Anything with Jason Statham, especially the driver movies.
Wow. Not what I think of as “action” movies.
Ooo, definitely. Good ones.
This thread has a real problem, half the films listed here are not action films ffs. For example, what is the odd one out:
a) Commando
b) Predator
c) Die Hard
d) The Last of the Mohicans
If you dont subconsciously know the answer, then you shouldnt be trying to pretend Jurassic Park three is one of the best action films of the last twenty years.
Taken Taken (2008) - IMDb, now thats a fucking contender, not some of the talky talky shit people are pretending are action films.
None of these are action films as we defined the term at Action college. There may be loud actiony bits in them, but they are not action films. If they go into a poll I will laugh at your poll. Polls fucking hate that.
Pulp Fiction
The Last of the Mohicans
Kill Bill Vol. 2
The Departed
Gangs of New York
Casino
The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers
The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
The Incredibles
Zombieland
Jurassic Park 3
A Knight’s Tale
Oldboy
The Town
I’ll add one of my personal favourites - Hard Boiled (1992).
Would Sin City be considered an action movie?
As the maker of said poll, I agree, none of those movies are action movies. They won’t be included in the poll, no matter how many nominating votes they get.
Hey, I take offense to that. As far as action goes, JP3 is the best in the series, and is one of the best action films of the last twenty years. But I haven’t seen The Last of the Mohicans, so what do I know?
By what grounds is a film action or not? Because I’m scratching my head at some of the choices that are getting eliminated. Especially since the biggest complaint I kept hearing about JP3 was that it was just an action film, without the science-fiction and heart of the first film (or the stupid character development of the second)…
I suggested further up thread that it must contain an exploding helicopter.
I still think that’s a reasonable yardstick, but I’ll suggest three criteria for “action movie”.
- Bad ass, tough guy, hard man
- Guns
- Stuff blowing up. Especially the odd helicopter.
I submit that Last of the Mohicans has all three of these items. Moreover, the entire second half of the movie is an extended chase scene.
I think that those of us who grew up in the 1980’s see 80’s action films as the template all such movies must follow. The fact is, however, that the action movie from that decade was an odd duck, with little in common with those made in previous and following decades. Current action flicks either have much more in common with films from the 1970’s (the Bourne films are a famous example) or are a completely new species (in general, inspired either by *the Matrix *or Saving Private Ryan). Comparing modern action flicks to those brain-dead Stallone or Schwartznegger vehicles of our childhood is doing the former an injustice.
Interestingly, the very best action movies of the 1980s - the Indiana Jones films, *Terminator *and *Aliens *- were actually very unusual for their times, and have a lot more in common with moderm examples of the genre.
The main problem with disqualifying Pulp Fiction is that it has Samuel L. Jackson in it; Mr. Jackson’s presence in a (non-Star Wars prequel) work of fiction is worth approximately 2 gun battles, a chase scene and 37.4 explosions. The audio book of “Go the Fuck to Sleep” qualifies as an action movie for similar reasons, but I won’t nominate it.
Preach that, my fellow SLJ fan! Another endorsement for that book! (if you don’t plan to buy it Go the F*ck to Sleep - read by Samuel L. Jackson check this out)
Still, I can avoid including PF in the poll because except for SLJ, it isn’t so much action as great dialog and weird characters.
The strangest thing I have seen today. But AWESOME!
Some more suggestions, for completeness:
Cliffhanger (1993)
Timecop (1994)
The Mummy (1994)
Bad Boys (1995)
Broken Arrow (1996)
Taxi (1998) (the original French version, not the Queen Latifah remake)
Sahara (2005)
Wanted (2008)
Luc Besson’s Nikita (1990) just misses the cut, sadly.
My vote is for Heat, but wanted to also throw The Boondock Saints into the ring. And 300 should fit into any reasonable definition of action movie. What do we think about Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon? Or “Leon: The Professional”?
If we are allowed to include Foreign movies, then I’d add La Femme Nikita (1990),City of God (2002), and Tropa de Elite (2007).
Edit: Crap, thought 1990 was good. Out goes Nikita.
I cannot wait for voting to start on this! 
Do we have any other nominations out there?