[The Canadian Content]

Also no Firewall, you'll notice.

The Fugitive was never one of my faves, and I'm just not a big fan of the Clancy movies (although the first three were masterpieces compared to the one Affleck was in).

[The Jewish Cunthead]

How could you not like The Fugitive? Where else are you going to find Joey Pants and Rose from Lost on screen at the same time?

[Batman]

The Fugitive is a big favorite of mine, but it's appeal is based too much on the suspense for me to really justify nominating it as an action movie. It's really more of a thriller. There ain't no explosions or nothing.

[The Canadian Content]

The Fugitive just never did anything for me. Ford? Check. Tommy Lee Jones? Check. Interest? For some reason, no check.

[The Jewish Cunthead]

sergeial said:

The Fugitive is a big favorite of mine, but it's appeal is based too much on the suspense for me to really justify nominating it as an action movie. It's really more of a thriller. There ain't no explosions or nothing.

I'm still floored you nominated Die Hard 2 but not the first one. ???

[Batman]

Ha! I was waiting for you to question that.

I'd chalk it up to seeing the second one first. I freaking loved Die Hard 2. Trying and failing to save the one airplane, the betrayal of the special-forces guy, firing a machine-gun with blanks at Sipowicz, and especially the fight on the airplane wing and the way he gets back at the escaping bad guys and saves his wife's plane at the same time. . . .

Then I finally got around to seeing the first one, and it was a big meh in comparison. If I had seen it first, I might have been more impressed, but I think that everything it did, the second one improved on. I'll admit that the fight with the big German dude was cool, but wasn't it kind of a rip-off of the fight between Bond and Odd-Job?

[The Jewish Cunthead]

Die Hard was meh. OK I've pretty much heard it all now.

[Stu]

I think reading between the lines, we can find the real answer...

sergeial said:

Ha! I was waiting for you to question that.

I'd chalk it up to seeing the second one first. I freaking loved Die Hard 2. Trying and failing to save the one airplane, the betrayal of the special-forces guy, firing a machine-gun with blanks at Sipowicz, and especially William Sadler doing Karate in the Nude. . . .

8-)

[Evil Scotty]

1. Die Hard
2. Pay Back
3. Lethal Weapon
4. Predator
5. Tango and Cash
6. Way of the Gun
7. Unleashed (Danny the Dog)
8. Die Hard 2
9. Lethal Weapon 2
10. Lethal Weapon 3
11. Die Hard with a Vengeance
12. Terminator
13. Soilder
14. Commando
15. The Mummy
16. Running Scared
17. The Rock
18. Boondock Saints
19. Running man
20. First Blood
21. Lethal Weapon 4
22. The Negotiator
23. Casino Royale
24. Mr. & Mrs. Smith
25. Terminator 2

[The Canadian Content]

psychofish said:

I just modified mine. I'm calling my list final.

Turns out I lied. I changed it slightly. Now I'm done.

Probably.

[Batman]

scottdg77 said:

2. Pay Back

I knew that eventually someone would nominate something that would inspire me to change my list. Pay Back made me think of Last Man Standing which made me think of The Fifth Element and all of them have now been added to my list.

(No, I'm still not sure if the list is final.)

Anyone who saw Last Man Standing and maybe forgot clean about it--as I had--wouldn't you say that the movie is worth some consideration?

But then, I'm a sucker for "one really bad-ass guy takes on a whole army of bad guys" stories.

[Krydor]

I'm basing my list on stuff I have watched multiple times and will continue to watch. That's what makes a good action flick. I'll probably be reorganizing this list, but I doubt the content will change.

1) True Grit-You owe all your action movies to Wayne, and here's his Oscar performance, as that was essentially a lifetime Oscar.
2) Die Hard-Yes, awesome
3) Dirty Harry-Do you feel lucky?
4) Fistful of Dollars-Man With No Name pwns
5) Return of the Dragon-Bruce and Chuck? Awesome
6) Shane-Is it an action movie? A cowboy movie? Who knows, but that plot has been recycled by everyone else. It's awesome
7) Red Dawn-Wolverines!!!!!!!
Raiders of the Lost Ark-Melty Nazis?
9) Delta Force-Unbelievable Cheese with Lee Marvin and Chuck Norris. A magic motorcycle!
10) First Blood-made for 10 bucks and a sixpack of beer. Redefined action movies.
11) Commando-he uses a circular saw blade to scalp a guy, plus awesome one liners
12) Bloodsport-First, and best, JCVD movie. Bolo, people, Bolo
13) Hard to Kill-Don't care what everyone says... Awesomely bad.
14) A Better Tomorrow-Chow Yun Fat.
15) Armour of the Gods-Is this the sequel or the original story? Damn you, North American Distributors. Awesome Jackie Chan
16) Ong Bak-You've seen it, you love it. Slow Mo knees to the head. No plot, really.
17) The 300- Holds up with multiple viewings. Historical bastardization aside, awesome.
18) The Great Escape-Love the cast, but the action starts near the end. Charles Bronson, Steve McQueen, Jimmy Garner? Awesome. Take that, Nazis! Historically crappy, as it was a POW camp for Brits and Canucks.
19) High Noon-'Nother cowboy flick. 'Nother superfantastic iconic star
20) Escape From New York-Snake is great, but he isn't greater than Gary Cooper
21) Road Warrior-This will be higher up, I think. Superior to the first movie, action wise.
22) The Mechanic-Charles Bronson & Jan Mikey Vincent battle with their wits and explosive devices
23) Cliffhanger-Sly once more, but vintage Sly
24) The Wild Bunch-Slo-mo chest explosions
25) Lethal Weapon-Need some Donner on my list.

[The Jewish Cunthead]

krydor said:

11) Commando-he uses a circular saw blade to scalp a guy, plus awesome one liners

"Where's Sully?"
"I let him go."

"Do not disturb my friend, he is dead tired."

"Let off some steam Bennett."

"Come on, let the girl go, just between you and me, don't deprive yourself of some pleasure, come on Bennett, lets party!"

"Any carry-on luggage?"
"Just him."

[Stu]

krydor said:

15) Armour of the Gods-Is this the sequel or the original story? Damn you, North American Distributors. Awesome Jackie Chan

Which one is it? The one with the awesome and hilarious Giant Air Tunnel Fan Fight was the sequel.

[dsolo1986]

1. Star Wars
2. Raiders Of The Lost Ark
3. Terminator
4. Die Hard
5. T2
6. The Empire Strikes Back
7. Indiana Jones & The Last Crusade
8. Matrix
9. Return of the Jedi
10. Predator
11. The Running Man
12. Hunt for Red October
13. The Rock
14. Lethal Weapon
15. Total Recall
16. Kill Bill: Vol 1
17. Desperado
18. Face/Off
19. Independence Day
20. Cliffhanger
21. First Blood
22. Commando
23. Top Gun
24. The Fugitive
25. Armageddon

[Krydor]

Which one is it? The one with the awesome and hilarious Giant Air Tunnel Fan Fight was the sequel.

I'm thinking of the one where Jackie rolls down the mountain in the giant ball and ends up getting a stick in the back of the head.

They were released out of order on VHS in North America. Condor was supposed to be first, and that one had the giant fan. They went to the hidden Nazi base. Or not, all I know is that they are out of order and I'm too lazy to check IMDB or Wiki.

[Stu]

Can I ask why you didn't have Police Story (AKA "FUCKING GLASS! THINK YOUR SO SHIT HOT, HUH? I'LL SHOW YOU!")on your list, Krydor? Didn't see it, or just don't like it enough?

[Krydor]

Because I thought the Condor/Armour flicks had better insane stunts. Jackie's uncle rocks, though.

Isn't Rumble in the Bronx a part of the Police Story series, or did they just employ the same actors. Sigh... Stupid distribution. Took me awhile to get that Fists of Fury was actually called the Big Boss and Return of the Dragon was originally titled Fists of Fury.

[Stu]

First Strike is meant to be part of the Police Story series. I doubt Rumble in the Bronx is, as there's no references to him being a cop in that.

As for the Bruce Lee movies, um, for us, the first one (the one with the Ice Warehouse or something) was always called Big Boss as far as I know. The one with Chuck was Way of the Dragon, and the one where he fights the japanese dojo(Jackie did a stunt for that, as well as play a guard that gets his neck broke by Bruce in Enter the Dragon) was Fists of Fury. But the titles are so generic, it wouldn't matter how they were reassigned.

[Krydor]

Different titles up here.

In order of release up here, but production dates are screwey:

Fists Of Fury (Aka Big Boss)
Chinese Connection (as far as I know, it's the same everywhere)
Enter The Dragon (also the same)
Return of the Dragon (AKA Fists of Fury)
Game of Death (horrible cinematic abortion featuring Bruce for about 10 minutes, which was partially shot prior to Enter the Dragon)

[docx]

I had to modify my list too. Forgot about Pay Back. Forgot about Man on Fire.

And anyone who nominates Die Hard 2 and not 1 is teh stoopit. I saw 1 when there was still a single screen theatre in Milwaukee. Let me tell you something: that movie on an actual "big screen" was mind-blowing. That experience cemented that flick as one of the all time greats, in my mind.

[Batman]

I can completely see where you're coming from. It's like when you play an old record for someone and they're like "big deal, that sounds like a million other records I've heard," and you're like "Yeah, but they were first, those million others were just copying these guys."

What can I say, I don't doubt if I'd seen it when it was first released I might very well have been blown away, but ten years after the fact on VHS, I wasn't. I liked it, I just didn't love it.


mta:

One more thing. If I were making a list of the most important or influential action movies, I would have rated Die Hard #1 with a bullet. No doubt about it. I understand how big a deal Die Hard was for the genre.

One more one more thing. You've got to consider the source. I rated Broken Arrow #1. Nobody else ranked the movie at all. I know I have unusual tastes, I'm resigned to it.

[The Jewish Cunthead]

stu said:

I doubt Rumble in the Bronx is, as there's no references to him being a cop in that.

Nah, he's just a kid caught up in his UNCOE's problems.

Drunken Master, Rumble and Supercop just missed my cut.

[The Canadian Content]

sergeial said:

I rated Broken Arrow #1.

I forgot to mention that I noticed that right away. I was going to give you a hard time about it, because it's a crappy movie and all, but then I remembered the acting genius that is Howie Long, and I kept my peace.

[Batman]

Mentioning the fact that I had unusual tastes made me think of the fact that I nominated a Corey movie in the Comedy Showdown, which made me think of Lost Boys. Fuck, yeah! Lost Boys!

I know it has horror elements, but to me it's only horror if the protagonist screams and runs away. If the protagonist loads up for bear and fights, that's more action to me.