Top 25 Action Movies Ever Made

[trinityvixen]

Whenever you make a list like that, you're going to get into trouble. I would have though Entertainment Weekly would have learned its lesson after it printed the Top 25 Sci-Fi movies ever and then had to print a subsequent article about the ones that necessarily got left out a week later. Maybe it's a slow news month and they're looking to do a follow-up article. Anyway, here's the list:
1. Die Hard
2. Aliens
3. Raiders of the Lost Ark
4. The Road Warrior
5. The Matrix
6. Seven Samurai
7. Gladiator
8. Saving Private Ryan
9. Hard-Boiled
10. Terminator 2: Judgment Day
11. Speed
12. The Empire Strikes Back
13. The Wild Bunch
14. RoboCop
15. Enter the Dragon
16. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
17. The Bourne Supremacy
18. The Adventures of Robin Hood
19. Goldfinger
20. Kill Bill Vol.1
21. Spider-Man 2
22. Predator
23. Druken Master II
24. Lethal Weapon
25. The Incredibles

The preponderance of sci-fi in that list is pretty interesting. I won't argue with the #1 choice--it's a fair call, you ask me, that Die Hard is the best action movie of all time. I do take offense at Predator lurking so close to the bottom (behind Spider-Man 2!?!? The fuck?), though, upon further recollection, Predator isn't even that much of an action movie. It's more a thriller-horror movie--bunch of bad-asses being stalked through South American jungles by an alien hunting them for sport. There's suprisingly little action in that movie, save for the end. I think there's exactly one punch thrown. Still doesn't seem right some how.

Mostly, I take greater offense at the characterization of Sarah Connor in Terminator 2 as mannish (this was brough up to show how the buff and beautiful Ellen Ripley needed not to be bikini-clad heroine nor "mannish" in Aliens to be tough and awesome). Sarah is "mannish" in what sense, exactly? Because she has muscles? Because she acts to destroy evil instead of moralizing about it? I'm pissed that her ability to be a soldier is somehow determined to be her aping "manly" attributes. Would that John Connor (by T3) had half of her chutzpah.

I also don't recognize Saving Private Ryan as an action film. And, as an action film, it is NOT better than Speed. So, nyah!

Comments

[teneda.livejournal.com]

I fail to see how Speed is even an action movie. I mean, not that many bullets/swords/fists/feet flying, afterall. I'd think it was more of a suspense/thriller in my book.

[trinityvixen.livejournal.com]

Things blowing up tend to be action-y. As far as pacing goes, it's much more an action movie than a thriller.

[ivy03.livejournal.com]

Well, they had my top three action films (Die Hard, T2, Matrix) and a bunch more that if I'd stop to think about it I'd've put on the list (like Raiders and Gladiator). I am confused by the characterization of Empire Strikes Back as Action. There's a lot of sci fi on this list, but a film like T2 or Aliens really is an action film at heart. Empire is a space opera at heart.

I'm guessing the "mannish" characterization comes partly out of a contrast between that and the first Terminator movie where she wears pink and screams a lot.

[trinityvixen.livejournal.com]

We talked about this today, but I second the call of WTF on Empire.

T2 and Aliens were definitely action films--Cameron does those very well, obviously. And still ::shakes fist:: over characterizing Linda Hamilton as "mannish." Grr. Argh.

[kent-allard-jr.livejournal.com]

Bah. Too much recent shit in there, not enough seminal works that are little watched today but had huge influence on the genre. No Bonnie and Clyde, for example, and no Bullitt, despite the fact that the latter invented the modern chase scene. And shit, I know they included The Empire Strikes Back, but Star Wars was, along with Jaws, the first of the action-movie blockbusters. Empire was a better movie but A New Hope was a revelation. Everything was different after Star Wars; just look at changes in pacing alone...

[wellgull.livejournal.com]

Yeah, anything that was in theatres in the last 15 years should be immediately disqualified from a list like this. It's too fresh in our minds and we can't really have an objective perspective.

And some of these just seem like sops to various fan communities. I mean, Enter the Dragon is great, and so is Legend of Drunken Master, but top 25 action movies of all time? I really think of the latter more as a kung fu comedy... and I suspect there are other Bruce Lee movies that would be better/more iconic for his style, even if not as well known.

But what am I going on about this for? It's a top-25 list, meant to sell magazines and keep people occupied thinking about movies they'll have seen or at least heard of. It's not like it's a film-critical scholarly article or something :)

[trinityvixen.livejournal.com]

I meant to comment on the bias here towards recent films. It's always that way--the magazine itself isn't hardly 15 years old, so they don't know from old movies. As far as action movies go, I'd totally say that Star Wars is more an action movie than Empire, but Jedi had the most action over all. This list didn't preface what broke the mold so much, so I'd have put Jedi and no SW on there myself, though I do get why you say SW.

[droidguy1119.livejournal.com]

I told you Keanu Reeves is an intelligent guy. Sorry if you posted about this earlier and I haven't gotten down to it yet, but he has turned down the offer to be in Watchmen.

[trinityvixen.livejournal.com]

Oh Thank JEEBUS. Thank you thank you God.

I sincerely hope he turned it down for the right reasons--like the fact that there's no one in it he could play--but it doesn't matter so long as he DID.

[xannoside.livejournal.com]

1. Die Hard Deserves to be up here, but probably not #1
2. Aliens This one is perfect here.
3. Raiders of the Lost Ark Why isn't this one #1
4. The Road Warrior Like Die Hard, should definitely be on here, not sure about the position
5. The Matrix Yes.
6. Seven Samurai I don't see this one really as an action movie.
7. Gladiator I suppose. What was good about this movie wasn't specifically the action IMHO, it was the spectacle. Not quite the same thing
8. Saving Private Ryan Just like Seven Samurai, not really an action movie. If this is an action movie, why isn't the Dirty Dozen on here?
9. Hard-Boiled fair enough
10. Terminator 2: Judgment Day I would put this one higher
11. Speed Why is this even on here? There's barely any action at all.
12. The Empire Strikes Back Much as I regret to say it, this one is also not an action movie. People don't watch it for the action.
13. The Wild Bunch Okay, this one I agree with
14. RoboCop While definitely an action movie, it wouldn't be in my top 25
15. Enter the Dragon I would agree with this. It certainly meets the punch requirement. :P
16. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon .....wtf?!
17. The Bourne Supremacy I'd have to think this one over.
18. The Adventures of Robin Hood This one counts
19. Goldfinger As opposed to all the other Bond movies?
20. Kill Bill Vol.1 This one has to be on here
21. Spider-Man 2 They have a lot of films with action sequences which aren't really action movies. This one is only an action movie because no other label really fits.
22. Predator This one definitely counts
23. Druken Master II I am mystified how this one, and no other chinese king-fu flick, made it on. What about Once Upon a Time in China, or Ong Bak, or something?
24. Lethal Weapon Absolutely
25. The Incredibles Again, only because of lack of label. You could just as easily call this family-adventure.

This is a pretty sad list, and aside from a bare handful, mostly seem picked out of a bag that was labeled "action". Either that or someone got confused over which word was more important "best" or "action". Where's the Dirty Dozen, or the Warriors, or the Alamo, or The Rock, or even Pirates?

[wellgull.livejournal.com]

Crouching Tiger is a Chinese kung-fu movie. (Well, unless you want to call it Taiwanese I guess.) Of course it's more than that too, but Ang Lee was definitely trying to make a kung fu movie. Otherwise I think you're pretty on.

[xannoside.livejournal.com]

I would argue that Wu Xia doesn't quite fit the "action" category. It's a little too specifically stylized, and its other themes are a little too important and strong. It's why I think other major kung-fu/martial arts films fit the ticket much better.

Otherwise, both Hero and the entire LOTR trilogy need to be on here before Crouching Tiger would be.

[wellgull.livejournal.com]

Oh sure, there are certainly other things that should be here. All I meant was there's more than one Chinese kung fu movie on the list, is all. I would totally have picked Ong Bak before CTHD or Legend of Drunken Master both, but not enough people in the US are familiar with it I guess...

[trinityvixen.livejournal.com]

Yeah, Ong Bak had a lot more action than CTHD because the point was people hitting each other to hurt each other and someone trying to accomplish a goal through said exercise of pain. I think Hero and Crouching Tiger were too operatic to really be considered "action." They're so balletic that the "action" is really dance. As dance theater, second to none in recent memory.

[trinityvixen.livejournal.com]

With regards to Speed, I'd say it wasn't that action-y with events, but it definitely had the action movie's pacing, with the steady rush of impending doom punctuated by explosions and contorted efforts to put people in peril. In fact, for pacing along, Speed's one of the greatest action movies there is.

Spider-Man 2 was more an adventure movie, just like Indiana Jones. The sense of play and boys-being-boys isn't quite the same as something like Hard-Boiled, T2, or Die Hard.