Top 10 Best / Worst Action Films

We’ve all got them somewhere on our DVD or Blu Ray shelf an action film so bad it’s actually very good. We love to watch these over and over again, we love the cheesy one liners, the over elaborate deaths and gratuitous sex and violence. We can quote most lines from the film and we sometimes picture ourselves in the role when looking at ourselves in the mirror.

I have many actions films on my shelf, so here for you is my top 10 best-worst action films. Please feel free to leave a comment about this article, I would love to hear what you have to say and will do my best to respond!

10. Hard Target (1993) – Jean Claude Vann Damme is one of my favourite action heroes. Since bursting onto the scene all those years ago in ‘No Retreat No surrender’ and then with the hit ‘Bloodsport’ which really put him on the map, Van Damme has made many great flicks. We could sit here and reel them all off, but for sheer cheese and death count look no further than Hard’Target. Directed by Jon Woo this film was laughable as it was brilliant.

The standout scene for me is when Van Damme is balancing on the seat of motor bike heading for a collision with a truck filled with bad guys, who are firing automatic weapons at him (he doesn’t get hit for those concerned) That, and the part where he knocks out a rattle snake only to use it moments later as a devious trap. Films like this don’t really get made anymore, Van Damme I salute you!

Hard Target Trailer

9. Tango and Cash (1989) – Not one of Sly Stallone’s break through films but certainly one that should not be forgotten in the world of action. Teamed with Kurt Russell of all people, the two are missed matched in one of the many buddy cop films. These never get tiresome no matter how bad the plot as Stallone and Russell battle the bad guys after being framed for murder. There are the typical one liners and as for action it never really lets up.

It gets to a point where it is so bad you just have to keep watching, best scene for me is when Stallone and Russell play good cop bad cop. If you’re a true action fan and you like a bit of cheese then this one is for you!

Tango and Cash Trailer

8. Predator 2 (1990) – The first one was simply brilliant, what was not to love about big Arnie running around the jungle doing battle with an Alien from another planet. So it was really only a matter of time before they brought the fight to the city. Arnie never came back for the sequel and so it was left to Danny Glover to fill the shoes, and he doesn’t disappoint as archetypal action hero’s go.

As with the first one, his band of merry men are picked off one by one until it is left for Glover and the Predator to fight it out to the death, well at least that’s what you think. The ending was poor by standards, that said you can’t have Schwarenegger’s Predator on the shelf without Glover’s sequel.

Predator 2 Trailer

7. Demolition Man (1993) -  Another top 10 apperence for Stallone here (and he may have one more yet) but this film just had to be there for me. Demolition Man was another fairly successful action outing for Sly, who was making a real effort in the early 90′s (OK maybe with the exception of ‘Stop or My Mom Will Shoot’) In this film he was yet again in trouble with the law and was cryogenically frozen along with bad boy Wesley Snipes, another one from actions elite.

The two are thawed out in the future where they spend the entire film demolishing it! Stallone again is full of one liners and is yet again paired with a sidekick, this time in the form of the rather tasty Sandra Bullock. The action scenes are brilliant all culminating with a high tempo fight sequence at the end.

Demolition Man Trailer

6. Sudden Death (1995) - Another one for Van Damme, this one is even more ridiculous than Hard Target but at the same time is so good! Van Damme plays Darren McCord a former fireman who is busted down to checking fire alarms after a tragic accident left him as the blame. As with many action films the hero is in the wrong place at the wrong time as a team of terrorists hold the Vice President hostage during an ice hockey match.

And so it is up to Van Damme to save the day, the classic scene for me is when he’s thrust into the middle of the ice hockey game as a goalkeeper only to produce one of he saves of the match! That was after he high kicked a guy in the neck wearing full ice hockey gear!

Sudden Death Trailer

5. The Transporter (2002) – Jason Statham had made a few previous films prior to The Transporter but it was this one that really put him on the map as the post 90s action hero. Here Statham plays Frank Martin who hires himself out as a no questions asked transporter delivering whatever packages are asked of him. The plot is very weak and it is really only the exciting and breathtaking action sequences, see fight in the bus depot and not forgetting the car chases that really save the film.

It’s written by Luc Besson and directed by Corey Yuen so in terms of choreography it was in the hands of a couple of action legends, just a shame they forgot about the storyline. Best scene, Frank Martin deflecting a missile with a tea tray.

The Transporter Trailer

4. Executive Decision (1996) – Segal was at his peak at the end of the 80s going into the early 90s, he’d already had the huge hit ‘Under Siege’ and followed it with a slightly below average sequel. So when Executive Decision came out it was another chance to see Segal kicking ass again. Unfortunately (Spoiler Alert) no one was expecting him to only last 20 minutes before he was killed off. I could have walked out then, Segal dead! No surely not.

Alas he was, not even the most elaborate of plot could have brought him back from that. So it was up to Kurt Russell’s intelligence agent to lead a crack squad aboard a hijacked Boeing 747. The film did have some tense moments but was lacking in dramatic action sequences, and that was probably its downfall. That said I enjoyed it, more so for the occasional non believable moments that always seem to filter action films these days.

Executive Decision Trailer

3. Con Air (1997) -  Nicholas Cage has never really struck me as an action hero but he has done failry well in the genre, that said he has produced some shockers! But Con Air was part of a trilogy of great action films for Cage. He’d already done The Rock and after the success of this one he teamed up with Jon Travolta for Face/Off.

Here he plays Cameron Poe hitching a lift home on board a plane full of cut throat convicts, there are some pretty good action sequences but the acting is a little off. Cage didn’t quite nail the Texan drawl “put the bunny back in the box” is one of the most remembered quotes from the film.

It is though enjoyable to watch, Jon Malkovich does very well as Cyrus ‘The Virus’ Grissom but the cast is a little mismatched in some areas. Still as an audience we don’t really care!

Con Air Trailer

2. Rocky IV (1985) - My favourite Rocky film from the franchise, again we’re not really here for the plot. It does however contain some of the best film montages of any action film of the last couple of decades. This was at the apex of the action film genre for its time, and it delivered punch for punch, quite literally.

Stallone looked fitter than ever before and the film introduced Dolph Lundgren who would go onto forge a fairly successful career as an action hero himself. There are some great fight sequences however un realistic we think they are, but at the age I first saw it I didn’t really care. Even now when you see it you think you could go out and run through snow to the top of a huge mountain and shout your arch nemesis’s name!

Rocky IV Trailer

1. Commando (1985) – I saw this when I was fairly young and at the time I don’t think I really appreciated how good/bad it was. So I revisited it many years later on the request of a good friend and I have to say…it was alot better. Schwarzenegger uses every single cheezy one liner in the action film hand book and executes them with all the poise of an amueter.

Death scenes, where do you start it’s complete carnage and too be honest there are too many to choose from, but it’s at the end of the film (Spoiler Alert) when he’s fighting Bennett that you really see Arnie in all his glory. Throwing a huge pipe, one handed I might add it punches a hole in Bennett’s chest. As he lets out a blood gurgling cry, Arnie merely grunts “Let off some steam Bennett”, I’ll say no more.

Plot, forget it! An opening scene which shows big arnie chopping wood… he sees a figure glistening in the steel behind him. Getting ready to decapite the mysterious figure he spins around to reveal a small girl who he playfully hugs…his daughter! This continues to show Arnie eating ice cream, petting a deer and doing all the things a loving father would. But if they were attempting to show Arnie or John Matrix as his character is called, as a softer hero then it didn’t work very well.

So i have crowned it as my best/worst action film of all time! They don’t really make these anymore which in a way is a shame but I won’t ever get tired of watching this over and over again.

Commando Trailer

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