Actions movies that actually have a good plot/cast/plausible story.

Thoughts on John Wick? The sequels go off the rails as one would expect, fighting on horseback or doing top down Hotline Miami style shootouts, but the first one had a grounded setting of an ex-hitman going on a murder spree to cut ties with his life of crime. As far as I could tell, all fight scenes were shot in a way you could actually see what was going on, have great choreography incorporating martial arts, guns don't have infinite ammo etc. Story was kept subtle and simple. It worked great as an action movie thriller, giving you a glimpse of the bigger picture that Wick will forever remain chained to.

Or at least for the first movie. By the final one it lost the grounded touch entirely and went full action.

 
Every film in OP is a must-watch, simple as. I watched Drive before it reached meme status, Refn already being known to me as a gifted director thanks to Pusher. I was so impressed by it i called up a friend who's into the same movies as i am a day after i watched it just to watch it again. Collateral used to be my go-to "watch when bored" movie, i love that film. No Country is the best book adaption in film history, watched that one countless times, too.
1995 Heat
First film that popped into my mind as well when reading the thread title. Pretty much a flawless movie apart from some minor pacing issues and Pacino's overacting (which makes sense again when you consider that the first draft of the script has had his character have a coke habit).
The gunfire in Heat sounds like guns being fired in an urban environment cos it actually is the sound of guns being fired in a urban environment.
The sound design is just out of this world in this film.
A Better Tomorrow 1 and 2, and Hard Boiled are easily two of the greatest action movies
I'd go as far as saying that Hard Boiled is THE best action movie of all times. The shoot outs, the gun porn, squibs galore, excellent pacing, the film has it fucking all. The OST is fucking great, too. Prime Tony Leung is just the cherry on top, closely followed by Anthony Wong playing another great villain in this. ABT 1 is very high on my list of best HK films as well, together with P.T.U. and other Woo and Johnnie To masterpieces of that time.
Green Room isn't really a true action film, more of a horror thriller but it does have a pretty solid plot and some good action scenes too.
Saulnier turned into one of my favourite film makers ever since watching Blue Ruin, all of his films are solid must-watch territory. Very unique style, glorious practical effects.
Thoughts on John Wick?
Only watched the first one after everyone in my social circle was raving about it but i think it's nothing to write home about. Has some cool shoot out choreographies but didn't blow me away. Never bothered watching the sequels because the first film is average at best.
The French version of Taxi is an action comedy and there's some very good dialogue in it. The silliness can get OTT but it's a French comedy, after all.
The two main characters and their dialogue carry that film, haven't watched it in a long time but i have fond memories of it. 90's french comedies have a distinct style and are laugh-out-loud hilarious, i already sperged about how much i love Les Visiteurs in the Movie Recommendation thread.
 
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John Wick is a fun movie, but it's basically become *the* action movie for basic bitch dudes, gamers and the BRC drinking wannabes.

I remember during the peak Alec Baldwin shooting discourse seeing a bunch of people claim that there shouldn't even be real guns in films anymore because John Wick used CGI and it looked indistinguishable from the real thing and I was just like "you've never seen a real gun fired in your life"
 
Or at least for the first movie. By the final one it lost the grounded touch entirely and went full action.
1 is solid, 2 has some really fun fight scenes, but by 3 and 4 the story and "lore" keep getting dumber and the fight scenes start feeling repetitive. Honestly it's hard to hate on the franchise though because it's still better than 90% of the slop that Hollywood puts out nowadays.

For my contribution:

Mad Max: Fury Road: Post-apocalyptic action/sci-fi, with great effects and really fun worldbuilding. There are some dumb plot points, but they aren't a dealbreaker in my opinion.

Edge of Tomorrow: Sci-fi action, the premise is basically Groundhog Day, but it's happening during an alien invasion. It's a fun concept, the CGI is decent, and the cast is solid (Tom Cruise and Emily Blunt).
 
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I'd go as far as saying that Hard Boiled is THE best action movie of all times. The shoot outs, the gun porn, squibs galore, excellent pacing, the film has it fucking all. The OST is fucking great, too. Prime Tony Leung is just the cherry on top

Hard Boiled is fantastic, but after watching Bullet In the Head today I think I have to classify that as close competition to Hard Boiled, it may even be better. John Woo like his happy show-off protagonists but when he writes tragedy there's no limit to how low he will go lol
 
Hard Boiled is fantastic, but after watching Bullet In the Head today I think I have to classify that as close competition to Hard Boiled, it may even be better. John Woo like his happy show-off protagonists but when he writes tragedy there's no limit to how low he will go lol
That one is amazing, too, i get where you're coming from. Check out Johnnie To films if you haven't already, he's my #1 classic HK action film director, even surpassing Woo in my eyes. Not by much, though, both are masters of their craft. Did you watch Bullet in the Head online/torrented it? I've burned through all my Avistaz.to accounts quite a long time ago and have been fruitlessly looking for a new place to watch/download asian cinema ever since.
 
Vincent Hanna will never not be the most entertaining action movie protagonist, love the sequel novel scene where he throws a child abuser off a roof. Coked-out little Al Pacino slaying pedophiles would’ve been enough to keep his career going into the 2000s.
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You hear they’re the doing the sequel with zoomer actors replacing these legends?
Fuck yeah, someone else who read the sequel novel.
I like Hanna as a protagonist and his relationship with his stepdaughter is heartwarming and nice.
To stay on topic, Dirty Harry is a must see.
Great cop thriller with Clint Eastwood at his finest.
 
Sicario was excellent in this regard, really makes you feel the tense atmosphere throughout the film. The sequal on the other hand fell into the Hollywood trap and was more of a generic action film.

Another good one is the first Rambo movie (First Blood), since the first movie was based on a book the story was actually compelling.

Oh man, how did I forget Sicaro? Good call on that, everyone needs to see Sicario (The fist one , the GOOD one) that fits this thread perfectly. The second is technically not a sequel it's was an alternative script that was passed on but, due to the success of the first one they pulled a "hollywood" and just pulled the unused script right out the trash can and started filming; this is my undertsnading I might be wrong.

Regard Sicario 2 AKA Sicaro: Day of the Soldado, not a bad film but nowhere near as good as Sicario.

SPOILER SPOILERS SPOILERS
Get's shot in the head, IIRC executed in the desert and plays "opossum" for a few hours and gets up and just walks it off like it was a sprained ankle, I almost groaned out loud. The scene where he tossed the grenade into the vehicle full guys with guns trying to kill him and not one of them gets a shot off at him or a tire or anything was almost like a "3 stooges" bit.


There are some great suggestions in this thread for films. @Vyse Inglebard mentioned Lethal Weapon. Which is great film an a perfect 80's action film everyone should see at least once but, a guy like that would never pass a psych evaluation as a cop even in the 80's and there was some slapstick stuff kinda deviating from reality. I still agree great action film, almost and action/comedy film.
 
Lethal Weapon
All four are very entertaining (i think the second one is the weakest of the bunch, i know many people are hating on the fourth but i think it's good) and a great watch even if it's just for Mel Gibson's glorious mullet, rivaling even Michael Douglas' mullet in Black Rain. Speaking of Black Rain, it is another must-watch that fits this thread, not strictly an action film but great nonetheless. Michael Douglas as the hard-boiled cop and a young Andy Garcia as his more easy-going partner are going on a wild goose chase in Japan after extraditing a Yakuza from the US. The sense of alienation and getting lost in a foreign country is fantastically conveyed to the viewer, the film is doing that better than, for example, Lost in Translation.
 
Fuck yeah, someone else who read the sequel novel.
I like Hanna as a protagonist and his relationship with his stepdaughter is heartwarming and nice.
I would’ve watched more movies with Hanna as the protag, right balence of ruthlessness, humour, heart and compassion. That scene where he hugs the mother of that dead prostitute and gives her the most solemn, dead inside stare I’ve ever seen is brutal. The sequel novel segments with him as a younger bloodthirsty super cop and after Heat as a Xanax-fueled wreckage are the best parts of the novel, with Neil’s being the weakest.

“Insomnia” by Christopher Nolan is probably how I’d imagine Hanna’s story would end.
 
All the "Dirty Harry" films seem to be a bit over the top in Terms of "Dirty Harry Callahan, regardless great/good films. I think it's very noteworthy to all the non-US Kiwis and maybe even the Kiwis younger, all police officers were not even called "Officer" until around 1970 or so, unless you obtained a certain rank as do nearly all armed services around the world the USMC for example. Many supreme court rulings like Miranda V Arizona 1966, began a national level of protocol for all law enforcement. The first dirty Harry movie is 1971 just about 5 years about criminals were given certain rights many in law enforcement hated for obvious reasons. The Frank Callahan character was really not to far off from a few of the older field police officers in terms of demeanor. Not really implausible considering the times. Shoot the guy, if he lives ask him questions and in court you tell them you read him Miranda before the ambulance got there.

....Which brings me to Serpico

Al Pachino plays the outlier, a "strait cop" in a dept full of internal problems, this was based on a true story. Not one of my top 10 but it's great.



Is Taxi Driver 1976 , considered an action film? It's almost a psychological thriller more than an action movie, plenty of violence. I'm hesitant to put this but, if you've never seen it you are really missing out. The scene where picks up a fare played by the director Martin Scorsese, is very interesting to say the least.

 
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double posting...

All four are very entertaining (i think the second one is the weakest of the bunch, i know many people are hating on the fourth but i think it's good) and a great watch even if it's just for Mel Gibson's glorious mullet, rivaling even Michael Douglas' mullet in Black Rain. Speaking of Black Rain, it is another must-watch that fits this thread, not strictly an action film but great nonetheless. Michael Douglas as the hard-boiled cop and a young Andy Garcia as his more easy-going partner are going on a wild goose chase in Japan after extraditing a Yakuza from the US. The sense of alienation and getting lost in a foreign country is fantastically conveyed to the viewer, the film is doing that better than, for example, Lost in Translation.

Black Rain was great. But, you liked lethal weapon 4? I had some grievances...

It's been a while since I saw part 4. IIRC it had a subtle pro illegal immigration theme, Glover had a line in the film suggesting this, maybe that's me. The shit I really take issue with is Chris Rock Marrying his daughter in secret, do I have that right? What was the point? The Chinese kid plays Deus machina running out with scissors to cut them all free when the bag guys are torching the house instead of just shooting everyone? The real shit that bothered me was the method of killing people, don't the bad guys wait for people to stop at train tracks and ram them into trains to kill them? They're following them around for what? A week till they get to a railroad crossing that has a train perfectly timed to stop them and then using that method to murder people? I just couldn't get past that stuff
 
Thoughts on John Wick? The sequels go off the rails as one would expect, fighting on horseback or doing top down Hotline Miami style shootouts, but the first one had a grounded setting of an ex-hitman going on a murder spree to cut ties with his life of crime. As far as I could tell, all fight scenes were shot in a way you could actually see what was going on, have great choreography incorporating martial arts, guns don't have infinite ammo etc. Story was kept subtle and simple. It worked great as an action movie thriller, giving you a glimpse of the bigger picture that Wick will forever remain chained to.

Or at least for the first movie. By the final one it lost the grounded touch entirely and went full action.

Yeah, that's why the sequels were better. The original didn't impress me by much. Whereas the sequels embraced the insanity of the premise and made it highly entertaining.
 
That one is amazing, too, i get where you're coming from. Check out Johnnie To films if you haven't already, he's my #1 classic HK action film director, even surpassing Woo in my eyes. Not by much, though, both are masters of their craft. Did you watch Bullet in the Head online/torrented it? I've burned through all my Avistaz.to accounts quite a long time ago and have been fruitlessly looking for a new place to watch/download asian cinema ever since.
I just torrented it, like with most movies. There's one for BITH up on tpb dot party that's pretty good.
 
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I just torrented it, like with most movies. There's one for BITH up on tpb dot party that will get you the full movie with the alternate ending also.
Sweet, thanks. Has been forever since i last watched it.
double posting...



Black Rain was great. But, you liked lethal weapon 4? I had some grievances...

It's been a while since I saw part 4. IIRC it had a subtle pro illegal immigration theme, Glover had a line in the film suggesting this, maybe that's me. The shit I really take issue with is Chris Rock Marrying his daughter in secret, do I have that right? What was the point? The Chinese kid plays Deus machina running out with scissors to cut them all free when the bag guys are torching the house instead of just shooting everyone? The real shit that bothered me was the method of killing people, don't the bad guys wait for people to stop at train tracks and ram them into trains to kill them? They're following them around for what? A week till they get to a railroad crossing that has a train perfectly timed to stop them and then using that method to murder people? I just couldn't get past that stuff
Has been since forever since i've watched that one, too. Could very well be that i last watched it on VHS even. I didn't even remember Chris Rock being in it. The memory of that scene with the fire popped right back up when reading your post. Yeah, that was an asspull. I did basically nothing but watch films all my life, often while drunk, so my memory is hazy on many of them and i may very well see things differently if i would rewatch them in the present day. I do remember liking Jet Li playing the villain, the first time i ever saw him in a bad guy role.
 
Not one of my top 10 but it's great
I don't know what it is with Serpico but it never really clicked for me. It should be right up my alley, cop film, young Pacino, old, dirty NY setting, i don't know what i think that is missing from it. Nonetheless a great film.
Is Taxi Driver 1976 , considered an action film?
Drama. I'm wearing the word out in this thread but must-watch film. Easily one of the best films i have ever watched.
 
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Extreme Prejudice: Underrated Nick Nolte movie where spies and law enforcement are rivals.
Femme Fatale: De Palma's strange Mission Impossible style thriller homages Vertigo. You'll either love it or hate it.
Nice Guys/Last Boy Scout: Shane Black is king of the buddy cop movie.

edit: Trespass by Walter Hill I prefer over Assault on Precinct 13.
 
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