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Which one will be the best? We’ll know that come December 31st. But what we can do for now is look back at the past quarter century and handpick which was the best of its genre from each and every year. Note that we left off superhero films. That’s a different list.
26) 2000 — Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
2000 was the year for foreign action films. Both Ang Lee’s Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (Taiwan) and Kinji Fukasaku’s Battle Royale (Japan) are fantastic. But the edge definitely goes to Lee’s Best Picture winner. It’s visually and thematically beautiful.
It also helps that the American competition was fun at best, with The Art of War, Get Carter, Gone in 60 Seconds, Mission: Impossible 2, Romeo Must Die, Shanghai Noon, and Vertical Limit all being pretty shrug-worthy. That said, Charlie’s Angels is kind of fun. Just avoid its sequel like the overbearingly over-stylized plague it is.
25) 2001 — The Fast and the Furious
It’s pretty impressive that a fairly simple cops and robbers film kicked off a franchise that ended up going on for 25 years (and ended up going to space, but the less said about that the better). But in hindsight it’s easy to see why because, even if you’re nothing like any of its characters, it’s pretty easy to fall in love with The Fast and the Furious‘ interpersonal dynamics.
This was an easy victory for Rob Cohen’s somewhat unlikely franchise initiator. Though, over the passage of time, it’s become easy to accept just how goofily fun John Carpenter’s Ghosts of Mars is.
24) 2002 — The Transporter
2002 is arguably the most important of the aughts when it comes to action cinema. Why? Because it’s when Jason Statham became a Hollywood leading man, even if it was more of a French-American co-production.
This is where we saw his charisma and his acrobatic abilities put on full display. It doesn’t have the most elaborate plot in the world, but the first Transporter is still the best Transporter.
Stream The Transporter on YouTube TV.
23) 2003 — Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl
The Pirates of the Caribbean saga may have run on two movies too long, but the initial trilogy is still cinema magic. This is especially true of the one that started it all.
Everything that would grow stale feels incredibly fresh here, particularly when it comes to Johnny Depp’s iconic performance as Captain Jack Sparrow. But he’s not the only one who is perfect in the film. Geoffrey Rush’ Captain Barbossa is an all-time great villain and, while some take issue with the Will Turner-Elizabeth Swann romance, it’s hard to argue with it being an integral part of the initial trilogy.
Stream Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl on Disney+.
22) 2004 — Kill Bill: Volume 2
It’s odd to say Kill Bill: Volume 2 is the best action movie of the year since it doesn’t have much action in it, but it is still excellent and deserving of the top spot. Plus, we feel bad for not giving its predecessor the top spot in the 2003 entry.
And it’s not entirely without action, e.g. The Bride’s fight with Elle in Budd’s trailer. However, note that, if we were including crime films under the action film umbrella, this would have gone to Collateral.
21) 2005 — Mr. & Mrs. Smith
The behind-the-scenes romance may have been grabbier than the plot, but Mr. and Mrs. Smith was still the most thoroughly entertaining action film of 2005. It moves along at a zippy pace and features, as one might expect, fantastic chemistry between the leads.
Other highlights of the year included the underrated Assault on Precinct 13 remake, Transporter 2, and Unleashed. Even still, this was Mr. and Mrs. Smith‘s all the way.
Stream Mr. & Mrs. Smith on Prime Video.
20) 2006 — Casino Royale
In hindsight it’s funny to think that people were worried about Daniel Craig picking up the 007 mantle, because he’s tied for first with Sean Connery. Not to mention, Casino Royale solidified Martin Campbell as the director most able to reboot the franchise for a new era (he also directed GoldenEye).
It was a genuinely fantastic year for action movies, with Children of Men being a critical darling and Crank being another winner for Statham, but this was Casino Royale‘s to lose. It feels firmly rooted in reality (which isn’t always a through and through recipe for success, but it is here) and the script is top-notch, but its true ace in the hole is the chemistry between Craig and Eva Green, whose Vesper Lynd may very well be the best “Bond Girl” because she’s more fleshed out individual than “Bond Girl.”
19) 2007 — 300
Even if it’s style over substance, 300 was a revolution. It introduced the notion that Watchmen confirmed, which was that Zack Snyder is a director who knows how to craft a comic book movie that is faithful to the source material, at least visually.
And, while Snyder’s direction and the visuals are fantastic, 300 is mostly an important action film for making Gerard Butler a star. To this day he is one of the industry’s more reliable leading men in actioners, as further evidenced by Greenland 2: Migration.
18) 2008 — Wanted
Thanks to a surplus of style and wise casting choices, Wanted is a lot of fun. In fact, it’s pretty surprising it never led to a sequel. Then again, we really get all we need to get out of Wesley Allan Gibson’s story in this one movie. It’s a very complete arc.
Admittedly, 2008 wasn’t an automatic win for Wanted. It’s a lot of fun but not fully revolutionary. It’s more that the competition wasn’t particularly great. For instance, Bangkok Dangerous, Death Race, Doomsday, Max Payne, and Transporter 3. That said, Rambo and Ip Man are both a good bit of fun, too.
17) 2009 — Taken
Technically, Taken is a 2008 film, as it’s a French film that first played in, you guess it, France. But then, about a year later, it took the January box office by storm in the United States, and it did so notoriously well in a typically down month that we’re calling it a 2009 movie.
Taken is important, of course, because it marked a huge shift in Liam Neeson’s career. To this day he’s starring in mid-budget actioner after mid-budget actioner (though he has said he intends to slow down on this front).
Stream Taken on Disney+.
16) 2010 — Machete
If you want a cornball of an action movie with nary a dull moment, Machete‘s your guy. And, unlike its sequel, it finds a way to modulate its absurdity. Not to mention, longtime beloved character actor Danny Trejo finally got his leading man role in a studio film.
2010 was good for genre-blending actioners. The Book of Eli, Centurion, Clash of the Titans, but Machete is the best of the bunch (it’s one part comedy, one part exploitation film, one part political thriller, one part action, and so on). There were some decent straightforward ones, too, including The Expendables, Faster, Knight and Day, and The Losers, but this was Machete for the win.
15) 2011 — Fast Five
Fast Five was where the franchise expanded its fanbase considerably. It was the first one that felt like an event, even though it’s really just a heist film turned up to 11.
This is a movie with a ton of spirit, and that’s infectious. There is also no way you watch the Dwayne Johnson vs. Vin Diesel scene and not feel the hairs raise on your neck a bit. Fast Five is a blast, even if it was arguably beaten by its successor.
Stream Fast Five on TNT.
14) 2012 — Skyfall
If Casino Royale isn’t the best of Daniel Craig’s five-film run as Bond, Skyfall is. It represented a slight shift in tone and a major shift in style for the franchise’s rebooted era, and both Spectre and No Time to Die would go on to be visually quite similar. And for good reason, because Skyfall looks amazing thanks to Roger Deakins’ work behind the camera. But that’s just one aspect that works so well about it, because it’s also an impressively character-focused adventure that nonetheless delivers on the audience’s expectation of big set pieces.
2012 was a great year for action movies, with Dredd being a slam-bang single locale firefight with a great villain. The same applies to The Expendables 2, but with the single-locale element swapped out for a globe-trotting vibe. Jack Reacher may have had the wrong leading man, but it got the spirit of Lee Child’s novel right enough. Lastly, Safe was and remains one of Jason Statham’s more underrated endeavors.
13) 2013 — Fast & Furious 6
You might be sick of seeing the Fast & Furious movies here. After all, none of them are outright great cinema. But at least they know what they are, and it was in Fast & Furious 6 that the franchise finally fully came into its own after Fast Five did a ton of work to make that possible. The irony is that its villain is kind of weak, though by extension this villain set up the franchise’s best villain in the next installment.
If 2013 weren’t such a weak year for action films, there’s a chance Fast & Furious 6 wouldn’t have nabbed the top spot. But the fact remains that A Good Day to Die Hard, Bullet to the Head, Escape Plan, Machete Kills, The Lone Ranger, and The Last Stand all landed with a thud. And, while having terrorists attack the White House was a good concept on paper, neither Olympus Has Fallen nor White House Down work quite as well as they should have.
Stream Fast & Furious 6 on TNT.
