Mine is from The Godfather. I love the part where Sonny beats the holy living hell out of Carlo for abusing his sisterThe part where Sonny pounds Carlo with a garbage can lid is priceless.
Shane. The irony of Alan Ladd and Van Heflin, both in love with the same woman and beatin’ hell outta each other so the other wouldn’t get hurt made me smile. Plus, it was a pretty good fight.
Enter the Dragon.
Pretty much all of the one on one fights in it are fun, but I’d have to pick the finale.
The Alley scene from They Live.
Note some similar posts in this thread:
http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=223701&pagenumber=2
Uncommon Valor
Randall “Tex” Cobb beats the hell out of a young Patrick Swayze, prefacing the butt-whupping with, “Usin’ that Oriental martial bullshit on me is gonna be reeeaaalllll expensive, boy!”
The fistfight between John Wayne and Victor McLaglen in The Quiet Man. It seemed to form the last quarter of the film, yet it was still too short.
McLaglen: “I’m as fresh as a daisy!”
Wayne: “You look more like a black-eyed Susan.”
Raising Arizona, when Nicholas Cage gets the bejeezez knocked out of him by the bounty hunter biker.
The final fight scene between Riggs and what’s his name in Lethal Weapon was okay, but nothing beats Bruce Lee’s choreographed sequences.
On the TV end of things:
Buffy v Angelus in a battle to the death, Becoming II.
Several between Buffy and Spike, but my favorite would be Harsh Light of Day.
Buffy v Glory The Gift.
and most recently, Spike v Angel Destiny
It isn’t actually shown, but my favorite TV ass-kicking was on Rossanne, of all places. When the Fieldings find out that Jackie’s boyfriend has been physically abusive, Dan simply stands up, puts on his coat and steps out the door. He walks back in sometime later cradling his hand and asks for a bowl of ice.
You can have your pretty little kick-boxers. Nobody can administer a whipping like a pissed-off John Goodman.
My favorite Lee sequence was against the full gang behind the restaurant in The Way of the Dragon (AKA Return of the Dragon). The use of the Bo Staff, dual nunchaku and the mocking of each individual before taking them down was excellent. IMO he was at his physical best in that movie, the fight with Chuck Norris was outstanding.
My favorite TV fight seen was Peter Griffin vs. the Giant Chicken.
‘Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back,’ when Jay and Bob fly all over the country beating up people who’ve insulted them on message boards.
Kurt Russel bitch slaps some crooked dealer in Tombstone
David Spade beats the crap out of Chris Farley with a 2x4 in Tommy Boy
Ed Norton kicks the crap out of himself in Fight Club
Frank Sinatra and Henry Silva had a cool dustup in The Machurian Candidate, notable because as far as I know, it was one of the first portrayals of karaté fighting in an American movie, and it wasn’t stylized at all; just two well-trained men squaring off, bruising the hell out of each other and destroying all of Laurence Harvey’s furniture.
The fistfight in They Live, though, wins. I even started a thread about it a while back.
The climactic fight in the foundry in The Legend of Drunken Master. Complete, total, all-out fury. Brutal, fast, and astonishing.
Destroy All Monsters
When Godzilla and the crew all team up for one final whomp on Geidra.
Even Baby Godzilla gets his licks in.
Little Bill kicking English Bob’s ass in Unforgiven.
How about the truck chase in Raiders where Indy first gets his own ass whooped, thrown out the windshield, and dragged behind the truck, only to crawl back up into the cab in true unstoppable-Indy fashion and just beat the hell out of the driver, slamming the guy’s head on the dash repeatedly and finally throwing HIM out the windshield and running over his sorry Nazi ass?
Now THAT’S payback!
It’s not my favourite but it deserves mentioning is Adam Sandler kicking the crap out of those punks in Punch Drunk Love.