The last ten years saw the release of many, many movies. A lot of them were quite good, and some even became all-time favorites for me, but those are for another list, to be written on another day. For now, I’d like to take this opportunity to highlight a genre I find very near and dear to my heart: action.
Rather than ramble on about how action’s place in cinema offers some of the greatest possibilities in the entire medium, I figure I’d cut right to the chase. After all, the films on this list don’t mess around, so why should I? Without further ado, here are my picks for the ten best action films of the decade.
13 Assassins (Takashi Miike, 2010)
Did any director have a more fruitful decade than Takashi Miike? The Japanese provocateur released nineteen films in this period alone, with notable triumphs being his 100th film, the kill-happy extravaganza Blade of the Immortal, and this year’s very own Yakuza rom-com, First Love. But his best film in this era will always be 13 Assassins, a loose remake of Eiichi Kudo’s 1963 film of the same name. Set in the Edo Period of Japan, the plot concerns the titular group of samurai, who have been hired to assassinate a fearsome feudal lord. Miike keeps things very stately for the first hour or so of the runtime, working at a deliberate pace to introduce our band of warriors and their very particular sets of skills. But once that second hour arrives, strap in: 13 Assassins activates the carnage, pitting a baker’s dozen against ten times as many foes. Miike orchestrates the havoc remarkably, proving that he’s still got the goods after eighty-some odd films into a wild resume.
Avengement (Jesse V. Johnson, 2019)
The first of two Scott Adkins films on this list, Avengement is a compelling showcase for the actor’s talents as both a leading man and a bruiser. After inadvertently causing the death of a civilian during a minor robbery, Adkins’ character finds himself in the slammer, where he must defend himself from an onslaught of inmates, each of whom has been hired to punch his ticket in order to keep him quiet. Adkins seems to relish at this idea, fighting back in spectacular, bone-crunching fashion, before eventually escaping to seek revenge. Compact, relentless, and unflinchingly brutal, Avengement means business and certifies Adkins as an ass-kicking star.
Drug War (Johnnie To, 2012)
Johnnie To is no stranger to incredible action set-pieces, having devoted his life to crafting exceptional works as The Mission, Exiled, and Breaking News. Drug War follows a different M.O. than those films, operating as a crackerjack procedural for the first 80% of its runtime, which concerns a drug dealer being forced to cooperate with his captors while in police custody. To delights in introducing characters, allegiances, and players on both sides of law, constructing an elaborate chess match between cops and criminals. Once the pieces are set, To lets them loose on each other, tearing the entire operation down in an apocalyptic flurry of gunfire. It’s one of the finest moments of To’s career, and one of the best action-oriented pieces of cinema in the last ten years.
Haywire (Steven Soderbergh, 2012)
“All you need to make a movie is a girl and a gun” is an oft-quoted expression commonly attributed to French New Wave filmmaker Jean-Luc Godard, but director Steven Soderbergh takes this to heart in this woozy, globe-trotting, spy-thriller about a woman in trouble. Released at the tail end of his career before a self-imposed “retirement” (which laughably lasted all of four years), Soderbergh finds an appealing lead in former MMA fighter Gina Carano, utilizing her talents in the ring to steamroll over half a dozen of Hollywood’s sexiest leading men. From an opening scrap in a diner to a wonderfully destructive brawl in a hotel room, Soderbergh shoots and stages the action plainly and cleanly, getting the hell out of the way for Carano to do all the heavy-lifting and scene-clearing. Frankly, the film is all the better for it, resulting in a minor masterpiece in the filmmaker’s storied career.
John Wick (Chad Stahelski and David Leitch, 2014)
Winner of the “unlikeliest entry to jumpstart a franchise” award on this list, the world of John Wick is still very much a welcome one, if only because of the shrewd decision of directors Chad Stahelski and David Leitch to foreground the film with some of the most impressive stuntwork captured in recent memory. The action in John Wick is terrifically balletic, whether it be a close-quarters combat home invasion sequence or an expressionistic shootout in a neon-drenched nightclub. Stahelski and Leitch, having come from extensive stunt backgrounds themselves, demonstrate a propensity for shooting clean, gorgeous action in long, fluid takes. Oh yeah, it also helps that they had a leading man in Keanu Reeves, who weaponizes his physicality and taciturn nature into a glorious architect of pain. It’s an outstanding performance from the actor, one that would find continued success in John Wick: Chapter 2 and John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum.
Mad Max: Fury Road (George Miller, 2015)
How exactly does one sum up the greatest cinematic spectacle of the last decade? How about this: propulsion. Sheer, utter, magnetic propulsion. Thirty years after Tina Turner help sing the series’ swan song, Australian helmer George Miller roars it back to life, and boy did he mean business. Like a harpy straight out of Valhalla, Mad Max: Fury Road hits the ground running from its very first frames, never once letting off the throttle. An apocalyptic vision of frenzied automobiles motoring across heavily saturated wastelands, Mad Max: Fury Road arrived to cinemas fully formed and perfectly realized, the nuclear-levels of energy barely contained on the big screen. Four years later, it still rides on, eternal, shiny and chrome.
The Night Comes for Us (Timo Tjahjanto, 2018)
“Invents a new form of bodily harm every thirty seconds” is what I half-jokingly tweeted after seeing this ditty on a late-night viewing in 2018. Hyperbole aside, I stand by that proclamation, as The Night Comes for Us is less a model of cogent storytelling and more of a vehicle for dishing out the hurt. Lots and lots of hurt. A huge proponent of the “one vs. many” style of fighting, Indonesian filmmaker Timo Tjahjanto (who has previously collaborated with Gareth Evans, another director on this list) conducts a beautiful symphony of violence, where human bodies turn to literal geysers and the insanity ramps up to such splendid heights that it’s a wonder nobody was killed in the process.
The Raid: Redemption (Gareth Evans, 2011)
When it comes to efficient action, simplicity is key, and few people understand this better than Gareth Evans. In fact, allow me to quote the tagline on the film’s poster: “1 Ruthless Crime Lord. 20 Elite Cops. 30 Floors of Chaos.” That’s all you really need to know going into The Raid: Redemption, and with these ingredients Evans crafts a thrillingly claustrophobic fight for survival, pitting an Indonesian police task force against armies upon armies of gangs armed with machine guns, machetes, and their own bloody fists in a dilapidated hellscape. A masterclass of depicting bodies in motion (and an exemplary demo reel for the martial art “silat”), The Raid truly is a sight to behold, one that immediately cemented its legendary status in all of action cinema.
Universal Solider: Day of Reckoning (John Hyams, 2012)
It’s not often a franchise finds its footing several installments in, but chalk it up to the perseverance of Jean-Claude Van Damme and Co. to deliver this lurid, head-smashing, literal seizure-inducing nightmare of a film. 2009’s Universal Soldier: Regeneration marked something of a turning point for the UniSol saga, jettisoning the previous films’ goofy qualities for a no-nonsense actioner. It’s an excellent film in its own right, but the real filet is the 2012 follow-up, Universal Soldier: Day of Reckoning. Less an action film and more of an abstract horror movie, Day of Reckoning pulls no punches in delivering gruesome bloodletting and punishing fight choreography, including a show-stopping sequence where Scott Adkins confronts MMA fighter Andrei Arlovski in a sporting goods store and its endless supply of makeshift weaponry. For a DTV sequel that came twenty years after the original, Day of Reckoning does so many things right.
The Yellow Sea (Na Hong-jin, 2010)
Na Hong-jin has enjoyed a successful career in genre cinema, having directed 2008’s serial killer thriller The Chaser and 2016’s fantastic exorcist horror-drama The Wailing. But betwixt those two features is his criminally underseen, up-all-night action epic, The Yellow Sea. The film starts out mildly enough: a taxi driver with a gambling addiction is offered enough money to climb out of debt if he murders a single businessman. Of course, things end up going horribly wrong for our intrepid hero, and soon this low-key thriller turns into a frantic chase, something akin to Martin Scorsese’s After Hours, but with razor blades. Unwittingly unleashing the fury of law enforcement, the South Korean mob, and the Korean-Chinese mafia, everyone and everything grabs some type of bladed weapon and starts hacking first, asking questions later. It’s the kind of fever pitch film that Hong-jin excels at, and one few others have been able to replicate.
HONORABLE MENTION: Banshee (2013 – 2016)
While decidedly not a film, the Cinemax-produced Banshee was most certainly the best action series of the decade. Offering delicious slices of weekly pulp entertainment and unabashed mayhem, Banshee follows a nameless ex-con (Antony Starr, who can be currently seen in Amazon’s The Boys) who attempts to reclaim his past life while finding himself in the midst of a war between Ukrainian gangsters and an Amish kingpin. There’s also tribe of Native American assassins and a satanic serial killer cult. If it sounds bonkers, that’s because it is, but mercifully Banshee plays everything with a straight face, never once turning into camp. Running for four seasons, the show reaches a tremendous peak in season three, which features a phenomenal homage to John Carpenter’s Assault on Precinct 13. Seriously, seek this show out.
What were some of your favorite action films from the decade? Let us know in the comments below.
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