Action films have occupied a major part of the moviegoing public’s interest for almost as long as the medium itself has been around. There’s just something timelessly alluring about watching exciting events and suspense fueled setpieces stretching the limit of spectacle.
Though the genre’s primary concern is in its namesake, the added layer of a compelling and well-crafted narrative elevates the action-based sequences to new heights, and from the territory of “great action film” to “great film.” These ten films found critical and/or financial success due to their amazing and exciting action combined with a story that could debatably be considered superior to that of Citizen Kane.
The Raid 2
After the success of the original film, Gareth Evans and crew returned for a bigger and better second helping of gritty bone-smashing violence. An expansion in nearly every department, the second installment also featured a much heartier story as opposed to its predecessor, telling a sprawling and ambitious crime saga over its well over two-hour runtime. The action in the film is as hard to watch as it is impossible not to, while the accompanying story arc is emotionally satisfying and complex enough to warrant attention.
Inception
While the plot of Christopher Nolan’s seminal blockbuster might not be as complicated and layered as it seems on the surface, the film nevertheless handles its dream narratives with just the right blend of exposition and visual spectacle. Nolan’s ability to craft and pair brilliant action scenes with equally as rich and investing scenes of dialogue and more nuanced moments of quiet make him one of the best action auteurs currently working. A movie that almost everyone loved in 2010 that has gone on to achieve ‘modern classic’ status, Inception is Nolan’s crown jewel of the decade. One of them, at least…
Blade Runner
One of the most beloved and dissected mainstream sci-fi flicks to have ever graced the silver screen, Ridley Scott’s cyber-noir classic has had a lasting visual and narrative impact on countless dark and gritty science-fiction films since its original release in 1982. Harrison Ford’s turn as Deckard, a hard-boiled former cop turned android hunter.
Scott’s film is a true vision of a bleak and grimy future mixed with Vangelis’ excellent score and a truly heady and cerebral mix of big questions and themes that make the film as philosophically fascinating as it is visually singular.
Heat
Michael Mann is one of action cinema’s most enduring and consistent talents. Over the course of his storied career, Mann has produced a number of classic films like The Last of the Mohicans and Collateral. However, Mann’s undeniable opus is this 1995 heist epic starring Al Pacino and Robert DeNiro. The action setpieces in the film, including the iconic armored car heist, are prodigiously filmed. What truly makes the film one of the best of the ’90s is the script that is built around these hypnotic robbery sequences, a hyperintelligent screenplay that weaves an ethically complex and satisfying crime saga throughout its 3-hour runtime.
V for Vendetta
Owing its general plot throughline to the brilliant limited comic series by Alan Moore and David Lloyd, this 2006 action-thriller is one of the ‘coolest’ movies to land on this list. Everything about V for Vendetta is slick, no doubt thanks in part to the input of The Wachowski Sisters, and the film lands some of the most purely exciting fight sequences of any action film released the same decade.
Both a high minded political thriller and a vigilante action romp, the film features one of Hugo Weaving’s best performances as a masked man on a mission to destroy the English bureaucracy.
Skyfall
One of the darkest and most narratively layered Bond films ever made, Skyfall managed to elevate the franchise’s formula to new artistic heights thanks to the direction of Sam Mendes. The film’s story focuses on a much more personal journey for 007, as he globe-trots from one gorgeously photographed location to the next in search of answers about his past. An unusually mature and contemplative Bond film, Mendes still finds time to give the audience some visceral action through car chases and grand shootouts. One of the best in the canon.
The Dark Knight
Christopher Nolan had one hell of a decade run from 2001’s Memento all the way to Inception. Though every film made in this span of ten years was acclaimed and cherished in some way, it was 2008’s The Dark Knight that remains Nolan’s true masterwork of the time. The film was a cultural phenomenon due to the death of Heath Ledger and the word-of-mouth about its quality. The Dark Knight is one of the few films that exceeded the hype, ascending beyond the superhero genre to become a film widely regarded as one of the best of all time.
Oldboy
Oh boy, Oldboy. One of the major foreign crossover films of the early 2000s, Park Chan-wook’s horror/action hybrid garnered worldwide acclaim from critics and audiences. Mixing psychological horror elements with mind-melting fight choreography, the film’s true strength is in its unsettling narrative surrounding a man locked away for years without cause only to one day be set free, equally without cause.
What follows is a blood-battered revenge thriller with some of cinema’s best twists. If you’ve still never seen it–the less you know, the better the experience.
Léon: The Professional
Léon: The Professional is a weird film, an oddly unsettling mix of hitman violence with the warmth of an unlikely friendship story. Luc Besson’s breakout Hollywood film features three amazing lead performances from Jean Renoir, Natalie Portman, and especially Gary Oldman as the antagonist. Renoir plays the titular hitman who engages in a bizarre companionship with Portman’s preteen girl who lives in a neighboring apartment. Besson’s trademark stylized action is present here, infused with a more emotional grounding than his later works, thus making this one of his more well-rounded and better-executed visions.
The Matrix
There’s no question that the storyline, and sheer novel central concept, of the Wachowski’s 1999 surprise hit is what has caused the film to endure in the pop culture repertoire. The mix of tech-noir action scenes with the heady riffing on the nature of reality had the nation existentially squirming while sitting on the edge of their seats watching Keanu Reeves flip around in a black trenchcoat. The influence of the film’s script and cinematography are still rippling through today’s action and science-fiction films, and phrases like “red pill or blue pill” have become part of the cultural lexicon. Truly an iconic watershed for action films, The Matrix‘s story is decidedly better than Citizen Kane‘s.
