Our Favorite Action Movies

Action movies will rarely make your jaw drop at the beauty of the story, or characters, or imagery. But a lot of the time they get your fists pumping and blood rushing.

Here are some of our favorites:

Emily's Pick:

The Rock (1996), directed by Michael Bay

Picking a favorite action movie is potentially one of the hardest selections I could be asked to make. Every other genre has a clear winner for me: comedy = The Big Lebowski, 80's = Dirty Dancing, Drama = The Pianist, Sci-fi = Aliens, Action = ...? Part of be wants to bestow this honor to a childhood favorite like The Last Action Hero (it has Action in the title, helllloooooo), but another part of me wants to give it to a series with a cultish following like Fast and the Furious, but I just can't bring myself to give Paul Walker's bad acting any sort of praise. Unless he's shirtless. Then maybe.

Clearly I'm thinking too hard on this, so I'll dial it back and let my heart guide me.

Come to find out my heard has interesting/questionable taste. It leads me to Nicolas Cage. What a hunk. I know it's gross and weird, but I think crazy Nic is so dreamy. How could I ever be so smitten with a dude who made his escape from the loony bin and just happened on to a film set? Alas, the heart wants what the heart wants, thus determining my favorite action movie, The Rock. it has everything I could hope for in this kind of movie. An amazing cast: Nicky-poo, Sean Connery, Ed Harris, and so many other supporting actors with crazy credentials it's astounding. Then there's the goose bump inspiring soundtrack/score by Hans Zimmerman that literally inspires. And of course the overdose of crash/boom/bangs typical of the action world all pulled off effortlessly and accompanied by just the right amount of cheesy/corny lines to remind us all that, "Hey! This is a movie. It should be fun!"

All these things combined make The Rock my #1, and the only action movie that can distract me from homework/cleaning/social functions without fail every time USA channel airs its horribly censored version twelve times a year. I don't care if you're crazy, a vampire, a car thief, or a treasure hunter. I love you Nic Cage. You make great action movies.

Mark's Pick:

They Live (1988), directed by John Carpenter 

When asked what my favorite action movie is, the first one that came to my mind is John Carpenter's They Live. Why They Live? Simply because is great fun. I think the whole point of an action movie is to make grown men feel as excited as they were when they were ten and filled with endless excitement and imagination. That is exactly what this movie does to me, makes me feel like a kid again. 

It has aliens, violence, and stars a professional wrestler (Rowdy Roddy Piper). This movie is like an action movie version of an episode of The Twilight Zone. It's about a drifter who stumbles upon some sunglasses designed to show all of the subliminal messages that aliens are using to exploit the human obsession with wealth and the need to conform and do as they are told.... so naturally he now has to take it upon himself to save the planet. He sees the world as it really is and the world is black and white and full of aliens that look anorexic corpse's posing as humans to take over the world. 

What the movie may lack in substance and detail it makes that up with unnecessary fight scenes over putting on a pair of sunglasses and awesome one liners like " I have come here to chew bubblegum and kick ass... and I'm all out of bubblegum." No matter how many times I watch this movie it always keeps my attention and puts me in a great mood.

Joe's Pick:

True Lies (1994), directed by James Cameron

There is one thing that no one can deny: James Cameron makes great action movies. Look at the filmography--Terminator, T2: Judgement Day, Aliens, Avatar, and of course, True Lies.

This movie has it all!

-Shoot outs.

-Espionage.
-Being sexy.

-Humor.
-Skiing.
-Horse chasing a motorcycle scene. On rooftops.

-Tom Arnold.

-Helicopters.

-A few false endings.
-Bill Paxton.

-One-liners.
-World Domination.

I mean, what more do you want? On top of all this, it's fairly family friendly. I first saw it when I was about ten-years-old, and can confidently say I enjoyed it as much then as I do now. The plot--and subplots--have a lot to do with terrorism, nuclear warheads, and keeping your marriage spicy. There is about forty minutes of Schwarzenegger following his wife out of (justified) paranoia that she is cheating on him. It is kind of ironic, considering she has no idea that he is a secret spy assassin.

And that's the whole point of the movie! Betrayal! Excitement! Sure, it's overly long, but there isn't a dull moment in this one. Either Tom Arnold is saying something hilarious or Arnie is shooting someone. Remember the bathroom boxing scene? Love it love it love it.