The 8 Best Action Films of the Past Decade
Action movies have been around for almost a century now. Starting with classics like The Great Train Robbery and then growing into the Clark Gable era crime movies. From here the action genre blended into war movies and then westerns. According to the man himself, John Carpenter; Rio Bravo was the primary influence for Assault on Precinct 13. It’s the true, original action movie, giving the blueprint for all other action movies.
This list contains my personal and favourite action movies of the past ten or eleven years or so. These films, to me, represent a turning point in action cinema and really ‘upped’ the ante for modern fight scenes - whether that’s gun-fu or kung-fu. I believe this new style of action choreography will be the benchmark for newer films to come. Although, I’ve decided to miss out the MCU and DC movies because they feature everywhere else on the internet. So, enough of the ramble, lets cut to the chase… Or the fight!
John Wick 1, 2 & 3
Quite an obvious start, but the John Wick franchise exploded with a new gun-fu style choreography which the Director, Chad Stahelski describes as a combination of “Japanese jiu-jitsu, Brazilian jiu-jitsu, tactical 3-gun, and standing Judo.” There are not many, if any, slow motion or quick cuts to make the action in this franchise seem fast paced or punchy. Instead, they keep the camera at mid height using a steady cam on a wide angle so that we see every bit of choreography. John Wick grapples enemies, punches and blasts them in the face at point blank range, then rolls into another enemy, shoots their eyebrows off, then headshots the next thirty blokes entering through the back door, all in one smooth take. It’s much easier on the brain to process and the fluidity makes the scenes so damn magical.
2. Extraction
Just as the pandemic kicked off, this little gem popped up. After checking it out, it soon became one of my absolute favourites for 2020. Another slick film with one-take action scenes where Hemsworth breaks arms, snaps legs and then unloads entire clips into faces and heads repeatedly. There’s also a great one-take car chase scene in this one too! Taking place approximately over a 24 hour period, we see Tyler Rake wreak havoc through the streets of Dhaka as he tries to protect the son of a mob boss. He makes his way through hundreds of street goons, corrupt cops, trained soldiers and a few mercenaries. One of those movies where the main character is completely battered and bruised by the end of it. Dirty, unwashed and still kicking ass to the very end. Bloody lovely.
3. Atomic Blonde
I saw this movie three times in one month I loved it so much. Charlize Theron’s best work, me thinks. The 1989 Berlin backdrop of this movie works so well for its obvious cold-city aesthetic. It contains a super bleak and grey palette which just adds to its mysterious tone and theme. Not everything in this world including its story is all so black and white. The lines are far more blurred. However the fist-fighting in this movie is absolutely solid. Some ace choreography and a stellar soundtrack to match. Plus, it’s pretty awesome watching an attractive blonde in suspenders kick the shit out of a bunch of goons. Another one-take fight scene near the end just has you wincing as baddies tumble down stairways, get their faces drilled into walls or get their knees shot out. It’s not all easy-peasy for our protagonist, Lorraine Broughton, as she takes a beating too. Most of the film she has a black eye, or a cut lip. But what better way to sooth all those sores than sitting in an icy tub of, well, ice cubes and a glass of vodka. Not heard of ibuprofen, love? James McAvoy is also absolutely class in this movie too - although, when is he never?!
4. The Raid
For me, this is the one that started it all off. The new age of kung fu and gun play. I know The Matrix sort of coined this term, but so much CGI was used in those movies that they lost the edge. Not many others tried to copy it from then on. Or if they did, those movies might not actually be that great. Cut to 2011 though and Gareth Evans decided to reinvent that style of action. And boy did he do just that! Iko Uwais was trained in the martial art of Silat and had been practicing it for years and years. Mix that with the tactics of a SWAT team assaulting a building filled with drug dealers and killers and you have a cocktail of carnage. This low budget action movie took everyone by surprise and is bloody good fun to watch. This has some absolutely ace choreography involving kicks, flips, punches, shooting and where all the baddies are wielding a machete, knife or machine gun. Once the action starts, it doesn’t stop until the credits role!
5. The Raid 2
I decided to separate the Raid films from each other because I believe that they’re both very separate from each other. Even though Evans wanted to make The Raid 2 first, it was deemed too expensive for a newish director at the time. Hence why he wrote the first Raid. It was on a much more achievable budget. The Raid 2 does everything the first film does, but on a much larger scale. There’s some brilliant fight locations. One scene sees one of our supporting protagonists fend off dozens of enemies as they swarm him. Using nothing but his surroundings to his advantage he battles them to the bitter end. Another stand out car chase where the camera is passed through the car as a fight breaks out inside, using other motorists on the road as battering rams to add that intensity to the carnage. The finale of the movie has our protagonist Rama, tackles a gauntlet of different, high level bosses as it were - and none of these disappoint. A tremendous showdown of a movie with a whole bunch of incredible fight scenes.
6. Logan
The X-Men movie we were all waiting for. If you’ve got those big-ass, sharp-ass, shiny-ass claws, then I wanna see bad guys getting slewn across the place. No cuts or quick shots to disguise the blood and guts it would cause if one gets impaled by them. Which is why Logan works so damn well. He’s tired, old, falling apart and just doesn’t give a shit anymore. Most of the people he knows have either died or done some other movies now, so now it’s about ripping off the PG-13 band aid and going full on into fight mode. As well as some sublime gory action using said claws, there’s also a lot of heart in this movie, so the bloody violence always feels justified.
7. Dredd
I didn’t see this movie in cinemas as I wasn’t taken by the character of Judge Dredd. I never really read any of the comics and the 1995 movie with Stallone just wasn’t that great. BUT! I found out when it came out on blu-ray was that it was rated 18 in the UK. That took me by surprise as I thought it was just another 12A rated miss-fire comic book character action film. Immediately after watching it I wondered why the hell this didn’t do better. Turns out my feelings about it were mutual. Similar to The Raid, this film features a tower block with our protagonist making their way up, blasting as many different enemies on each level as possible. Until he gets to the main villain. On top of some slick gunplay we have the ultra slow-motion moments - weaved beautifully into the story by the drug “slo-mo”. So if you’re looking someones face getting shredded by bullets in mega bullet-time then this movie is the movie to watch. On top of this is, the fantastic gritty neon style colour palette littered throughout this movie gives just the right vibe for a dark comic book adaptation. It’s just the icing on the cake as you watch the glorious gun blasts from pistols and chain guns destroy the place from the inside. Another cracking OST as well that gives an 80’s synth beat to it.
8. The Night Comes For Us
Along similar lines to The Raid 1 & 2, mainly because it uses some of the same cast members, this movie just does not relent on action. It’s the type of action that has you wincing, and lifting your legs off the floor and tucking your hands in as foes are dispatched with knives, machetes and other brutal melee weapons that just happen to be laying around. The choreography in this is bloody brilliant. Combining it with an intriguing story that begs us wanting more. We see some badass people in this along with some head-on-head show downs. Fist-fights using anything that’s not glued down to seeing blood, bones and body bits being lunged and hacked from the get go.
