Sometimes, you want to go to the movies to experience something magical and wonderful. A touching love story. A wrenching drama. An uproarious comedy. You go to feel something you might not otherwise feel and experience a story that you will probably never experience in real life. You go to connect with characters that you'll never meet in real life, but you would really like to know.
And sometimes, you go to watch shit blow up.
Sometimes, you don't want high concepts and deep characterizations. You don't want all the drama of dramas. Sometimes, you just want to see big explosions. You want to live vicariously through men and women of action. Yes, they're sometimes cartoonish. Yes, they have lines that straddle the line between hilarity and cringing awfulness. And you don't care. For a couple hours, you just want to see good guys win, bad guys lose, and shit blowing up all over the place.
With that in mind, my list of ten action movies.
Conan The Barbarian – If you're going to do a fantasy flick, this should be how you do it. It shouldn't be just swords and sorcery. It should be almost operatic.
300 – A larger-than-life adaptation of a larger-than-life story of legendary figures in a legendary battle.
The Princess Bride – For all the lighthearted lines and jokes, it's a classic adventure.
The Replacement Killers – The first movie I ever saw with Chow-Yun Fat. I didn't quite become an instant fan, and there are several of his earlier works I haven't seen yet, but I try to catch every movie he's done since this one.
Mad Max – It's an oldie and a goodie. Mel Gibson before he got big. The fact that it involved fast cars, motorcycles, and a bit of the ultraviolence enhances the performance.
Sin City – While it has a strong film noir feel, it's all about the gangsters, guns, and girls.
Excalibur – The rise and fall of Camelot, with all the blood, seduction, sorcery, warfare, and grand scale you can handle.
Leon: The Professional – Another first exposure, this one being Jean Reno. It's a little too straightforward for a thriller, but it's an excellent action flick.
The Delta Force – One of the many Chuck Norris films done during the mid-80s. Notable because they managed to find one guy more badass than Chuck Norris: Lee Marvin.
Young Sherlock Holmes – This one is hard to find, which bothers me tremendously. The action was fast paced and well written. Also one of the forgotten landmarks in movie history. This is the first film where a human actor shared the screen with a fully computer generated character and played off of it.
Next time: Thrillers
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