LoC: Top 51 Action Movies Countdown! Part 83!

[Johnny Unusual]

#20 – Total Recall

43 Points, 4 Lists, #10 Soguru

  Consider that a divorce.

   
   
The year is 2084 and Douglas Quaid is having troubling dreams of Mars.  His wife tells him not to worry, but Quaid feels like this means something.  To take his mind off of it, Quaid decides to have memories of a vacation implanted into his brain of being a secret agent by the company Rekall.  However, Rekall discovers that he IS a secret agent and now all of Quaid’s friends and loved ones are trying to kill him.  Quaid later discovers he had his own memory erased to protect himself and he has given a mission to himself that involves returning to Mars and stopping his old boss Vilos Cohaagen.  But with his memories unreturned, can Quaid trust anyone… including himself?

Shit Just Got Real! – Don’t want to give too much away on this one, but Quaid does find something unpleasant about himself.
   
Pure Adrenaline Percentage –80%  I didn’t see this one, but it’s early 90’s Paul Verhoeven, it’s a safe bet you are going to get some quality ultra-violence.
   
AAAAAAAAND ACTION!
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/v/ItMhabNQeUg" target="_blank" class="new_win">https://www.youtube.com/v/ItMhabNQeUg</a>

[ScottotD]

Loving this so far, hope the lack of likes and traffic because of the board issues at the moment isn't discouraging you 

[Johnny Unusual]

No worries, it is fun to put together!

[Johnny Unusual]

#19 – The Raid: Redemption

46 Points, 4 lists, #4 Johnny Unusual

  Pulling a trigger is like ordering a takeout.

   
   
Rama is a rookie in a team of cops sent to raid the heavily guarded apartment block used as a headquarters for the crime boss Tama and his army of goons.  It would have been a hard enough mission, but Rama finds the team ambushed and almost completely slaughters thanks to snipers lining the buildings surrounding Tama’s base.  Now, Rama fights alone against impossible odds, but nothing is going to stop him from killing his way to the top floor.  Meanwhile, one of Tama’s goons is intimately familiar with Rama.  But how, and what intentions does he have?

Shit Just Got Real! – Jeez, the ante is pretty high up from the get go, but they do introduce a super unstoppable martial artist towards the end.
   
Pure Adrenaline Percentage –95%  You don’t get much more action than this movie!  It doesn’t quite make it to 100% (as we all know, there is only one movie that Is 100% pure adrenaline) but it comes closer than anything else on the list.
   
AAAAAAAAND ACTION!
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/v/uI-V0rrlZBo" target="_blank" class="new_win">https://www.youtube.com/v/uI-V0rrlZBo</a>

[Johnny Unusual]

#18 – Drunken Master 2 (AKA Legend of the Drunken Master)

48 Points, 3 Lists, #3 CJones

  Drinking gives Herculean strength!

   
   
Wong Fei Hung is a master of the art of Zui Quan, the art of drunken kung fu and in a mix up at a train station, a package of ginseng gets mixed up with a valuable antique.  Seems Fei Hung is now the target of smugglers who are stealing valuable Chinese antiques and selling them to the London Museum of Arts and they can make the sale without the object in Fei Hung’s hands.  If things weren’t bad enough, the missing ginseng leads to a farce that makes a family friend sick, causing Fei Hung’s father to disown him.  Can Fei Hung defeat the smugglers targeting him and regain his honor? 

Shit Just Got Real! – That final fight is pretty insane.  Jackie crawls on hot coals!  FOR REALZ!
   
Pure Adrenaline Percentage –80%  I know I am in the minority here, but I always had a preference for the first Drunken Master movie.  But I’ll accept the argument that in terms of awesomeness of fights, this is the objectively better movie.  I guess I am just down on the section of the film where Jackie gets too drunk to fight.  It was too much of a bummer for me.  Still, I haven’t seen it in about 15 years, so I’ll probably be more favourable towards it on rewatching.  Heck, I might even flip on which one I like better (though if a film has a training montage, I’m more partial towards that).
   
AAAAAAAAND ACTION!
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/v/WEt4B1poOfM" target="_blank" class="new_win">https://www.youtube.com/v/WEt4B1poOfM</a>

[CJones]

I also preferred the first Drunken Master, but I only wanted to include one or the other, and I figured DM2 had more mass appeal.

[ScottotD]

Raid! Woo!

[Johnny Unusual]

#17 – Guardians of the Galaxy

48 Points, 3 Lists, #1 Soguru

Finger across throat means death!  METAPHOR!

   
   
Peter Quill was a boy from Earth who was kidnapped and raised by space pirates.  Years later, he became an interstellar ne’er-do-well himself and takes a job to steal an artifact from a dead world.  However, this gets him in trouble with both his boss, Yondu, for not bringing it back in time (who puts a bounty on his head) and Ronan, a genocidal maniac.  Soon Quill finds himself targeted by the bounty hunters Groot (a talking tree) and Rocket (a genetically-altered raccoon) as well as the assassin Gamora.  When all four are arrested, they are sent to a cruel space jail where they meet Drax, a barbarian thug with a hatred for Ronan.  Soon, Quill convinces them all to escape and make a comfortable sum selling the artifact to its original buyer, only to discover its true power, which may mean the end of a world if this crew of outlaws can’t pull it together and stop Ronan.

Shit Just Got Real! – Ronan brings down his forces to Knowhere… after Drax rats them out for a chance at revenge.
   
Pure Adrenaline Percentage –70%  Definitely a lot of cool space action with this one, mixed with a warped sense of humour that is a perfect mix of James Gunn’s and Marvel’s styles.  Finally, he made up for those Scooby Doo movies.
   
AAAAAAAAND ACTION!
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/v/74Lkn1zVXRA" target="_blank" class="new_win">https://www.youtube.com/v/74Lkn1zVXRA</a>

[Johnny Unusual]

#16 – Escape from New York

50 Points, 4 Lists, #8 CJones

They sent in their best man, and when we roll across the 59th Street bridge tomorrow, on our way to freedom, we're going to have their best man leading the way - from the neck up!

   
   
The future: New York City is now a giant prison holding the worst humanity has to offer.  It is, however, missing two people to make the collection complete.  That changes when the president ends up trapped in the city and a soldier turned outlaw named Snake Plissken is sent in to save the president.  Snake Plissken doesn’t want to take it, but it is his only chance to live and he must face a new society made of the world’s most dangerous criminals.  Can Snake save the president?  Should he?

Shit Just Got Real! – It’s been a while, but Isaac Hayes makes a pretty good impression in my memory, so I’m going to say when he gets his hands on the President.
   
Pure Adrenaline Percentage –70%  It’s not wall-to-wall action, but it Is almost wall-to-wall thrills.  It’s a damned shame that John Carpenter lost his touch after In the Mouth of Madness (and I think some Carpenter fans might argue that’s when it happened).  I like his first episode on Masters of Horror, though it is a bit of a retread of In the Mouth of Madness (still, I recommend checking it out).
   
AAAAAAAAND ACTION!
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x9viuj_escape-from-new-york-part-6_shortfilms

[Relaxing Dragon]

Alright, after a few days on vacation (and one minor chlorine release), time to get back to this thing.

#30 – Ronin

That car chase is one for the books. Also, where Heat was De Nero's last Great role, this might well be his last Really Good one. Also also, this was directed by the guy who also directed the original Manchurian Candidate. That never really stops blowing my mind.

#29 – Shoot ‘Em Up

Love love love this one. It's completely goofy, completely juvenile, and never even tries to aim for realism. It's just a long cartoon that involves guns in every possible way (that our hero has a thing for carrots is an important note there). Clive Owen has always been one of my favorite actors, and his brazenly stoic performance that's totally at odds with the madness around him makes for a great show. And then there's the ever-amazing Paul Giamatti, who is completely bananas and I love it. I was luckily enough to meet him at Comic Con once, and he told me that at one point the director told him to just scream the loudest, most irritated "Son of a bitch!" he could manage (by an extraordinary coincidence, the director happened to be in the crowd for that panel. That was a good night overall).

#23 – Kung Fu Hustle

Can't go wrong with Steven Chow (for those who haven't seen God of Cookery yet, get on it), and this definitely his masterpiece. Completely goofy and sincere all at once, and with some fantastic action to boot. I actually prefer this movie to the more standard Chinese wire-fu action movies (your Hero and your Crouching Tiger), if only because of how coldly serious those movies are. Just seems to let the air out of the room. This one is the perfect mix of action and comedy, and it makes the action that much easier to appreciate, I think.

For non-martial arts Chinese action movies, I've yet to see The Killer. This concerns me.

#19 – The Raid: Redemption

First: a pox upon that American-distributor-mandated-subtitle!

Second: I went back and forth on including this one or its sequel on my list. For my money, the fights of the sequel are grander, more intense, and generally more jaw-dropping (the final kitchen showdown might well be the best hand-to-hand fight scene in our post-2000s world). But while its overall story is pretty good, it seems somewhat more pedestrian when compared to the fights it surrounds. So I went with the first movie. It's got a stripped-down narrative that limits everything to the bare essentials, and it brings with it a visceral energy that makes everything feel that much more manic. The fights are outstanding, the camera-work and editing (so essential to any good action movie) are right on point, and it gets a ton of information out without including any unnecessary fat that most modern action movies love to include for some reason. And it's short enough that you can pop it in whenever and never feel the energy slowdown. Best watched with a group, too, because the cheers and audible winces make the whole thing seem that much more special.

And that's all I've got for the moment, at least with regards to calling certain selections out. Happy to see Leon on here as well, and a few other choices are good, even if I personally wouldn't have included them. As this list goes on, it seems like I was in the slight minority for basing my list based mainly on how good the specific action scenes of a movie are, as compared to the movie as a whole. I mean, I love Escape from New York, but the nitty-gritty action of it is not one of the reasons why. Ditto Seven Samurai, which is both one of my favorite movies and one of the Best Movies Ever; it's a masterpiece for many reasons, but I never get back to the fight scenes for the reason, no matter how great Kyūzō's introductory dual is, or how epic the final village showdown is... actually, come to think of it, maybe I should have included this movie...

[stethacantus]

As this list goes on, it seems like I was in the slight minority for basing my list based mainly on how good the specific action scenes of a movie are, as compared to the movie as a whole.

I am not sure if even that is the case, otherwise Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon would not have come in dead last. On the list so far, it is the film that came closest to winning an Oscar for Best Picture. ( Breaking Away and District 9 were also nominated, but neither had a chance. ) My guess is that no one had the same exact criteria for their list. In my case, I had been working on my own side project. About two years ago I began to compile a list of my 500 all time favorite films. Basically remembering every single film I had ever seen, including telemovies, and attempting to rank them from favorite to least favorite. I got as far as a list of 278 which I considered the films on my "like" list, ranked from #1 to #278 when my computer crashed and I had to start again from scratch. But I do have a good solid list of my top #11, and a good idea what films are  #12 through #60. ( the rest is still iffy ).

So when this LoC came up,  making a list was easy for me. Simply copy the top 25 action films from my favorite film list in their already ranked order. Well, maybe not that easy. There were a few films on my list I needed to evaluate if they qualified as action movies. ( Seven Samurai was inevitably deemed not an action film, and there fore disqualified, along with a few other of my all time favorites. ) Aside from that, submitting a LoC list was easy. And it did away with me overthinking my submissions and coming up with a deliberately balanced list. As was done in this case........

I also preferred the first Drunken Master, but I only wanted to include one or the other, and I figured DM2 had more mass appeal.

If you think both Drunken Master films are among the best, then they should both be on the list, not one or the other just to leave a slot open for another film. Next thing you know you are leaving films out because you already used that actor or director, or including films just so that a particular action star gets submitted. And then next thing you know you have a list that does not accurately depict your honest opinion on what action films belong in the top 25, but what you felt obligated to include on your list. By using my top 60 list I was able to avoid that temptation. Even if Breaking Away did end up my #3 pick when there are plenty of films in my top 60 with much better action scenes.

[Relaxing Dragon]

As this list goes on, it seems like I was in the slight minority for basing my list based mainly on how good the specific action scenes of a movie are, as compared to the movie as a whole.

I am not sure if even that is the case, otherwise Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon would not have come in dead last. On the list so far, it is the film that came closest to winning an Oscar for Best Picture. ( Breaking Away and District 9 were also nominated, but neither had a chance. ) My guess is that no one had the same exact criteria for their list. In my case, I had been working on my own side project. About two years ago I began to compile a list of my 500 all time favorite films. Basically remembering every single film I had ever seen, including telemovies, and attempting to rank them from favorite to least favorite. I got as far as a list of 278 which I considered the films on my "like" list, ranked from #1 to #278 when my computer crashed and I had to start again from scratch. But I do have a good solid list of my top #11, and a good idea what films are  #12 through #60. ( the rest is still iffy ).

So when this LoC came up,  making a list was easy for me. Simply copy the top 25 action films from my favorite film list in their already ranked order. Well, maybe not that easy. There were a few films on my list I needed to evaluate if they qualified as action movies. ( Seven Samurai was inevitably deemed not an action film, and there fore disqualified, along with a few other of my all time favorites. ) Aside from that, submitting a LoC list was easy. And it did away with me overthinking my submissions and coming up with a deliberately balanced list.

Yeah, everyone comes together on these things from different angles. Which is a good thing, since it creates such a wonderful variety, and I am frankly all for it.

For putting my list together, I opted to categorize it more as a bunch of mini-genres brought together, rather than one concrete list as a whole. So I've got car chase movies in with gunfights, Serious Movies in with the comedy. Action comes in a wide variety, and I tried to go for ones that represented the best of what they had set out to achieve, whether it was just in the actual action or whether it extended out into the plot/characters/whathaveyou.

I should clarify then, perhaps, that I don't disagree with any of the selections so far (well, maybe a few in the upper 40s), and think things are turning out great.

[ScottotD]

I just looked through my movie collection, made notes and then spent a couple of days arranging and eliminating. 

[Darth Geek]

I still really need to see The Raid.

[ScottotD]

I still really need to see The Raid.

...also Raid 2.