Okay, the movie was kind of dumb (though cute), but I give some credit to Romeo Must Die and their big-screen interpretation of the “X-Ray effect” that’s been fairly prevalent in Asian (mostly Chinese) comics for years. It doesn’t exactly win the award, or even place, for best fight scene, but it’s definitely up there for best effect used in a fight scene.
I paid to see it, Saturday matinee, killing some time, I was the ONLY person in the entire theater! I felt like tearing all my clothes off and running up and down the aisle buck nekkid. Then I thought, there might be a projectionist up there somewhere…
BTW, I loved The Warriors, great fight scenes, and the chase scene with the Baseball Furies was one of the best ever.
Ok, so it’s not a movie…
Or real…
But the fight between Peter and the Chicken who game him a bad coupon in “Family Guy” will never be forgotten.
I also enjoyed the same pair going blade to blade in Robin Hood (the real one not the Kevin C. version).
The fight scene at the end of Blazing Saddles has to be among one of the longest. And stupidest, but stupid in a good way.
Best fight scene ever?
Mecha-Ripley vs. the Alien Queen.
“Get away from her you BITCH.”
I’ll agree that the climax of Drunken Master 2 (I just can’t bring myself to use the Americanized title) is probably the best pure hand-to-hand fight scene ever put on film.
However, for entertaining, I’m going to name the handcuffed chase in the middle of Project A Part 2. Jackie Chan plays a cop who is wrongfully accused of various nefarious deeds (go figure). The bad-guy cop captures him and cuffs them together to escort him back to the police station. On the way, they’re ambushed by a quartet of pirates seeking revenge for the death of their leader in the first Project A. A combination of fighting and chasing ensues, as Jackie and his enemy are forced to form a temporary (but grudging) alliance just to survive. The way they explore the limitations of fighting side-by-side with both inside hands restricted, and then turn the tables by figuring out how to use this short chain between them, is one of the most stunning displays of acrobatic ingenuity I’ve ever seen.
But yes, TigoleBitties, Millionaire’s Express (also titled Shanghai Express, depending on the video version) deserves much wider exposure. Yuen Biao’s three-story flipping leap literally knocked me off the couch. Much of Sammo Hung’s work is equally fantastic; look at Pedicab Driver, for example.
I also remember a fight in a James Bond movie, I think it was A View to a Kill, that impressed the hell out of me for its brutally realistic creativity, though I haven’t seen it since the first time I saw the movie in the theatre so it might not actually hold up. It was in a kitchen, as an assassin was trying to invade a compound and came across a nameless agent. I recall being amazed that they were actually grabbing pots and pans and using the hot burners and stuff, employing tools they had at hand; I remember thinking that most movies would just have them slug it out and ignore the surroundings. But like I said, I’ve only seen the scene once.
Hey, that reminded me: the fight between Timmy and Jimmy on “South Park”. Cripple fight!
I’m pretty sure it was The Living Daylights.
I’ll second any Zatoichi vs. an army scene. Especially Zatoichi and the Chest of Gold.
My all time favorite is the end of The Final Programme, just for being the most realistic fight scene I’ve ever seen. Of course, the realism makes it pretty much the exact opposite of most fight scenes mentioned here.
The swordfight in Rashoman is really interesting, because we see the “heroic battle” as well as the more realistic style as seen in The Final Programme.
If gunfights are being allowed I’d have to mention the assault on the apartment complex in Time and Tide
I WORK FOR MEL BROOKS!
My favorite fight scenes of all time:
Billy Lo (Bruce Lee) vs. Sticks (Dan Inosanto) near the end of Game Of Death
The tournament, especially Lee (Bruce Lee) vs. Ohara (Bob Wall) from Enter The Dragon
Jackie Chan vs. the gang in their hideout, from Rumble In The Bronx
And every fight scene from Snake And Crane Arts Of Shaolin (starring Jackie Chan)
Dammit, now I have to watch those again!
When I saw the title of the post, I clicked on it so that I could mention THEY LIVE. Then I found that film mentioned in the original post. But I wasn’t going to let that stop me.
What makes the fight so interesting is the very fact that it does go on and on, pointlessly. The easy, Hollywood thing to do would have been to have one character capitulate early, in order to keep the plot moviing forward. Instead, neither character wants to give in, so they just keep going at it.
So I guess I’m arguing that this is a moment where plot is subordinated to the characterization! 
This cracked me right up because it reminded me of a Futurama bit. The characters went to see All My Circuits: The Movie and heard the line:
The climatic fights at the end of the Lone Wolf And Cub films, especially the later films, were very long. Of course, Ogami Itto was usually taking on 100+ samurai at that point.
I would have to second The Duellists, and Drunken Master 2. Excellent fights in both
Note to self: go find a copy of Millionaire’s Express
It’s easy for a movie fight to become completely ridiculous. At the end of The Musketeer, the hero and villian are engaged in some kind of preposterous see-saw ladder bit that just dragged. A buddy of mine said it looked like a Cirque du Soleil act. Too bad, really, because some of the earlier clashes had been more entertaining.
One of the best climaxes of a fight scene has got to be the shotgun-under-the-nose bit from Army of Darkness, when Good Ash turns out to be not so good.
Iron Monkey has some GREAT scenes. I can’t decide which one I like best!
What’s worse is that it’s an inferior recreation of the finale of Jet Li’s Once Upon a Time in China, which had the same action choreographer. Apparently he assumed that people attending this movie wouldn’t have seen the other.
Kiss of the Dragon had some pretty cool fight scenes, including a bit where they make fun of The Matrix. Didn’t like the secret Kiss of the Dragon technique itself though. For kickass samurai action, there’s Throne of Blood, Ran, Seven Samurai, Yojimbo, and pretty much anything else made by Akira Kurosawa and/or starring Toshiro Mifune (both of whom died recently :(). Other good fight movies: 13th Warrior, Tombstone, Replacement Killers, Black Mask, Last of the Mohicans (Iroquois beating the crap out of British soldiers), Mel Gibson’s version of Hamlet.
Geez, most of good ones are taken. I’ll second:
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The sword duel between Errol Flynn and Basil Rathbone in Captain Blood
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The sword duel between Stewart Granger and Mel Ferrer in Scaramouche
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The kung fu battle between Bruce Lee and Opal somebody in Enter The Dragonwyck
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The truly great donnybrook between Victor McClaglen and John Wayne in The Quiet Man (my favorite film)
and add:
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The hilarious pie fight with Jack Lemmon, Tony Curtis and Natalie Wood in The Great Race (which also had a pretty good sword duel between Tony Curtis and Ross Martin)
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Just about any fistfight in a B Western starring Bob Steele