Top Gun 2 is all I can think of.
What are the “definitive action movies” of the 2020’s so far?
Pretty crazy that Tom Cruise was the star of 2 of the great action movies of the last 5 years in his late 50's
MI Dead Reckoning was great but Fallout is such an all-timer that it suffers by comparison.
Fallout might genuinely be the best action movie of all time. Just stunning set pieces.
That whole Paris stretch (from the freefall to the nightclub bathroom fight to the extraction + chase) is sublime.
To each their own. I didn’t think Tenet was bad, but it just found it kinda forgettable.
Tenet was just like one long eye roll to me. Just seemed like Nolan got lost in his own sauce.
Tenet was the first Nolan movie, where I was like 'this is kinda bad'.
I’m not going to leave 2029 thinking this was a top action movie of the decade, not even close.
...Sean?
That train sequence rescued dead reckoning from being a huge disappointment
Tenet is one of those movies that is going be looked back on extremely fondly in like 15 years
Some of us get it, others in this comment chain are repeating the same shit people said on release, I know which side I want to be on
If you can clearly explain the plot to Tenet, you’ll be the first person in history to do so.
tenet is garbage purely because of the sound mixing and the plot is way too convoluted. I love other Nolan movies but that film was a mess.
Furiousa is about to be one
Just inject it into my veins.
If The Beekeeper was 15% more ridiculous and ditched the side plot with the cops, it would’ve been #1
I feel like there was a definite we only have Statham for so many days at this salary thing going on with that movie.
Bill would say 18% to 21% more ridiculous
BEOSWARM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Only if Jason “live and die in LA” Statham is attached to
I’ve never seen less convincing cops in a movie lol it was so silly. Fun as hell movie though.
John Wick 4
Too much action, shit got super boring. Like he really gonna fall down stairs for 20 mins
Yeah I tend to agree. By the end I was ready. Still an impressive technical movie.
Can’t believe there was a point of diminishing returns for headshots but we found it
It has to be the best example of “really? Not even one bullet hit him? Ok”
One of the defining traits of John Wick is that he wears a bulletproof suit, with which he uses as cover constantly during fights
He got his punishment with the stair fight, but yeah at a certain point at least one bullet should hit him even by accident, statistically speaking
I feel like with Wick 4, once bullets kinda ceased to matter I was no longer interested as the stakes were lowered.
Once you have full video game immunity, you start to lose focus
But then he isn’t the greatest mercenary ever, and doesnt warrant a movie being made about him in that kind of way. Which just sounds like if you want a fallible John Wick you really just want Mr Nobody
2 is incredible and definitely justified its existence. 3 I think has the best action but the story is just silly as hell. 4 has diminishing returns but at least the story was better than 3 IMO. From 3 on they just kinda seem like feats of action romancing make than complete movies.
Glad to see others with this take. I still loved it but it definitely felt like ‘too much of a good thing’ in some of the scenes with just so many double taps that I kinda just loses its effect:
The overhead scene was awesome, and the story was better than 3 IMO but the action wasn’t as good as 2 or 3.
This might be a hot take but I didn't love JW: 4. It felt like a video game where it was just waves of enemies and bosses one after the other.
How many John Wick's have come out in the 2020s bc those are the answer
Probably just the last one
Tenet
John Wick 4
The Northman
DUNE (pt1. & 2)
AVATAR: Way of Water
The Batman
Top Gun: Maverick
The Killer (sorta)
That's all I got.
Oh duh dune.
Dune is in the action category but it’s not an action movie
It’s sci-fi first and foremost
"This is outrageous. It's unfair. How can you be in the action category and not be an action movie?"
- Denis Villeneuve
On a side note, I agree. Hard to compare it to a traditional action movie.
To try and answer that: I think lots of sci-fi is also action.
Dune is Sci-Fi Action, Aliens is Action Sci-Fi
Avatar is Sci-Fi Action and Star Trek is Sci-Fi Action
But Interstellar is Action Sci-fi
I don't think Interstellar qualifies as Action at all. Pure Sci-Fi Drama IMO.
Agreed completely. I was also thinking about The Last Duel, but similar to Dune, I figured that fit more cleanly in a different category. In my mind to be a “definitive” action movie, that has to be your primary lane.
Action isn’t a genre. It’s just the interior design inside the house of another genre.
Yeahhh I wouldn’t count dune.
Dune isn't exactly action packed. I don't mean it's bad.
Pt 2 is pretty action-packed
The FloridaMan fight scene in The Killer is incredible
This is the answer right here. The Batman, The Northman, and Tenet all underrated
I like The Northman but it was objectively a box office flop
And objectively who gives a shit. Especially with its reputation continuing to grow.
I like how the camera followed the dude as he climbed the fence
Just dont think you can compare it to movies like Dune that is literally 10x more successful.
You dont need to be such a little bitch about it.
Den of Thieves 2
I need Den of thieves 2 pumped into me with Banes mask from dark knight rises. I’m going on a bender at a strip club and doing nothing but smoking and throwing donuts into the hot zone for the whole release month
The Suicide Squad
John Wick 4
RRR
Monkey Man
Nobody
The Fall Guy
The Killer
Kill Boksoon
The Dune movies depending on how broad your interpretation of action is.
Been a pretty decent year for action compared to the previous few this year.
Although I doubt the genre is gonna be as strong as it was in the early 2010s anytime soon.
Did really enjoy monkey man and suicide squad, good lists
Monkey Man nearly getting shelved is genuinely bizarre. That movie is great for streaming. Netflix blew it.
The budget was only like a 10 million! Insane what he did with it
Throw in The Batman and I think this is a pretty comprehensive list. I liked Gunn’s third Guardians movie a lot too.
Monkey Man just dropped. That may have legs.
I appreciate that Mobley Man wasn’t a full 10/10 but I really enjoyed it. Would be interesting to hear how Bills listeners responded to it.
Mobley Man lol - would be a great movie if it existed
Hahaha I didn’t see my typo but it’s curious because I ca t remember the last time I typed Mobley for it to be predictive text on my phone
Nevertheless Mobley Man is a film about a promising young big who doesn’t get his qualifying offer, gets traded to Charlotte and makes his way to a DPOY one scalp at a time.
I loved it but I’m a filmbro sadly
Equalizer 3?
Equalizer 3 is badass
RRR
RRR's handshake and piggyback riding both outdo the running on the beach from Rocky III.
Dungeons & Dragons: Honour Among Thieves
Is this really that good?
It's so good, and funny. Chris Pine is 100% awesome in it. And I say that as someone who never played D&D
I don’t want to see you die… That’s why I’m leaving the room.
Absolutely, especially if you have any familiarity with the game, although it's not mandatory. There's a joke with a character walking in a straight line that my fam still uses to this day.
They did a good job of capturing some of the ridiculousness
Yes, it is.
I've seen it twice now, and I absolutely love it.
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I liked that movie but I think the fantasy setting moves it out of the squarely Action Movie Action Movie category.
Y'all sleeping on The Beekeeper
Everything Everywhere All At Once won an Oscar and for sure counts as an action movie. I think my list would also have
RRR
Bullet Train
Prey
The Northman
The Woman King
Extraction
Polite Society
Greenland (such a great 90s throwback)
Prey is great yes
Hell yes RRR I loved that movie. Absolutely belongs on this list.
Northman absolutely
Prey Absolutely
Greenland doesn't have a lot of action, I guess I'd call it a disaster movie. I loved it, wish there were more mid-budget movies like that. You don't need to make Moonfall if you can make Greenland.
Great list. Haven’t seen Polite Society but I enjoyed all the others. Especially Woman King
Triple Frontier
2019 technically.
True
Extraction
Madam Web.
Some decent Liam neeson recents
Avatar 2, Dune Part 2
Bullet Train was a lot of fun.
Hi, I'm the Shea Serrano of /r/BillSimmons so I'm here to tell you how fantastic all of these 2020's action movies are;
2020
* Greenland
* Project Power
* The Gentlemen
* The Old Guard
2021
* Nobody
* Shang Chi
* The King's Man
* Wrath of Man
* CopShop
2022
* Bullet Train - please see this if you haven't! It's so good!
* The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent
* Top Gun Maverick
* The Woman King
* RRR
* Violent Night
* Prey
* Everything Everywhere All at Once
2023
* Plane
* The Covenant
* GOTG3
* The Marvels
* MI: Dead Reckoning
* The Equalizer 3
* The Creator
* D&D Honor Among Thieves
* John Wick 4
* Godzilla Minus One
* Sisu
* Extraction 2
* The Killer
If you're a fan of the genre, you'll enjoy every single one of these movies.
Shang Chi 100%. Fucking bus scene is the best action sequence since The Matrix 2.
You've been downvoted but you're not wrong.
Incredible action scene that gets overlooked because it was in a Marvel movie.
Wrath of Man fucks
Scott Eastwood ruined it for me. Really bad actor unfortunately
Absolutely.
Maverick
so last week i watched "fall guy" in the theater after already hearing that it bombed and the experience was kinda depressing because while it wasn't exactly great it seemed like an earnest attempt at a big bugdet blockbuster that yet was also non-IP.
its basic model was having an A-list cast and a massive advertising campaign to make it money, which clearly did not work. as manufacutred as that tract may be it used to work in the 90s and gave us good content and now it seems hopeless.
I don't even really like Way of Water all that much but (not to prompt any discussion on "cultural relevance" or whatnot, because it clearly doesn't matter) it seems weird not to include Cameron going full-tilt apeshit for an hour straight on any list of "Best Action Films of the Last 4 Years" - which is basically what's being asked for here.
2023: John Wick 4, Polite Society. Maybe Guardians 3 (which has some really good action in it, honestly)
2022: Top Gun Maverick, Avatar: The Way of Water, Prey, The Woman King, Everything Everywhere All At Once, RRR (jesus christ what a year)
2021: This is a tough year. Nobody? No Time to Die? Godzilla v Kong? I dunno. These all seem borderline to me.
2020: The Old Guard. Bad Boys for Life.
So, of those listed.... add Wick 4 and Polite Society to 2022 and call that a wrap.
I think Avatar has some crazy good action scenes.
People watching that at the cinema and claiming not being entertained are lying.
Extraction 1 and 2
Definitive is pretty hard to think of. But in terms of legitimately good action movies that were decently successful: Nobody, Ambulance, and Prey.
Tenet
Pretty slow decade so far huh
John Wick 4
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Ambulance is definitive Bay
The Batman.
There are none, there are just some action moves that came out. None of them will be significant. The 80s were the definitive action movie decade and there is just nobody who can compete with Arnie, Sly, and the latent homoeroticism that dominated the decade. Maverick is trash that was literally only popular because of covid + 80s nostalgia--imagine that movie if Top Gun didn't exist it's just a meme; John Wick is tired; Marvel stuff is for children; there are others that are fine but 'definitive'? None.
John Wick 4, Mission Impossible 7, top gun 2, bad boys for life, Mr Nobody, Violent Night, bullet train, the killer, the Batman, and if you consider Iron Claw action, but that about sums up the most notable action movies.
John Wick 4 Ambulance Nobody Top Gun: Maverick The Northman Wrath Of Man One Shot RRR The Paper Tigers Shang Chi
Those are just off the dome.
Extraction, beating those kids up>>>>
Mank
Can I consider EEAAO an action movie? It’s a ton of action/ fighting even if that’s not the focus of the movie
For my money, I’d say Avatar 2 has the best action scenes of any movie so far this decade.
Bullet Train
It’s Top Gun Maverick. Nothing else is worth discussing.
The Grey Man
Chris Evans almost saved this. Almost.
John Wick
Though the superhero thing is on the decline I think you need to include Spider-Man: No Way Home and Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse
Top Gun Maverick is still clearly #1.
I’d also have MI Dead Reckoning and Tenet in the top 3 but I’m very, very high on Tenet.