OldBoy

Usually, i don't post these list threads, but i love action and this lists covers it all. so many greats. my movie of all time, #1 Die Hard, their #2, OldBoy #57, The Killer, 28. Some great stuff and i want to see them all again, now!

agree, disagree with list? others you'd add?

140 Essential Action Movies to Watch Now

GoldenJCJ

Norm de Plume

I'm not close to an action-film completist, but one glaring omission is Once Upon a Time in China, possibly the greatest of all martial arts films.
The Killer, despite the almost-ruinous final 20 minutes, should probably be at #1 because what precedes the intolerably schmaltzy, ineptly-filmed final shootout is so unsurpassably brilliant and innovative. I would almost go so far as to say the first 85-90 minutes of the film is high up among the most flawlessly realized stretches of film I have seen in any genre.

JoeySeven

Not a bad list. we excluded the genres of war, sports, Western, and samurai. #70 13 Assassins ?Would not have Fury Road number #1 on my list.

Would make my top #140,but not sure what I would bump just yet.
Kick ass
Watchmen
Sword of Doom(blah no samurai movies)

Guardians of the Galaxy

Deadpool

Avengers: Infinity War (2018)

The Last Boy Scout (1991)

Batman Begins (2005)

TheMovieman

Actually do think The Peacemaker is underrated.

B5Erik

I don't have a problem with about 130 of the 140 titles on the list, but the order is all jacked up.

Ash Ketchum

I counted 43 out of the 140 that I would consider essential.

A lot of those sci-fi/horror/superhero titles I wouldn't classify as "action films," e.g. SUPERMAN (1978).

Also, aside from BULLITT, there was virtually nothing I noted from before 1970. Using the broad parameters employed by the list, I would add THE WILD BUNCH, THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN, HIGH SIERRA, WHITE HEAT and VERA CRUZ, to name a few. And samurai films like SWORD OF DOOM and the first couple of LONE WOLF AND CUB films.

Plus, I would have thrown in a few more essential kung fu films like WHEN TAEKWONDO STRIKES, BROKEN OATH, THE FIVE VENOMS or 8 DIAGRAM POLE FIGHTER.

GoldenJCJ

Norm de Plume

2017's Revenge, which is utter rubbish, shouldn't be near any listing of top films.

OldBoy

wouldn't that disqualify it? it's not a list of every action movie ever, list of essential. if it's rubbish, i would assume not essential...

dom56

List need more Korean action movie, Shiri, The Man From Nowhere, I Saw The Devil

OldBoy

Is I Saw the Devil really action? More psychological. Yes, it’s graphic, but even OldBoy is more psychological even though great (hallway) action set pieces, but kinda skirting the genre. I dunno...

Norm de Plume

I don't know quite what you're saying, but isn't this in essence a top-140 action-film list? It's questionable whether Revenge even falls within the genre, but either way, I thought it was absolutely dreadful. Old-as-the-hills premise, not plausible for a second, and not much action (though barrels of blood).
The unoriginality isn't necessarily a sticking point, but the brainlessness is: when a person falls a hundred feet off a cliff and is impaled on a tree, and not only survives but is unparalyzed, her internal organs undamaged by the wood that passed through her torso, and she then manages to extricate herself from the stump and patch herself up, after which she not only outruns and outwits her pursuers, but slaughters them with the strength of ten ordinary, uninjured men or women, my eyes will have rolled permanently up into the back of my skull, never to return to their sockets again.

TomOpus

I wonder why they couldn't come up with 10 more movies to make it a 150-movie list.

Original Desmond

I think i've seen every theatrically released action movie since the 90s, so only the obscure and some foreign films may have evaded my radar

GoldenJCJ

Original Desmond

Mad max fury road no 1 ? what a joke lol

TomOpus

That would be better.

dex14

csant

Man from No where is one of my favorite movies of all times. Should be on the list 100%. I saw the Devil should be on it, since Old Boy is on it.

Paff

No shit. I keep seeing that piece of crap on a lot of top ten lists from 2018, and it was just horrid.

Lead actress is awfully easy on the eyes, but that does not a good movie make.

OldBoy

And I wanted to see it too. Still will, eventually, but that’s disappointing. Got good reviews...

Nick Danger

My first reaction was that maybe nothing before 1970 would be considered an action movie today. But my second reaction was that I've just finished watching the 14-part serial Dick Tracy Returns, and it was wall-to-wall action, and it was great fun to watch.

devilshalo

No Tsui Hark Time and Tide, no sale.

JimRochester

Although Sci-Fi by nature are action movies I usually separate Sci-Fi and Action/Adventure as two distinct genres. Thought it must have been some sort of mistake. They had Revenge (2018) list with an RT score of 93%. Sure as shit it really has that critic score in spite of only 56% of audiences liking it. That movie was one of the worst I've seen in years. About half my shelf of action movies aren't on their list. So yeah, it's a list alright.