, but I gotta say I think Mad Max: Fury Road deserves high praise for being a great movie nearly all about raw action.

    Furthermore, we are not in the “2000s” anymore, we’re in the 2020s. We are well into the third decade of this millennium. The 70s, 80s, and 90s do have commonalities in the action movies of each era and I feel like those probably exist for the 00s, 10s, and 20s as well though I can’t identify them yet.

    If Fury Road is my favorite of the 10s, then maybe Prey is my favorite of the 20s, and Transformers is my favorite of the 00s.

    I know everything I mentioned is part of an established franchise but I don’t care all that much. Good action movies can still be creative using established stakes and framing if they have good direction. All 3 of those movies definitely have that. I thoroughly enjoy and am excited by the action in those movies each time I watch them. Lackluster stories aside they are all awesome.

    • The 70s, 80s, and 90s do have commonalities in the action movies of each era and I feel like those probably exist for the 00s, 10s, and 20s as well though I can’t identify them yet.

      The Noughties saw Wuxia break into western cinema with Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and we saw the start of the resurgence of the superhero movie, Blade 2 into Batman Begins and then the start of the MCU with Iron Man.

      Also, The Matrix dropped in 1999, so it's influence really only started to be felt in the 2000s, most obviously with Equilibrium but note generally with an improvement in action choreography across the board (ultimately leading to the John Wick films that pulled in a lot of the ideas and people inspired by The Matrix - Chad Stahelski being a common factor in a lot of the key action movies of the 21st Century).

19 comments