Chewers' 165 Best Action Films Of The 00's - Page 2

43. Hero (2002)

Simply the most beautiful martial arts movie of the 00's.   The politics of the movie make it feel a little like propaganda from the Chinese government but it doesn't get in the way of wonderfully staged action sequences and some of the most jaw dropping cinematography in any movie from the 00's.   A classic.

44) The Way of The Gun

Christopher McQuarrie's debut as a director(from his own script), The Way of The Gun is a straight-up CRIME film about two low-rent criminals. It just happens to have some really exhilarating hard hitting shoot-outs.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Art Decade 

 

Quantum Of Solace has some excellent action sequences but it's poorly written & constructed screenplay does alot to overshadow how well made it is. By itself, QoS is terrible but it works really well if it's watched in tandem with CR.

I might be blinded by my love of all things Bond and especially with Daniel Craig. My own history of the film was(CAUTION RAMBLING AHEAD) viewing 1: let down in the theatre, viewing 2: on bluray at home could see better what was going on and tempered expectations made me enjoy it, viewing 3: back to back with CR really showed how it doesn't compare to CR(exact opposite expected reaction), viewing 4: this week at home sick, liked it for what it was. A ruthless Bond unleashed, bull in a china shop style who still manages to come out on top.

I don't find it terrible.

45. Torque (2004)

This list needs some Ice Cube.  And bike fu.   And a motorcycle that can go 300 mph.   Gonzo action at its finest.

46. "Equilibrium" (2002), Directed by Kurt Wimmer.

"No, not without incident"

This may sound blasphemous to some, but I liked this movie more than all of the other utopian future movies, despite how derivative of them it is. More than "The Matrix", "Nineteen Eighty-Four", "Brazil", "Strange Days", "Battle Royale", "Minority Report", and yes, even "Blade Runner". It's a close call between this, "Minority Report", and "Battle Royale", because I love all three almost equally, but this one just gets to me just a little bit more.

I think the biggest reason is how much I love Christian Bale's performance and because I find the whole gun kata thing endlessly entertaining, goofy as it may be. As has been said before, this really did seem like Bale's 'audition' for the Batman role, and that's another reason why I have this biased nostalgia-based affection for it - seeing it and "American Psycho" for the first time around the same period is what got me most stoked to see him play Batman.

Also, there are several unforgettably touching or badass sequences here, like his moving experiences with a dog and music, and his final beatdown of the bad guys, preceded by one of my favourite one-liners in movie history. Another reason I have a soft spot for this movie is I always smile remembering how it inspired a mention of Nick Nunziata and CHUD.com in a Roger Ebert movie review.

47) Transformers: Revenge Of The Fallen!  The Autobots, and the Decepticons continue their war on...Planet Dirt!  The opening number of Optimus, and his teammates in NEST, the special ops unit led by Josh Duhamel's Captain Lennox, hunting down rogue Decepticons is...Awesome!  Agent Simmons, yelling at an Officer to use that F_ _ _in rail gun to take out Devastator from blowing up the...Sun is Awesome!  Optimus Prime, taking JetFire's Wings and taking out...The Fallen, is...Awe-Inspiringly All Kinds Of Awesome!  The Shot of Optimus and Sam on the deck of the Aircraft Carrier as the credits role is...Beautifully shot!

48) Indiana Jones and The Kingdom Of The Crystal Skull!  Sure, it is not in the same league as...Raiders Of The Lost Ark, or Temple of Doom, but Indy marrying his gal Marion, is the Swan Song the character of Dr. Indiana Jones deserves.  It is also far better than...The Last Crusade.  I enjoyed seeing Dr. Jones and his son against...EEEEEEEEvil Russians.

49. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000, Ang Lee)

Gorgeous images, great stunt work, charismatic performances and chock full of drama, romance and action. A seminal film.

50) X-Men Origins Wolverine!  This film is...Awe-Inspiring.  Join Wolverine Sabertooth, and pals, and other oddities like Adamantium Bullets, causing...Logan's Run of Amnesia!  Wolverine vs Stryker, Wolverine vs Agent 0 especially Wolverine slashing 0's Chopper's Blades.  Truly, Wolverine is the...Best at what he does, and what he does isn't very nice.  This film is...All Kinds Of Awesome!

50. Ong Bak (2003, Prachya Pinkaew)

Brought brutality back to martial arts cinema, yet without sacrificing any grace. Tony Jaa is a maelstrom of athletic devastation, the Johnny Rotten to wire-fu prog rock. The first true successor to Bruce Lee. It's the only straightforward martial arts film I've seen in cinemas and a packed house ate it up. Bone-smashingly awesome.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Judas Booth 

Love ya duke, but I think we may need a ruling on one or two of your picks.

Don't wish to dogpile but I'm with Judas on this one. The decade is easily going to have 100 genuinely good action films, and despite the occasional charms of geriatric Indy and Liev Schrieber's fine nail work, I'd be interested to see if these three would make the cut by the time the list is done.

Sorry Duke, Revenge of the Fallen should have come a lot later. If not ever.

Judas Booth, HunterTarantino, jhp1608, Sorry, those are some of my picks.  I won't mention any other chewer picks I...Disagree with.  By the way...

52) Azumi! Ryuhei Kitamura's...Awesome Samurai Ninja Fest!  Truly his...Masterwork.  Sure...Versus and Godzilla Final Wars are...All Kinds Of Awesome, but they are behind this excellent film.

Art Decade, Well, I think they belong...Over Other Films.  Fine.

50. Rocky Balboa (2006) Sylvester Stallone

Sly brings back his most iconic character, rescuing the franchise from the ditch, and delivers a film with enough stand up and cheer moments /moving character work to put it up with the best of the series. A worthy companion piece to the brilliant original. That Sly pulled this off is an even bigger achievement than RAMBO.

Quote:

Originally Posted by duke fleed 

Judas Booth, HunterTarantino, jhp1608, Sorry, those are some of my picks.  I won't mention any other chewer picks I...Disagree with.  By the way...

52) Azumi! Ryuhei Kitamura's...Awesome Samurai Ninja Fest!  Truly his...Masterwork.  Sure...Versus and Godzilla Final Wars are...All Kinds Of Awesome, but they are behind this excellent film.

Sorry duke, but I can't get behind Transformers or Indy either. But I'm with you 100% on Azumi! It's is an amazing action film that deserves to be on the list. More people need to see it.

So where are we on numbering then? Art?

51.  Doomsday (2008)  dir. Neil Marshall

It's Escape From Glasgow with a female Snake Plissken by way of Mad McMax.  It's utterly intentionally derivative, just as much a love letter to B-movies as Grindhouse.  It has a climactic car chase scored to Frankie Goes to Hollywood.  How can you not love that?

52. House of Flying Daggers (2004) d. Yimou Zhang

Some may prefer Hero or even Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon but I've always enjoyed this film the most. The cinematography is eye-achingly beautiful and the action scenes pure poetry. The only thing I don't like about it is the stupid cgi snowstorm at the end. I wish Yimou had just left that out.

54.  The Fast and the Furious (2001)

God help me but every time this is on, I watch it.   It's cheesy, dumb, and just a whole lot of fun.  Plus the psychedelic effects when someone pushes the Noz button are kind of awesome.   I have no logical defense for its inclusion except to say I like it and it's fun and sometimes that's enough.

Since the first two have already already gone up...

55.

After this film, the first two installments look like nothing more than warm-ups. The sheer scope and variety of bodily harm and medieval weapon interplay is staggering. From enormous pileups of bodies as one army careens into another at galloping speed, to dragon attacks, to brutal Hobbit-on-ex-Hobbit-warped-by-evil action, to hailstorms of arrows, to giant elephants scything through horsemen, to lone man versus a troll, to lone Hobbit versus a giant scary motherfucking spider, and on and on. Put this movie in the dictionary, and you illustrate "epic."

56. Pineapple Express (2008) d. David Gordon Green

"You just got killed by a Daewoo Lanos, motherfucker!"

"I'm trying to decide how stoned I am and just how on the verge of death am I right now. Like, am I seeing shit because I'm stoned or because I have no blood left in my body?"

"I'm gonna fucking become a civil engineer. Design septic tanks for playgrounds. Little kids can take shits."

My favorite Action-Comedy of the decade. It's hilarious, and the whole cast is game. It gets what was great about the gems of the 80's, while adding its own (modern) flavor.

(Danny McBride going to battle cranking Public Enemy is just one of many awesome moments)

Quote:

Originally Posted by duke fleed 

Art Decade, Well, I think they belong...Over Other Films.  Fine.

Duke, yours is a voice I have come to look forward to hearing on these boards and by post count alone you render my status around here virtually meaningless. Nonetheless, I fear that the point at issue here isn't one person's subjective taste, but quality control. The accepted view, based on sensible criteria is that the second Transformers sequel, the latest Indy movie and the Wolverine film are not "good" movies. You might enjoy them, heck, we all might in one way or another, but they aren't of sufficient merit to find an automatic place in a list of "best" movies. 

I for one am certainly not having a pop at your taste. Just questioning whether a list of the best 100 movies in a genre that spawned a lot of quality pieces during this decade necessarily includes those films.

Sorry.

jhp1068, I do not...Separate my...Favorite films from my...Top 10 list.  In 2009, My Top 5 was...

1) G.I. Joe Rise Of Cobra

2) Watchmen

3) Ninja Assassin

4) Transformers Revenge Of The Fallen

5) X-Men Origins Wolverine

I do agree with each person having his or her own tastes.  I would never tell anyone their preference was wrong. 

Given some of the choices Duke has made, I'd be curious to know what some of his choices would be for worst movies in this genre and others. I'd definitely expect some unpredictable picks. Has there ever been a Chewers' Worst Films of some genre on this site? That might be a neat experiment, although there's always the danger of pissing people off by listing stuff they like. Maybe that kind of list should be a shorter one, like how IMDB has a bottom 100, instead of a bottom 250 as a counterpart to the top 250.

58. Inglorious Basterds (2009) d. Quentin Tarantino

Who could have predicted that QT's announced remake of an Italian B Men-On-A-Mission movie would turn out to be a powerful revenge story serving as an intelligent mediation on violence and the power of cinema? The fever pitch third act packs an emotional wallop, climaxing with audacity, going to a place you almost can't believe. His best film, and one of the masterpieces of the decade.

(Also, some people criticize the casting of Eli Roth as "The Bear Jew", but I think he's perfect. He gives one of the great performances of the film. The sinister moment early on when he emerges from the tunnel ready to kill, and the look on his face right before he blows away the Nazi High Command are chilling, and pulled off brilliantly . He's the audience identifier, but of our darkest instincts)

59. Doomsday (2008) - Neil Marshall

Boy, did i have fun with this. Neil Marshall combining Escape From New Year and a few other genre films to create this enjoyable romp.

Also this scene.

Already covered.

Sorry. Missed that.

Naisu Baddi, Well for one, to me the worst Tarantino Films are...Jackie Brown and Inglorious Basterds.  For Superhero films...Elektra, Catwoman, Batman and Robin, Batman Forever, Superman Returns, Superman 3 and 4.  Also, some of the...Oscar Winners are films I would consider...Awful.  A Beautiful Mind is one such film.

I'll disagree with you on the two Tarantino films, but I'm right there with you on those superhero films and 'A Beautiful Mind'.

Art Decade, THAT...Battlestar Galactica...Lite? WOW!  There is no series I actually hate more than that.  I much prefer...Glen A. Larson's...Classic...Battlestar Galactica!  Not even...Star Wreck Voyager! Hopefully...Bryan Singer, will base his new film on Glen A. Larson's Battlestar, and not that Felbergarb that Moore passed!  Give me...Space Clothes, Laser Pistols, a fully operational Galactica, Male Starbuck, Commander Cain and Boomer.  Colonel Tigh should not be a drunkard, he should be played by...Dennis Haysbert!  I want the cool names...Apollo and Starbuck et al to be actual...Names, and not call signs.  I want Mechanical Cylons, Imperious Leader, Lucifer, Balter as an...EEEEEEEvil Traitor.  Stu Phillips lush musical score!  I even rate...Galactica 1980, Galactica Lite over Moore's crap.

Art Decade, That is just the way I feel.  You enjoy it.

60. District 9 (Blomkamp, 2009)

Part Cronenbergian body horror, part James Cameron circa Aliens edge-of-your-seat sci/fi action blockbuster, part Verhoeven-esque subversive commentary on the direction of society, part Alien Nation, and yet it's the best and most original sci-fi film to come along in 20 years. An out and out thrill. The best stand against apartheid since Lethal Weapon 2.

No offense intended at all duke, just curious.

What is the deal with...typing sentences out like....this?  Are you....using some sort of.....PC translator or....Voice recognition software?

I have to agree with you on Jackie Brown, just didn't do it for me.

61.  Kung Fu Hustle (2004) dir. Stephen Chow

So amazingly funny.  Pig Sty Alley secretly houses many Kung Fu Masters and one day they are revealed.  Loaded with gags, like a live action Looney Tunes.

Please see this film.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Art Decade 

59. Battlestar Galactica

2004-2009, created by Ronald D. Moore

 

So say we all.

 

Why is this in a "Best Films" thread? Because, when watched in it's entirety, BSG is a linear 75 hour movie. A finite cinematic work of thematic depth & character with cosmically epic yet crushingly intimate scope. How odd is it that a basic cable rehash of a cheesy 70s ripoff of Star Wars would turn out to be one the best single hour action-dramas ever made? A heady amalgam of Das Boot, Robotech, & any other number of influences one could think of, the series was anchored & came about amidst the cathartic swell of post-911 reflection, serving as a meditation on loss & survival in the face of desperate uncertainty. From the consistently brilliant writing & impeccable acting to the teeth-grindingly intense action sequences, BSG surpassed every measure of quality, breaking free of it's ghetto-ized nerd genre & staking it's claim as sci-fi television's equivalent of "The Great Russian novel".

Good write up.   And honestly, there's probably more TV shows that can fit in this thread if we really dug.   BSG's quality easily surpasses many films already on this list.

62. Star Wars: Clone Wars (2003-2005)

When we were kids, THIS is what we thought the adventures of Young Obi Wan and Annakin would be like.   Jedis doing badass shit and having demi god level force power.   I want to include the actual prequel movies as they have great action sequences, but then people start talking and then it becomes a problem.   No such conflict here.   Best Star Wars since Empire.