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.

The Best Fight Scenes: Get Your Punch On

We all know a well crafted fight scene will get the testosterone pumping. It'll make an action movie legitimate. A drama movie build suspense. Here are a few scenes scenes that Jeff and I picked as our favorites. Shoot outs are fun, as are sword fights, but the majority of the fights we've picked for this deal solely with fists, and sometimes a hammer. Get ready for it.

Joe's Picks

-OldBoy: The Hallway Fight

At this point in the movie we know that Dae-Su Oh is a badass. Now we really see just how tough he is while he takes on an entire pack of thugs. We have seen one against many a few times (notably in Matrix: Reloaded, which was a let down what with Keanu's N64 face), but when Chan-Wook Park does a panning side shot we all think of the original NES (and this time it's a good thing.) Dae-Su's weapon of choice is a yellow hammer. A yellow hammer. None of the thugs have guns, instead they carry chains, sticks, bats, and knives. Half-way through this fight he gets stabbed in the back with a giant knife, and the attacker leaves the blade in. He drops to his knees, seemingly surrendering. We all think the fight is over. Whoops! Wrong! He continues fighting the mob with a long knife protruding from his back. Did I mention this goes on for four minutes? And it's in one take, one shot.

-Eastern Promises: Sauna Fight

This is what happens when you put amazing material in the hands of David Cronenberg. Nikolai (Viggo Mortensen) walks into a sauna. He drops his towel and sits down, getting ready to relax. Fool! Two thugs walk in after him, fully clothed with knives. Nikolai knows what's up, and the punching ensues. One naked guy versus two and they have weapons. One of the best parts of this is when Nikolai punches his wiener will helicopter into the lower frame. What's manlier than penises? Not a lot. Maybe not even anything. The lack of dialogue gives this over-the-top scene a sense of grounding. We can believe the three-way fight because of the grunts. While he tries to fight the two thugs he gets cut up, but in the end, we know exactly who not to fuck with.

-They Live: The Alley Fight

This fight goes on for six minutes. My favorite parts are the one liners and the fact that every time we think it's over, it's not. They just keep fighting. It's like watching the WWE version of The Return of the King. Roddy Piper and Keith David show us how the working man really fights in an alley.

Jeff's Picks

-Fight Club: Edward Norton & Brad Pitt's parking lot fight.

This fight is awesome for many reasons. After kicking back a few pitchers and concluding that consumerism is ruining humanity, Tyler Durden has Norton punch him with the reasoning they’ve never been in a fight and need to so they can be considered men. After a botched punch to the ear of Durden, the two engage in a parking lot fight where knees, elbows, and punches are thrown and plenty of blood is shed. The breaking of the monotony of everyday life transforms Norton. He goes from being a “do what you’re told,” insomnia ridden, support-group-attending loser to a no-fucks-giving badass and all it took was one punch. There’s nothing fancy about it, just a booze fueled punchfest with

himself in the parking lot.

Here is a taste:

-Scott Pilgrim vs the World: Scott Pilgrim & Ramona Flowers vs Roxy Richter.

I had seven fights to choose from and this is the winner. If you haven’t seen the film, it revolves around Scott Pilgrim battling Ramona Flowers’ seven evil exes to win her hand. Roxy is ex number five and boy is she a doozy. Taking place in a bar after the Sex Bob-Omb/The Clash at Demonhead show, Ramona's 5th evil ex Roxy appears and challenges Scott, but Ramona intervenes and the two do battle. After stating that this is a “league game” Scott must face Roxy but cannot bring himself to hit a girl because “girls are soft.” Ramona controls his arms and legs and Roxy is ultimately defeated after being tickled on her knee (her weakness) and climaxes. The scene, along with the entire movie, is littered with jokes, one liners (Well, I'm a little biFURIOUS), and video game references. Coupled with an awesome soundtrack and visual effects, this fight scene is pretty silly, but just as awesome. And who could ignore the fact that Roxy is played by Mae Whitman, who played Ann on Arrested Development…awesome.

-The Dark Knight Rises: Bane & Batman finally meet in the sewer.

SPOILER ALERT: If you haven’t seen TDKR

yet, get off your computer, drive to a theater, sit down, watch. I’m serious.

What happens when the immovable object meets the unstoppable force? This scene, that’s what. Bane, the baddest man in the history of the Batman films has shown that no fucks are given and he will beat anybody who stands in his way. Before their encounter, Alfred shows Bruce the footage of Bane fighting and Bruce responds with, “I’ll fight harder, I always do.” When Bruce and Bane finally meet, there is little discussion before engaging in fisticuffs. Bane immediately exclaims, “Peace has taken your strength! Victory has defeated YOU!” and proceeds to beat the living shit out of Batman. He makes it well known that the usual tricks and darkness of the Batman do not work on him all while ridiculing Bruce. Bane then shows Bruce he has made a lair under the R & D department of Wayne Enterprises and when Bruce finally stands to fight again, Bane says “I was beginning to wonder which would break first, your mind or your body” and breaks Bruce’s back. This scene is one of my favorite moments for a myriad of reasons. It stays pretty true to the Knightfall moment, except Bruce doesn’t become a cripple. Bane shows he’s not afraid of Batman leaves Bruce in a desperate state. The whole movie has a theme of breaking points and Bruce’s breaking point is physical and never mental, and that is what Bane is hell bent on exposing. Great fighting with better dialogue sets up a great model of how any hero movie fights should go.