Exciting action movies: a list of the best

2024 Author: Leah Sherlock | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 05:25

Deep down inside each of us lives a little mischievous child. He dreams of traveling, discovering uncharted lands and new galaxies, fighting pirates, aliens and other villains and being a real hero. That is why the action movie genre is always so popular. After all, watching such films, viewers get the opportunity to escape from daily worries for at least an hour and plunge into the magical world of movie adventures.

Let's take a look at the list of exciting action movies that are considered the best of their kind and which will be interesting to spend the evening with.

Features of the action genre

Before you learn about the best films of this genre, it is worth considering the distinctive features of this type of tape. Indeed, in many tops of the most exciting action movies, projects of other genres are often added to them. One of the main features of the action movie is the emphasis on violence. That is, such tapes must be full of fights, shots, chases, etc.

These projects implicitly promote the so-called aesthetics of violence. Therefore, in order to shoot such a picture, its creators have to apply a lot of special effects, which makesAction movies are one of the most expensive types of motion pictures.

As a rule, in such tapes, the number of bad guys killed is dozens, or even hundreds. At the center of all events is a certain invulnerable and incredibly cool protagonist. Despite the laws of logic and physics, he manages to survive even in the most incredible situations and at the same time save the world, well, or part of it.

By the way, due to the abundance of violence, most action films are prohibited for viewing by teenagers. The only irony is that this category of viewers loves such films the most and tends to bypass all prohibitions for the sake of their favorite movie.

As for the plot, in action films it is usually primitive, although there are happy exceptions to this rule.

To better understand the advantages and disadvantages of this genre, all his fans should definitely watch the film "The Last Action Hero" (1993) with Arnold Schwarzenegger in the title role. This project tells about a young action movie fan who, once in the world of cinema, began to use his knowledge of such films to help the protagonist find the criminal. Despite the playful style of the project, it ridicules all the traditional clichés characteristic of the action.

List of the best action movies with Arnold Schwarzenegger

Consideration of the most exciting action movies should start with projects starring the legendary "Iron Arnie".

During his career, he starred in more than 60 films. Not all of them were really successful, but a lot of them.

The best action movies with Schwarzenegger are like this.

• "Terminator 1, 2, 5".
• "Commando".
• "Running Man".
• "Total Recall".
• "True lies".
• "Escape Plan".
• Quadrology "The Expendables". It is worth noting that most of the stars of classic action games played in the action films of this cycle. Perhaps that is why they were able to gain such popularity.

Action movies with Sylvester Stallone

A veteran action movie (thanks to which this genre became what it is) is another star of The Expendables - Sylvester Stallone.

He has more than 80 roles in his piggy bank. However, like Arnie, not all of them were successful.

Two action franchises helped Stallone make a name for himself in the world of cinema: "Rocky" (dedicated to the life of boxer Rocky Balboa) and "Rambo".

To be fair, it's important to remember that not all action movies from these cycles are really interesting. However, they are worth watching, as they influenced the development of further world film culture, and many later projects contain references to them.

Below is a list of Sylvester Stallone's most exciting action movies.

• "Cobra".
• "Locked Up (Jail)".
• "Rock Climber".
• "Destroyer".
• "Judge Dredd".
• "Hitlers".

Exciting action movies with BruceWillis

Another hero of the classic action movie is hard nut Bruce Willis. He starred in more than 100 films, and began his career as a comedian. And only after the fantastic success of "Die Hard" did he move into the category of action heroes.

The best of his works in this genre are.

• "Die Hard 1, 2, 4".
• "The Last Boy Scout".
• "Within striking distance".
• "Pulp Fiction".
• "The Fifth Element".
• "Mercury is in danger".
• "Nine yards".
• "Sin City".
• "16 quarters".
• "RED".

Mel Gibson Action

Handsome blue-eyed Mel can hardly be called a typical action hero. His work is more characteristic of psychological and comic roles. Despite this, the artist managed to star in more than one interesting action movie with an exciting plot.

The action movie franchise "Mad Max" brought him first fame. In total, Gibson starred in 3 parts of the project.

But the real glory of the hero of militant films was brought to the artist by participation in the cycle "Lethal Weapon". Three of the four films in this epic are rightfully considered the best in their genre.

In addition to these projects, several very successful historical action movies came out with Mel: "Braveheart", "Patriot" and "We Were Soldiers".

Amongother interesting action movie films with this actor are such projects:

• Film "Ransom", dedicated to the struggle of the father with the kidnappers of his son.
• Psychological thriller "Conspiracy Theory".
• "Payback" 1999. It should not be confused with the 2016 action movie Payback starring Ben Affleck. While both films are great examples of action, the plot is different and unrelated.

Such confusion arose due to incorrect translation of project titles. So, the 1999 film in the original is called Payback ("Payback"). And "Payback" in 2016 is called The Accountant. For example, there are more than 5 different films called "Obsession", and their original titles never match.

By the way, like all of the above artists, Mel Gibson also starred in The Expendables.

Thugs with Tom Cruise

Unlike the previously mentioned artists, Tom Cruise doesn't look like an action hero. Despite this, he has played leading roles in many highly successful projects of this genre.

The first exciting action-drama with his participation was "Mission Impossible". The audience liked it so much that 5 more sequels were made, starring Cruise.

Some researchers of Tom Cruise's work claim that the first action movie with his participation is "Top Gun", released 10 years earlier. Howevermost film experts agree that Top Gun is not exactly an action movie. In terms of genre, it is closer to a military drama with action elements.

The next action movie with Cruz that every fan of this genre should watch is Minority Report. This picture, which tells about the near future, is not only full of chases and fights, but is also interesting for its psychologism.

The film "The Last Samurai" is uncharacteristic of the work of Tom Cruise. This is a historical action movie about events in Japan in the second half of the 19th century. Unlike typical action films, this one is based on a well-written script and impresses with its realism. Thanks to this, "The Last Samurai" is very popular with the thinking half of the audience, who appreciate in action movies not only fights and chases, but also well-written characters and a well-thought-out plot, without "holes".

In 2008, Cruz played in the parody action movie "Soldiers of Doom". And although he did not get the main role, the picture turned out to be very entertaining and was well received by the audience. She talks about the attempts of the film crew to shoot a military action movie in the jungle. Ben Stiller, Robert Downey Jr., Jack Black, Nick Nolte and Matthew McConaughey played the main roles in the project tape.

And here is Cruise's next work in this genre, the painting "Knight of the Day" is a typical action movie with elements of humor. Despite the obvious hackneyedness of the artistic techniques used in it, the audience liked it, however, mainly its female half.

Another successfulthe work of the artist in recent years is the action-dilogue "Jack Reacher".

As for the fantastic action movie, the best film project of Tom Cruise in recent years was the film "Edge of Tomorrow" (2014). It was based on the popular Japanese light novel of the same name. Despite a number of plot holes, the project has become one of the best science fiction action films made in recent years. Therefore, lovers of temporal paradoxes will definitely like it.

Action movie with Brad Pitt

Initially, the main role in the film "Edge of Tomorrow" (2014) was offered to play Brad Pitt. He, like Tom Cruise, started with the roles of handsome men and only then retrained as action heroes.

The most famous action films with his participation are:

• "Fight Club" based on the cult novel of the same name by Chuck Palahniuk. This picture has also acquired the status of a classic, although not everyone agrees that it belongs to the action.
• But about the genre of "Snatch" (in which Pitt played Mickey O'Neal) - no one argues, as this is a classic crime thriller with elements of black comedy.
• A special place in the artist's work is occupied by peplum (historically action, based on ancient and biblical stories) "Troy", in which Brad played Achilles.
• Of course, the picture is very loose with Homeric works, but it is also very interesting to watch.
• Thriller about the war of two spouses-killers "Mr. and Mrs. Smith" is one of the bestfamily action that fans of the creative duo Pete and his ex-wife Angelina Jolie should not miss.
• Quentin Tarantino's film "Inglourious Basterds" became a classic even before its release, as happens with most of this director's films. However, this action film is suitable for a more sophisticated viewer, obviously over 16 years old, since there is really a lot of violence.
• The film "World War Z" (2013) did not become something special in the genre of fantasy action films about the invasion of zombies. However, it is a well-made project, which can be said little about any picture of recent years. Thanks to this, a sequel to "World War Z" (2013) will be released in the coming years, which will be called "World War Z: Chapter Two".
• Also in recent years, with the participation of the artist, 2 action films about the events of the Second World War were released: "Fury" and "Allies". These tapes are not very realistic. However, these are militants, what to take from them?

Best martial arts action games

A special place in this genre is occupied by projects about martial arts. There are several artists who are most often filmed in such tapes.

• Bruce Lee: "Fist of Fury", "Way of the Dragon", "Game of Death".
• Jackie Chan: "Drunken Master", "Dragon Fist", "Armor of God 1-3", "Who Am I?", "Shanghai Noon 1, 2", "Medallion", "Around the World in 80days", "Myth", "Forbidden Kingdom".



• Jean-Claude Van Damme: Bloodsport, Kickboxer, Universal Soldier, Time Patrol.



• Donnie Yen: "Highlander: Endgame", "Blade II", "Ip Man 1-3", "X-Ox: World Domination".

Best comic adaptations

Graphic novels are one of the endless sources of action movie scripts. The two most famous comic book empires in the world are Marvel and DC. On the account of each of them there are many adaptations of graphic novels, however, not all of them were successful. Below is a list of the best ones.

DS has this:

• "Batman" (1989).
• "Shadow" (1994).
• "Konstantin: Lord of Darkness" (2005).
• Christopher Nolan's Batman Trilogy.
• "Watchmen" (2009).
• "Wonder Woman".

As for Marvel, their best action films are the following movies.

• "The Punisher" (1989).
• The X-Men cycle.
• Spider-Man trilogy with Tobey Maguire.
• "Ghost Rider".
• "Iron Man 1, 2".
• "The Avengers" (2012).
• "Thor 1-3".
• "Man-Ant" (2015).
• "Deadpool" (2016).
• "Doctor Strange" (2016).
• Guardians of the Galaxy (2014).

It's worth noting that both Marvel and DC actively use the transitional character technique in their films. Thus, the heroes of some projects actively participate in the events of others, as secondary characters.

So Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, The Flash and Aquaman appear in the Justice League films. And Thor, Hulk, Captain America, Doctor Strange and Tony Stark, in addition to individual franchises, also appear in The Avengers, as well as each other's films.

In parallel, separate projects continue to be filmed about them. So, in future years, Marvel announced the release of the continuation of such films as Deadpool (2016), Guardians of the Galaxy (2014), Ant-Man (2015), Doctor Strange (2016), etc. The first parts of these fantastic action films were really well filmed. But will it be a worthy sequel? Time will tell. In the meantime, you can enjoy the first parts.

However, not "Marvel" and DS united live the world of comics. There are several successful cycles of graphic novels from other publishers, on the basis of which many interesting action films were shot.

These are projects like:

• "300 Spartans 1, 2".
• "V stands for vendetta".
• "Kick-Ass 1, 2".
• Kingsman 1, 2.

List of action video games

Alsomany action movies are based on popular video games.

The most famous of them are:

• Mortal Kombat Pentalogy (1995-2000).
• Six action films from the Resident Evil series about the brave Alice.



• Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time (2010).
• "Lara Croft - Tomb Raider 1, 2" (2001, 2003).
• "Hitman 1, 2" (2007, 2015).
• Assassin's Creed (2016).



• "Warcraft" (2016). By the way, this relatively new action movie turned out to be fantastically successful. It grossed over $400 million at the box office. Thus, "Warcraft" (2016) was ahead of other film adaptations of video games. So in 2018, a sequel is coming.

The super-popular Jurassic Park franchise

Among the numerous thematic groups of militants, a special place is occupied by those of them that are dedicated to fighting some kind of dangerous animals. The progenitor of such paintings can be considered the tape of 1954 "Godzilla", which tells about the revived dinosaur.

Her success spawned a lot of remakes and sequels. However, the most successful of them was "Jurassic Park" (1993). This tape about organizing an amusement park with cloned dinosaurs has become a real event in the cinema world. And even today, after many years, it remains unsurpassed.

In 1997, the continuation of this project was filmed, in which there were much more chases and murders. And though it yieldeddebut project, this picture also became a classic.

In 2001, the third part was released, but it did not represent anything particularly interesting.

After 14 years, it was decided to restart the franchise, and soon the film "Jurassic World" (2015) was released. Although in terms of the quality of the plot and the banal logic of the development of events, he was inferior to even the least successful part III of Jurassic Park, excellent special effects and the audience's love for this topic did their job. The picture earned $1.5 billion at the box office.

The fantastic success of Jurassic World (2015) has seen a sequel in production for a summer 2018 release.

List of the most interesting Soviet action movies

Although the action movie genre is considered an invention of the Americans, adventure movies with chases and fights (which it is) were also filmed in the USSR.

Russian Empire, or Elusive Again.

The entire Elusive Avengers trilogy has been a hit, with the lead actors turning into the nation's first teen movie stars.

In 1970, another action movie was released in the USSR, which became a unique phenomenon in the cinema of that time. We are talking about the eastern "White Sun of the Desert". Like the trilogy mentioned above, it was about the heroes of the Civil War. And in the same way he was taken away for quotes.

In 1979, another Soviet action film appeared on the screens - "Pirates of the 20th century". Unlike the previous ones, it corresponded to the best Western and Eastern traditions.

In the same year, the project "The meeting place cannot be changed" was released on television. And although it is a series in format, it has all the hallmarks of a police action movie.

Among other action games of that period, it is worth mentioning the film "Don't be afraid, I'm with you". In addition to chases, fights and murders, touching songs by Bul-Bul Ogly also sounded in it.

As the last example of the most successful Soviet militants, it is worth citing the last tape with the participation of Anatoly Papanov - "The Cold Summer of 53".

The best Russian action movies

Although after the collapse of the USSR, the film industry of the Russian Federation recovered for almost a decade, later in this country they also learned how to shoot high-quality action games.

The most exciting ones are:

• "Brother 1, 2".
• "Shadowboxing".
• "Sisters".
• "Wolfhound".
• "We are from the future".
• "9 company".
• "Turkish Gambit".
• "Countdown".
• "Hot news".
• "At the game".

Almost every Russian action movie listed above has a sequel, and sometimes more than one.

However, only "Brother" turned out really successful. This indicates that in the Russian Federation they are able to shoot excellent action films that are able to interest foreign viewers, but they are not as many as we would like.