Entertainment
10 Most Fun Action Movies of All Time
Action movies tend to be fun, even if fun is a subjective sort of thing, and different action movies are going to be different levels of entertaining for different people. It’s a bit like how, with horror, most people would appreciate certain horror films as being genuinely scary, but not everyone is going to be scared by such films in the same way, or to the same extent.
That’s a way to stress a good deal of subjectivity being involved with the creation of a ranking like this. Action movies that feel especially fun to one person are unlikely to be, in their entirety, counted among the most enjoyable or broadly entertaining in the eyes of another person. Also, “most fun” is different from “best,” which is why there are plenty of iconic action films that you won’t see mentioned below.
10
‘John Wick: Chapter 4’ (2023)
The first John Wick movie might be the best, or most important, or like, have the most interesting non-action parts of any John Wick movie, but the sequels are perhaps more entertaining if you’re really just after action. The first film has the titular character dealing with the loss of his wife, and then the murder of his puppy, and that launches him on a whole revenge-fueled rampage, the aftermath of which propels the narrative of the subsequent movies.
John Wick: Chapter 4 is a finale for the main series, at least for now, and it succeeds at going bigger – and getting more explosive – than any of the John Wick movies that came before it. There are too many good action sequences to even try and mention them all, and it’s instead easier to highlight the fantastic variety on offer, since you get great shootouts, impressive stunts, and tons of exciting hand-to-hand combat, too.
9
‘Kung Fu Hustle’ (2004)
Since it’s one of the goofier and more broadly comedic martial arts movies out there, Kung Fu Hustle feels like it’s required to be here. The story here has a hero’s journey and an attempt at training to better oneself thing going for it that sounds incredibly conventional on paper, but then you get to the execution of Kung Fu Hustle, and it’s anything but conventional or expected.
The fight choreography impresses in much the same way it might impress in a more serious-minded martial arts film.
At the same time, it’d also be unfair to characterize Kung Fu Hustle as solely a parody of martial arts movies, just because it does take care with its action scenes, and the fight choreography impresses in much the same way it might impress in a more serious-minded martial arts film. There are two worlds here, so to speak, and perhaps you get the best of both of them. The fun that can be had here, thanks to the collision of action and comedy, is undeniable.
8
‘Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah’ (1991)
While there are plenty of great monster movies without Godzilla, so many all-time iconic ones do indeed have the king of the monsters at their center. See Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah for one of many examples, though it’s being included here because of how endearing and goofy it is, as an action-packed romp. Basically, it’s like The Terminator (altering the past to improve the present/future), but with giant monsters instead of cyborgs.
Tonally, you get a bit of everything when you watch all the Godzilla movies, with this particular film being one of the most fun. It’s also got a real emphasis on action and high-concept sci-fi ideas central to the whole thing, and that inevitably keeps the entertainment value high. Maybe Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah is too silly for some, but if it’s somehow not silly enough for you, then you can always go back to some Showa era entries that are arguably even goofier (like Godzilla vs. Megalon).
7
‘RRR’ (2022)
The runtime of RRR is a big reason why it really does feel, like, big and everything, but then you get to how over-the-top the action is, and that proves to be an undeniable factor in the whole bigness thing here, too. There are two main characters in RRR that are loosely based on real people, though here, they’re basically made into superheroes, and both have their own reasons to become revolutionary warriors before they meet and team up.
Those real-life people didn’t meet in reality, but RRR isn’t too concerned with historical accuracy. It’s a bit like historical fan-fiction done on an epic scale, with the broader conflict here having some ties to India’s history, since that conflict involves the British colonial rule in pre-independence India. That does ensure the film has its serious and more dramatic moments, but so much of this is concerned with being a broadly entertaining and endlessly exciting action blockbuster. It succeeds in just about everything it sets out to do, well and truly feeling like one of the best epic movies released in recent memory.
6
‘The Raid 2’ (2014)
2011’s The Raid felt a bit like a linear video game, and it also kind of had literal levels, since it took place inside a high-rise apartment and involved SWAT officers having to battle their way out of there. You could maybe compare The Raid 2 to more of an open-world game, because this one was far grander in scope, with all the fighting and violence happening across a much wider set of locations, and over a longer period of time, too.
Now, both movies in this series (if a series can be just two movies long… maybe it’s a duology, then?) are extremely violent, so if violence gets in the way of fun you might otherwise have, calling The Raid and The Raid 2 incredibly fun might not feel all that fitting. But if you don’t mind fight choreography that oftentimes feels gnarly and brutally real, these movies are essential, with The Raid 2 possibly being ever so slightly more entertaining than the already excellent The Raid.
5
‘Hard Boiled’ (1992)
You could argue John Woo peaked, as a director, more than three decades ago, which might sound disappointing for someone who’s continued to direct over the last 30-ish years… but also, when that peak was achieved with a movie as good as Hard Boiled, is that really such a bad thing to say? For the kind of action movie it is, it’s basically perfect, being no-nonsense, unrelenting, potentially goofy (at least at times), and wonderfully over-the-top.
It’s about two guys, and they need to shoot a bunch of other guys. So they shoot away, and then other things explode, and there’s so much general destruction. Things end up at a hospital, and the action just keeps going on and on and on. It’s the best kind of mindless action movie, and for how generous it is, Hard Boiled really does feel like just about as classic as purely entertaining action-fests get.
4
‘Kill Bill: Vol. 1’ (2003)
Now that it’s more widely available, Kill Bill: The Whole Bloody Affair is likely the best way to experience Kill Bill, rather than watching Vol. 1 (2003) and Vol. 2 (2004) back-to-back. But Kill Bill: Vol. 1 is the one going here just because it’s more of a full-on action movie than Vol. 2, with its final act being the main reason why that’s the case, since it does for restaurants what the final act of Hard Boiled did for hospitals.
You get a few more serious scenes in Vol. 1, admittedly, but not too many, with most of the drama of the whole revenge saga being saved for the more emotionally intense and dialogue-heavy Vol. 2. The action in Kill Bill: Vol. 1 is some of the best you’ll ever see in an English-language martial arts/samurai movie, and as a homage to such genres, it really is quite wonderful.
3
‘Hundreds of Beavers’ (2022)
Hundreds of Beavers is one of the more underrated movies released in relatively recent memory, but then, admittedly, it also might be among the strangest films of the 2020s so far, too. It’s a black-and-white homage to slapstick comedies of the silent era, being about a man who has to survive on his own in Wisconsin during the 1800s (seemingly), and while he’s doing that, he makes enemies with the titular beavers.
There’s more to it than just a guy fighting a bunch of people in beaver costumes, but that is the source of much of the action in Hundreds of Beavers, and that action’s equal parts silly and glorious. The rest of the movie is also a lot of fun, and even if it’s most concerned with being a great comedy over anything else, the creativity of all the fight and chase sequences makes it work surprisingly well as an unusual kind of action film, too.
2
‘Raiders of the Lost Ark’ (1981)
Not including Raiders of the Lost Ark here would be bold, and maybe even foolish. Hell, only putting one Indiana Jones movie here might well be a different sort of foolish, but the original here is the greatest and most approachable. It’s also right up there as one of the very best things Steven Spielberg has ever directed, and much of what it does feels definitive, as far as action/adventure movies go.
The MacGuffin here is the Ark of the Covenant, with Raiders of the Lost Ark showcasing an endlessly entertaining pursuit to find said object, set back in the 1930s, which was a time in cinema history when film serials were popular. Raiders of the Lost Ark itself seeks to homage and elevate those kinds of film serials, obviously doing so quite effortlessly, in turn becoming almost as timeless as films from the 1980s managed to get.
1
‘The Blues Brothers’ (1980)
Steven Spielberg might have a cameo in The Blues Brothers, but it is a very different sort of action movie from Raiders of the Lost Ark, and is more in line with previously mentioned comedy/action romps like Kung Fu Hustle and Hundreds of Beavers. Its plot concerns two men who try to get their blues band back together so they can throw a charity concert, hoping that’ll earn them enough money to save the orphanage they were raised in from being torn down.
They’ve got a clear goal (a mission from God, even), and there’s something hilarious about the way they pursue it with such determination and casualness at the same time, while the most chaotic things imaginable keep happening around them. The Blues Brothers, on top of being very funny and action-packed, is also an all-timer of a musical. There’s a destruction-filled scene in a mall where one of the titular characters remarks, “This place has got everything,” and if you swap out the word “place” with “movie,” that’s a quote you can also apply quite effectively to The Blues Brothers.
The Blues Brothers
- Release Date
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June 20, 1980
- Runtime
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133 minutes
- Director
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John Landis
- Writers
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Dan Aykroyd, John Landis
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John Belushi
‘Joliet’ Jake Blues
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