Top 25 Action Films (Including Martial Arts)

by justasktee | created - 31 May 2012 | updated - 01 Jun 2012 | Public

25 of my favorite action movies, in alphabetical order of course :)

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1. Bangkok Dangerous (2008)

R | 99 min | Action, Crime, Thriller

24 Metascore

A hitman who's in Bangkok to pull off a series of jobs violates his personal code when he falls for a local woman and bonds with his errand boy.

Directors: Danny Pang, Oxide Chun Pang | Stars: Nicolas Cage, Charlie Yeung, Shahkrit Yamnarm, Panward Hemmanee

Votes: 58,322 | Gross: $15.28M

2. The Bourne Identity (2002)

PG-13 | 119 min | Action, Mystery, Thriller

68 Metascore

A man is picked up by a fishing boat, bullet-riddled and suffering from amnesia, before racing to elude assassins and attempting to regain his memory.

Director: Doug Liman | Stars: Franka Potente, Matt Damon, Chris Cooper, Clive Owen

Votes: 576,627 | Gross: $121.66M

Including Supremacy & Ultimatum

3. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000)

PG-13 | 120 min | Action, Adventure, Drama

94 Metascore

A young Chinese warrior steals a sword from a famed swordsman and then escapes into a world of romantic adventure with a mysterious man in the frontier of the nation.

Director: Ang Lee | Stars: Chow Yun-Fat, Michelle Yeoh, Ziyi Zhang, Chang Chen

Votes: 281,723 | Gross: $128.08M

4. Faster (2010)

R | 98 min | Action, Crime, Drama

44 Metascore

An ex-con gets on a series of apparently unrelated killings. He gets tracked by a veteran cop with secrets of his own and an egocentric hit man.

Director: George Tillman Jr. | Stars: Dwayne Johnson, Billy Bob Thornton, Maggie Grace, Mauricio Lopez

Votes: 112,065 | Gross: $23.24M

5. Fearless (2006)

PG-13 | 104 min | Action, Biography, Drama

70 Metascore

A biography of Chinese Martial Arts Master Huo Yuanjia, who is the founder and spiritual guru of the Jin Wu Sports Federation.

Director: Ronny Yu | Stars: Jet Li, Li Sun, Yong Dong, Yun Qu

Votes: 78,724 | Gross: $24.63M

6. The Forbidden Kingdom (2008)

PG-13 | 104 min | Action, Adventure, Fantasy

57 Metascore

A discovery made by a kung fu obsessed American teen sends him on an adventure to ancient China, where he joins up with a band of martial arts warriors in order to free the imprisoned Monkey King.

Director: Rob Minkoff | Stars: Jackie Chan, Jet Li, Michael Angarano, Juana Collignon

Votes: 109,580 | Gross: $52.08M

7. Hitman (I) (2007)

R | 94 min | Action, Crime, Thriller

35 Metascore

A gun-for-hire known only as Agent 47 hired by a group known only as 'The Organization' is ensnared in a political conspiracy, which finds him pursued by both Interpol and the Russian military as he treks across Russia and Eastern Europe.

Director: Xavier Gens | Stars: Timothy Olyphant, Dougray Scott, Olga Kurylenko, Robert Knepper

Votes: 177,825 | Gross: $39.69M

8. Kiss of the Dragon (2001)

R | 98 min | Action, Crime, Thriller

58 Metascore

A betrayed intelligence officer enlists the aid of a prostitute to prove his innocence from a deadly conspiracy while returning a favor to her.

Director: Chris Nahon | Stars: Jet Li, Bridget Fonda, Tchéky Karyo, Ric Young

Votes: 66,638 | Gross: $36.85M

9. Law Abiding Citizen (2009)

R | 109 min | Action, Crime, Drama

34 Metascore

A frustrated man decides to take justice into his own hands after a plea bargain sets one of his family's killers free.

Director: F. Gary Gray | Stars: Gerard Butler, Jamie Foxx, Leslie Bibb, Colm Meaney

Votes: 320,100 | Gross: $73.34M

10. Live Free or Die Hard (2007)

PG-13 | 128 min | Action, Thriller

69 Metascore

John McClane and a young hacker join forces to take down master cyber-terrorist Thomas Gabriel in Washington D.C.

Director: Len Wiseman | Stars: Bruce Willis, Justin Long, Timothy Olyphant, Maggie Q

Votes: 420,800 | Gross: $134.53M

11. The Matrix (1999)

R | 136 min | Action, Sci-Fi

73 Metascore

When a beautiful stranger leads computer hacker Neo to a forbidding underworld, he discovers the shocking truth--the life he knows is the elaborate deception of an evil cyber-intelligence.

Directors: Lana Wachowski, Lilly Wachowski | Stars: Keanu Reeves, Laurence Fishburne, Carrie-Anne Moss, Hugo Weaving

Votes: 2,055,100 | Gross: $171.48M

12. Natural Born Killers (1994)

R | 119 min | Action, Crime, Romance

74 Metascore

Two victims of traumatized childhoods become lovers and psychopathic serial murderers irresponsibly glorified by the mass media.

Director: Oliver Stone | Stars: Woody Harrelson, Juliette Lewis, Tom Sizemore, Rodney Dangerfield

Votes: 251,934 | Gross: $50.28M

13. Never Back Down (2008)

PG-13 | 113 min | Action, Drama, Sport

39 Metascore

A frustrated and conflicted teenager arrives at a new high school to discover an underground fight club, and meets a classmate who begins to coerce him into fighting.

Director: Jeff Wadlow | Stars: Sean Faris, Djimon Hounsou, Amber Heard, Cam Gigandet

Votes: 106,474 | Gross: $24.85M

14. The Next Three Days (2010)

PG-13 | 133 min | Action, Crime, Drama

52 Metascore

A married couple's life is turned upside down when the wife is accused of a murder.

Director: Paul Haggis | Stars: Russell Crowe, Elizabeth Banks, Liam Neeson, Michael Buie

Votes: 206,707 | Gross: $21.15M

15. Ninja Assassin (2009)

R | 99 min | Action, Thriller

34 Metascore

A young ninja turns his back on the orphanage that raised him, leading to a confrontation with a fellow ninja from the clan.

Director: James McTeigue | Stars: Rain, Rick Yune, Naomie Harris, Jonathan Chan-Pensley

Votes: 75,622 | Gross: $38.11M

16. The One (2001)

PG-13 | 87 min | Action, Sci-Fi, Thriller

25 Metascore

A rogue Multiverse agent goes on a manhunt for alternate versions of himself, getting stronger with each kill. Only the last version of himself, an LASD cop, can stop his crusade before he becomes "The One".

Director: James Wong | Stars: Jet Li, Carla Gugino, Delroy Lindo, Jason Statham

Votes: 96,120 | Gross: $43.91M

17. Ong-Bak: The Thai Warrior (2003)

R | 105 min | Action, Crime, Thriller

69 Metascore

When the head of a statue sacred to a village is stolen, a young martial artist goes to the big city and finds himself taking on the underworld to retrieve it.

Director: Prachya Pinkaew | Stars: Tony Jaa, Phetthai Vongkumlao, Pumwaree Yodkamol, Suchao Pongwilai

Votes: 78,212 | Gross: $4.56M

Actually all 3 of them :)

18. Pulp Fiction (1994)

R | 154 min | Crime, Drama

95 Metascore

The lives of two mob hitmen, a boxer, a gangster and his wife, and a pair of diner bandits intertwine in four tales of violence and redemption.

Director: Quentin Tarantino | Stars: John Travolta, Uma Thurman, Samuel L. Jackson, Bruce Willis

Votes: 2,222,316 | Gross: $107.93M

19. RED (2010)

PG-13 | 111 min | Action, Comedy, Crime

60 Metascore

When his peaceful life is threatened by a high-tech assassin, former black-ops agent Frank Moses reassembles his old team in a last-ditch effort to survive and uncover his assailants.

Director: Robert Schwentke | Stars: Bruce Willis, Helen Mirren, Morgan Freeman, Mary-Louise Parker

Votes: 324,049 | Gross: $90.38M

20. The Rundown (2003)

PG-13 | 104 min | Action, Adventure, Comedy

59 Metascore

A tough aspiring chef is hired to bring home a mobster's son from the Amazon but becomes involved in the fight against an oppressive town operator and the search for a legendary treasure.

Director: Peter Berg | Stars: Dwayne Johnson, Seann William Scott, Christopher Walken, Rosario Dawson

Votes: 143,113 | Gross: $47.73M

21. Running Scared (2006)

R | 122 min | Action, Crime, Drama

41 Metascore

A low-ranking thug is entrusted by his crime boss to dispose of a gun that killed corrupt cops, but things get out of control when the gun ends up in wrong hands.

Director: Wayne Kramer | Stars: Paul Walker, Cameron Bright, Chazz Palminteri, Vera Farmiga

Votes: 103,728 | Gross: $6.86M

22. Shooter (I) (2007)

R | 124 min | Action, Drama, Thriller

53 Metascore

A marksman living in exile is coaxed back into action after hearing of a plot to kill the President. After being-double crossed for the attempt and on the run, he sets out for the real killer and the truth.

Director: Antoine Fuqua | Stars: Mark Wahlberg, Michael Peña, Rhona Mitra, Danny Glover

Votes: 355,898 | Gross: $47.00M

23. Suicide Kings (1997)

R | 106 min | Comedy, Crime, Drama

43 Metascore

A group of youngsters kidnap a respected Mafia figure.

Director: Peter O'Fallon | Stars: Christopher Walken, Denis Leary, Sean Patrick Flanery, Mark Watson

Votes: 29,195 | Gross: $1.69M

24. Taken (I) (2008)

PG-13 | 90 min | Action, Crime, Thriller

51 Metascore

A retired CIA agent travels across Europe and relies on his old skills to save his estranged daughter, who has been kidnapped while on a trip to Paris.

Director: Pierre Morel | Stars: Liam Neeson, Maggie Grace, Famke Janssen, Leland Orser

Votes: 634,850 | Gross: $145.00M

25. Unleashed (2005)

R | 103 min | Action, Crime, Thriller

58 Metascore

A man enslaved by the mob since childhood and raised into behaving like a human attack dog escapes his captors and attempts to start a new life.

Director: Louis Leterrier | Stars: Jet Li, Bob Hoskins, Morgan Freeman, Kerry Condon

Votes: 108,119 | Gross: $24.52M



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