BEST ACTION FILMS OF ALL TIME VOTING THREAD (VOTING CLOSES FRIDAY FEBRUARY 10)

nominations are CLOSED. you can submit write-ins, sure, but you'd better campaign hard!

vote for a max of 50, minimum of 20, points to be on a 1-50 basis.

please submit in this manner:

Die Hard - 50
The Great Escape - 49
Trancers - 48

and so on.

The list will be on the next two posts.

Please e-mail ballots to ilxactionfilms AT gmail.com

300
13 assassins
2 fast 2 furious
2012 (2009)
28 Weeks Later
3:10 to yuma (2007)
48 hours
52 pick-up
a better tomorrow
a better tomorrow 2
a chinese ghost story
a fistful of dollars
a fistful of dynamite aka duck you sucker
above the law
across 110th street
air force one
Akira
aliens
apocalypto
appaloosa
appleseed (2004)
armour of god
army of darkness
army of shadows
Asoka
assault on precinct 13
avatar
backdraft
Bad Boys
bad boys 2
bangkok dangerous (1999)
Batman (Burton, 1989)
Batman: Mask of the Phantasm

battle royale
beast cops
beverly hills cop
big trouble in little china
billy jack
black rain
Black SUnday
blade (snipes)
blade ii (more snipes)
blade runner
blood and bone
bloodsport
blue steel
Blue Thunder
boiling point
branded to kill
Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia
brother
brotherhood of the wolf
bullet in the head
bullitt
casino royale
Castle in the Sky
charley varrick
children of men
chinese connection
city hunter
city on fire
clash of the titans (harryhausen)
clear and present danger
Cobra
code of silence
collateral
Commando (Mark L Lester, 1985)
con air
conan the barbarian
conspiracy theory
Coogan's Bluff
cowboy bebop the movie: knockin' on heaven's door
crank
crank 2: high voltage
crazy safari
crouching tiger hidden dragon
cyborg
d-war
danny the dog
Dark of The Sun (aka The Mercenaries)
darkman
dawn of the dead (1978)
dawn of the dead (2004)
dead bang
Dead Heat
dead or alive

dead or alive (1999)
deadly prey
death race 2000
death wish
Death Wish 3
delta force 2
demolition man
desperado
Die Hard
die hard 2
Die Hard with a Vengeance
dirty harry
dirty harry
dirty mary crazy larry
district 9
district B13
Dobermann
Double Impact
dr. no
drive (2011)
Drunken Master (the FIRST, much better one)

drunken master 2
drunken wu tang
eastern condors
el dorado
el mariachi
election (johnnie to)
elite squad
elite squad: the enemy within
encounters of the spooky kind

enemy mine
Enemy of the State
enter the dragon
enter the fat dragon
equilibrium
escape from l.a.
Escape From New York
excalibur
executive decision
Exiled
Extreme Prejudice
f/x
face/off
fast & furious
fast five
fire & ice
fireworks aka hana-bi
first blood

Fist of Fury
fist of legend
FIST OF THE NORTH STAR
five graves to cairo
Flesh & Blood

for a few dollars more
Forced Vengeance
Freebie & The Bean
from russia with love
full contact
Galaxy Quest
gallipoli
game of death
gamer
get carter
ghost in the shell
Ghostbusters
GI Joe: The Movie (animated)
gladiator
goldeneye
goldfinger
grand illusion
grosse pointe blank
gunga din
gymkata
hannah
hard boiled
Hard Target
hard times
hard to kill
heat
hell in the pacific
hell is for heroes
hellboy
hellboy 2
henry v (1989)
hero
heroic trio
highlander
hot fuzz
house of flying daggers
how to train your dragon
hulk (2003)
hunt for red october
hurt locker
i come in peace
I, Robot
in the line of fire
INCEPTION
independence day
Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade
indiana jones and the temple of doom
infernal affairs
infernal affairs 2
Ip Man

ip-man
iron monkey
its a mad mad mad mad world
jason & the argonauts
jason and the argonauts
Jaws
k-19
kelly's heroes
Kill Bill Volume 1 (Tarantino, 2003)
Kill Bill Volume 2 (Tarantino, 2004)
king kong (2005)
king of beggars
kingdom of heaven
kiss kiss bang bang
Krull
kung fu hustle
kung fu panda
l.a. confidential
la femme nikita
Lady Snowblood
Ladyhawke
le cercle rouge
le mans
le samourai
legend
leon: the professional
lethal weapon
Licence to Kill
Live and Let Die
Logan's Run
lone wolf & cub: baby cart at the river styx
lone wolf & cub: baby cart in peril
lone wolf & cub: baby cart to hades
lone wolf & cub: sword of vengeance
lone wolf mcquade
lord of the rings
machete
macross plus: the movie
mad max
Madigan
magnum force
marked for death
master & commander: the far side of the world
Master of the Flying Guillotine
Men in Black
mi: 3
miami vice
midnight run
minority report
Missing in Action
mission: impossible
mononoke hime
mr majestyk
national treasure
near dark
night watch (2004)
nighthawks

NINJA SCROLL
no escape
north by northwest
North Face
on her majesty's secret service
once a thief
once upon a time in china
once upon a time in china II
once upon a time in china III
once upon a time in mexico
Once Upon A Time In The West
One Armed Boxer
ong-bak
open range
operation condor
Over the Top
Papillon
patlabor 1
patlabor 2
payback
peking opera blues
pirates of the caribbean
Pitch Black
Point Blank
point break
police story
predator
Prime Cut
Princess Mononoke
prison on fire
Project A
Punisher
Punisher: War Zone
pusher

pusher 2
Pusher 3
Raiders of the Lost Ark
rapid fire
raw deal
red belt
red cliff
red dawn
red heat
red sun
Redbelt
redline
remo williams: the adventure begins
rescue dawn
return of the jedi
return of the living dead
Ricochet
riki-oh: the story of riki
rio bravo
rise of the planet of the apes
Road House
rob roy
robocop
robot jox
rocky
rocky iv
rolling thunder
Romeo Is Bleeding
ronin
roujin z
Rumble in the Bronx
run and kill
runaway train
Running Scared (1986)
running scared (2006)
rush hour
rush hour 2
safety last!
salt
samurai assassin
sanjuro
Saving Private Ryan
scaramouche (1952)
scott pilgrim vs the world
serenity
sergeant york
shaft
shaft (2000)
sharky's machine

Sholay
Shoot 'em Up
shoot to kill

shooter
sin city
Snake in Eagle's Shadow
sniper
sonatine (kitano)
sorcerer
southern comfort

spartan
Speed
spider-man 2
split second

stagecoach
Star Trek (2009)
star trek ii: the wrath of khan
starship troopers
steamboy (2004)
steel dawn
steele justice
stone cold
strange days
street fighter (1994)
street fighter (animated)
street fighter (chiba)
Street Mobster
streets of fire
Strike Commando 2
Sudden Impact
superman
superman 2
sword of doom
Swords of Vengeance
taken
taking of pelham one two three
Tango & Cash
Tears of the Sun

Telefon
terminator
terminator 2
the 13th warrior
the 13th warrior

the 39 steps
the abyss
the assignment
The Big Red One
the big red one
the big red one
the blade (tsui hark)
the blues brothers
The Bourne Identity
the bourne supremacy
the bourne ultimatum
the bride with white hair
the castle of cagliostro
The Chaser
the crow
the dark knight
the dead pool

the delta force
The Descent
the desert rats
the dirty dozen
the driver
the edge
The Eiger Sanction
the empire strikes back
the end of evangelion
the enforcer
The Fast and the Furious
the fast and the furious: tokyo drift
the fifth element
the four musketeers (1974)
the french connection
the freshman (1925)
the fugitive
The Gauntlet
the general (1926)
the getaway (peckinpah)
the god of cookery
the good, the bad and the ugly
The Good, the Bad, and the Weird
the great escape
the guns of navarone
the heroic trio
The Hidden (1987)
the hidden fortress
The Hunted
The Incredibles
the iron giant
the island
the italian job (1969)
the karate kid
the killer
the killer elite
the last boy scout
the last of the mohicans
the last samurai (2003)
the legend (1993)
the limey
The Long Kiss Goodnight
The Longest Day
the man from nowhere
the mark of zorro (1940)
The Matrix
the mechanic (1972)
the men who would be king
the mission (johnnie to)
the mummy
the negotiator
the nest
the package
the princess bride
the professionals
the right stuff
the road warrior
the rock
the rocketeer
the rundown
the running man
the saint
the seven samurai
the seven-ups
The Seventh Curse
The Spy Who Loved Me
The Thin Red Line

the thing
The Towering Inferno
the untouchables
the wages of fear
the wanderers
the warriors
the way of the gun
the wild bunch
the yakuza
The Yakuza Papers
The Young Master
they live
thief
thomas crown affair
three kings
thunderball
tiger on beat
time & tide
timecop
Titus
to live and die in l.a.
tokyo drifter
tokyo fist
tombstone
top gun
total recall
training day
transformers: the movie (animated)
transporter
trespass
triad election aka election 2
tron legacy
troy
true lies
two mules for sister sara
uncommon valor

undefeatable (cynthia rothrock)
under siege
undisputed
undisputed ii: last man standing
undisputed iii: redemption
universal soldier: regeneration
valhalla
 rising
valley of the wolves: iraq
VAMPIRE HUNTER D
vanishing point
versus (2000)
vice squad
violent city aka the family
Violent Cop
wages of fear
Wanted
War of the Worlds
Warlock
warlock
warrior (2011)
warrior's way
wasabi
waterworld
westworld
wheels on meals
where eagles dare
White Sands
who killed captain alex?
who'll stop the rain?
willow
x-men 2
Yakuza Graveyard
Year of the Dragon
Yes, Madam!
yojimbo
you only live twice
zatoichi
zombieland
zulu

i'll add the voting e-mail via a mod shortly, forgot to mention that....

OK so for Zatoichi, which one to start with? The first?

bump.

the e-mail to submit to is ilxactionfilms AT gmail.com. I'll see if i can get a mod to put it in the first post.

hey leee, i think the nom is for the kitano one? could be wrong.

just sent in (probably) the first ballot!

shld i vote in this y/n?

Y

I thought about looking at the nominations thread and suggesting 'Mongol' but I only watched it once and it may have been way more drama than action. But I do remember thinking that movie is all time Top 100 material

(and off the top of my head maybe I'd have nominated Romancing the Stone, 28 Days Later (I can't remember which one was better), Fearless (Jet Li-, and A Police Story (Jackie Chan)... coming up with action movies is kinda hard because I watch them once and forget about them)

I just saw MI:3. If I vote in this poll it might be in my top 10 as would District B13 and Hard Boiled (is that the one with the guy holding a baby during a gun fight?)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oxjh4ufcUUY

MI:3 top ten-

I'd maybe allow for a lack of critical distance here tbh, MI:3 ain't no Die Hard 4.0, in fact it ain't even no Knight & Day tbrr

mi:3 has got that jj abrams problem of wasting too much time on the facade of domestic life and not knowing how to finish something well.

the villain's death in MI3 is so retarded

he was too much of a nerd to have a cool death

Hard Boiled (is that the one with the guy holding a baby during a gun fight?)

― rubber belly hand necker (CaptainLorax), Friday, January 20, 2012 4:27 PM (2 days ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

that was Shoot 'Em Up (in my top 10!)

Some of the films on the list are great movies, but I'd feel weird voting for them in an "action film" poll. Stuff like Akira, District 9, Galaxy Quest, Inception, It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World, Patlabor, The Abyss, The Iron Giant, etc, no way is "action" their primary genre. You can make a sci-fi movie that's action first and foremost: films like Aliens and Predator prove that. But it'd be silly to vote for a movie like The Iron Giant, which has exactly one actual action scene, in an action movie poll.

yeah i'm gonna solve it by not voting for any of the stupid nominations

this is one of the rare polls i care enough to vote about btw

NV otm, tuomas if you dont think a nominee is an action movie just dont vote for it.

just rewatched point break and would have it way up there

Yeah, I'm not gonna vote for the movies I mentioned, even if they are better than many others on the list. I just don't get the logic of nominating them in the first place.

you know this is ILX right? ;-)

anyway yeah there are some films that i adore that i've cut from the list already because they aren't action movies. and a couple that i might keep altho they stretch my definition a bit.

Also, the list has these two titles:

dead or alive

dead or alive (1999)

I assume the latter one is the Takashi Miike Yakuza movie, but is the first one another movie, or is it a duplicate? Should I vote for "Dead or Alive (1999)", if I want to give my vote for the Miike film? There are some others duplicates on the list too, for example you "Mononoke Hime" and "Princess Mononoke", which is the English title of the same movie.

there's a bunch of dupes, i'm gonna specify which film i mean on my ballot if there's any room for confusion

I agree with Tuomas, and I'd encourage people to really think about whether or not they should vote for, like, Blade Runner just because they think its a dope movie. I don't mean that in an admonishing way, it's not bad or wrong, but just... just think about it dogg. or, so im not telling people how to vote, at least be prepared to justify any oddball choices - the process of doing so could be illuminating for all of us!

it's a great discussion though. something that's kinda stuck with me ever since i read it was this gypsy mothra post from a couple years back, about whether children of men was an action movie:

children of men starts with a bomb going off and then proceeds through an hour and a half of chase and flight and fight scenes until it winds up with a big blitz of a military showdown and a daring last-minute escape. if it's not an action movie i have no idea what any of these words mean.

― hellzapoppa (tipsy mothra), Wednesday, November 18, 2009 12:53 AM (2 years ago) Bookmark

he makes a good argument, but the reason it stuck with me is because i still can't accept it at all - and whenever i think about the genre i always go back to CoM and trying to figure out what kind of obscenity-esque you know it when you see it definition works best for me. so i spend a lot of time working backwards to justify why children of men isnt an action movie. i mean, if it is, then isn't The Firm an action movie? isn't The Pianist? i dont think these are great arguments (just typing them out has made me realize how flimsy they are), but it's the kind of entrenched position that will probably get hashed out more than a few times when the results roll out...

i think i said before, my working definition involves situations resolved thru action/violence, especially the climax, and generally the vibe that the movie exists to deliver its big set pieces - if the set pieces are elements of a broader kind of movie then generally that's not an action flick imo

it's like, just cos a film has a fucking scene doesn't make it porn

i think ive actually just convinced myself that CoM is an action movie - the fact that the filmmaking is so bravura, and the ideas in it so primitive and bare (so you have little else to concentrate on but what a ballcrusher of a movie it is), kinda separate it from other chase scene-y movies that can still be said to be about something else

I was thinking about this yesterday too because in looking through the list many of the ones that jumped out at me initially weren't really what I'd consider action movies. NV's definition makes sense to me and I'll probably keep that in mind when picking movies if I do, in fact, end up voting.

Is Zombieland any good? It's one of those movies I've been sort of meaning to watch for a while now mainly because I love WH but I think maybe it's probably not all that great?

i basically think of it as 'movie where a significant amount of storytelling is visualized as physical conflict'; and i think there has to be a certain level of participation by the protagonist (this was a sticking point for me in children of men, where clive owen spends a lot of the movie running from place to place with his head down while crazy shit happens around him)

yeah on the same page i think. i've made a couple of personally iffy selections cos i think of them as seminal to the development of the genre without necessarily being full-on action flicks but other than that i've been on a pretty strict definition

voted

Zombieland is well worth a watch. It starts out as kind of tongue-in-cheek parody of zombie apocalypse movies, and though the comedic tone never disappears, there's also straight action and drama with surprisingly well fleshed-out characters. It also has one of the most awesome surprise cameos in recent movie history. If you haven't yet been spoiled about it, don't read any reviews that might reveal the cameo! I didn't know about it beforehand, and that made the cameo even more awesome.

And yeah, Woody Harrelson is great in it, probably the best part of the movie (though the other three main actors are not bad either).

i think i said before, my working definition involves situations resolved thru action/violence

yeah ive been keeping my long list to only films that use various action tropes as the primary means of developing the story and/or characters, so in my mind 'children of men' qualifies. i can see h4a's point since the characters almost exist outside of the 'action' elements of the movie but theyre still integral to moving the story forward.

it's kind of curious because of course when i think 'the great escape' i think "action movie!" but w/r/t today's audience for action films it might as well be bresson. i think 'children of men' is basically an action film but i think it's sort of an 'ideas' movie as well, all dystopian future and king crimson and what not, so it's got this other layer to it as well but it's style is so gripping as far as action elements go i think it has to be considered one.

like i may vote for 'the right stuff' as well because the "action" stuff in it is, to me, so spectacular, like on levels not approached by most of the other films here.

i ruled out The Great Escape as an action flick cos i felt like the action scenes aren't the film's motor. i love enough to have put it in my 50 if i considered it an action flick.

but yeah i had to think hard about pacing of movies - the genre feels so dominated by the kind of movies that came out in the 80s that it takes a mental effort to think about movies that don't fall into that kind of rhythm as pure action movies.

Hard Boiled (is that the one with the guy holding a baby during a gun fight?)

― rubber belly hand necker (CaptainLorax), Friday, January 20, 2012 4:27 PM (2 days ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

that was Shoot 'Em Up (in my top 10!)

― Gukbe a lady tonight (some dude), Sunday, 22 January 2012 05:05 (14 hours ago)

hard boiled also & first iirc though

on the other hand i voted for at least one flick that, while it's unquestionably an action movie, the things i like most about it aren't really the action scenes

hard boiled also & first iirc though

fucking A, wasn't aware some hack had ripped it

what the poll needs is at least one movie where a guy is holding a baby and runs towards a group of bad guys and forgets he's holding a baby and throws the baby towards the bad guys and then shoots the baby, thinking it's a gas can. and yet the baby does in fact explode like a gas can.

I watched a couple of movies recently from the nominations thread, ('The Sting', 'Charley Varrick') and tbh the former's no more an action flick than, say, 'Ocean's Eleven', the latter significantly less an action movie than 'No Country for Old Men'

i think i want to start a thread where i challenge tuomas on every movie he thinks isn't an action movie

Akira, District 9, Galaxy Quest, Inception, It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World, Patlabor, The Abyss, The Iron Giant

action
action
not seen
action
not seen
not seen
action
not seen

would never include The Sting here, Charley Varrick i haven't seen for too long but iirc it shd count it's just not 80s-paced

Galaxy Quest is a (fairly hilarious)limited-action comedy movie, It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World is history's most overblown car-chase movie, Iron Giant is some hippy shit, The Abyss is def an action flick just made by a dude who needs to be told to edit his fucking movies

w/e else im 100% voting for bullit

don't really care about the cartoons tbh sorry

Bullitt didn't make my 50 but i probly shd have put it in over a couple of my minor personal faves

uh bullitt can't be an action movie there's cars and crime so it's obv a crime/car movie sorry bro

tbrr i think i have to find a better list of action movies to work off

bullitt owns and strangely enough i think it's elevated by the quieter scenes which are fairly basic and workmanlike (bullitt goes to the grocer's! bullitt looks through a suitcase! delgetti uses an archaic flip book to create composite sketch!)

have super happy memories of watching endless Youtube car chase vids at work with this student with Autism

love all the non-action sequences in late 60s/early 70s action flicks

yeah non-action sequences in something like french connection are what make it a great movie, even if they're not much to do with what makes it a great action movie

i wd happily watch a 4 hour movie of Clint Eastwood just wondering around 70s San Francisco doing mundane shit

to random jazz beats

diminishing returns to have action films set to 'raise your glass' by pink or w/e instead of lalo schifrin jazz flute.

i like "raise your glass" tho :(

i'm probably just bitter b/c the place i work seems to insert that song into every one of their reels.

oh it'd be dumb in action movie no question

Late to nominate and not sure if it counts, but I'd probably write in the Kurt Russell thriller Breakdown.

breakdown is a good one! write it in if you wish.

s1ocki where art thou, hope you will vote in this!

Interesting ideas about action/non-action: I agree with the hero/agency thing but also for no good reason consider contemporary and non-sci-fi settings to be key along with guns and explosions, plus some involvement of crime and cars. But then that seems narrow...

how strict are you in those limits though? Wouldn't you consider eg star wars or the matrix action movies?

bullitt owns and strangely enough i think it's elevated by the quieter scenes which are fairly basic and workmanlike

The hottest man in the world drinking a glass of milk.

ron burgundy????

xp: No, but I'm not dogmatic about it.

And Escape from New York feels like an exception, and The Road Warrior. But The Matrix, like a lot of cool sci-fi, is more about its premise than anything anyone does once they figure it out.

Predator is a monster movie, but the monster uses a gun. Ah, hell...

apart from the kung fu and the flying!

matrix you could argue either way, imo you'd only be wrong if you argued especially hard either way tbh

If we're getting into the generic weeds here...

i think i said before, my working definition involves situations resolved thru action/violence, especially the climax, and generally the vibe that the movie exists to deliver its big set pieces - if the set pieces are elements of a broader kind of movie then generally that's not an action flick imo

Given the fight idioms it deploys, would this scene count?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_BRuqXmEfBs&feature=related

Even taking the "battle" out of of the dance battle, scenes like this still serve similar narrative functions as traditional fight scenes. Why don't dance films, for example, qualify as action films, and why is violence a necessary quality for action films? /tuomas

conflict resolution?

no nom for three days of the condor?

too rapey, no action

I'm just voting for my favorite movies off of that list, I don't know about you guys

The hottest man in the world drinking a glass of milk.

― I have a paranoid daughter and a son who is addicted to internet (Laurel)

while wearing a turtleneck and curiously flimsy looking gun holster iirc

some interesting films heading the list thus far *steeples fingers* very interesting indeed....

i feel like i know what will win this but you are intriguing me sir

you may feel like you know....

three weeks to wait yet tho :(

im gonna try and fill in some blanks before i vote. i need to get some shaw brothers in my system, need to finally see sword of doom, and also need to watch this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KEGUpUGuDTQ

i watched that movie when i was a kid but i remember virtually nothing.

i probly shd've tried to see a few more movies that i left out.

die hard ftw tho

with the usual caveat of not having seen enough and sullying the results with my MOR ballot, i will submit an entry to this

i think my top 3 are set in stone but after that its no mans land

Ronin
The Transporter (the first one)
Bullitt

I like things involving driving, what can I say?

I'm going to see Haywire soon, though, so this could all change.

no french connection!

will no one love french connection 2 w/its 4 hour scene of gene hackman forced into heroin addiction?

he makes forming a smack habit look like such hard work

looking forward to this, will be voting. had a double bill last night in prep (accidentally daughter-kidnap themed), Commando + Taken. Hadn't seen the latter, fast but a little unsatisfying, wish some of the neeson fodder had had time to express awe at how he did look for them, did find them & did kill them, but no, they're dead even as their jaws are dropping.

Also watched Red Dawn. Strange film, very beautiful.

will no one love french connection 2 w/its 4 hour scene of gene hackman forced into heroin addiction?

+1 fwiw

Just quick clarification -- number 50 on my ballot is my #1 choice for best action film of all time and number 1 is the lowest film on my ballot?

yeah basically just give me the name and then the points total.

damn, i just realised man on fire wasn't in the noms so i totally forgot about it while voting.

i am having the hardest time justfying certain movies that i really want to vote for

leave the 'justification' field blank imo, it tends to cause error messages

gonna be skitting obvious non-action choices pretty harshly come run-down time

else what's a poll for?

oh yeah peer censorship/abuse is a valuable & important phenomenon, but no self-repression in the votes imo

that is an excellent point

vote early and vote often imo

just give all my points to the road warrior thx

i make videos of musicians talking about what they've been shopping for at our store; Gang of Four bought Bullitt and The French Connection so I ended up making a 30-second mashup of the two car chase sequences for the video. Was seriously the most fun I've ever had at this job.

hey, what are you guys doing on this sunday night? i hope you're watching action films or if not, studiously ranking them! i might dig into 'election' tonight. you know what film i wish i'd nommed?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dvOvVtE4rgI

no nom for three days of the condor?

― Mordy, Tuesday, January 24, 2012 3:29 AM (5 days ago)

this hella bums me out-- voting for it anyway

I'm going to see Haywire soon, though, so this could all change.

― I have a paranoid daughter and a son who is addicted to internet (Laurel), Tuesday, January 24, 2012 11:21 AM (5 days ago)

just saw Haywire and really want to start a write-in campaign... do i do it in this thread?

i have a lot of movies to watch in the next week

bump (self-reminder to vote)

where's DJP? jjj? vote!

Voted. Steve McQueen & Kurt Russell made it in there several times, as did Bronson and Toshiro Mifune. Also, I discovered a category that was very important to me: movies that were probably made by a spasm of six-year-olds on acid. This was the only justification for a few of the movies that made it on my list.

thanks!

Voted! Including a write-in for Haywire.

I pretended my vote for Transporter really counted for Transporter 2

Voted. Write votes for Duel and Star Wars.

outstanding!

how many ballots have you received?

15 i think. not a huge number but i'm hoping to double it (at least!) by next friday.

15's pretty good with 8 days to go!

More people should vote. Some of my decisions are going to massively distort these results with only 15.

lol mine too

this is important poll, people

im gonna do mine next week

YES

me too

got 2 do this

i voted

one week to go, ballots may be cast until next friday evening at midnight PDT

just sent mine in, spoiler: voted for junior at #1

Dear ilx, please do not let my votes determine what is ilxor best action films of all time. I would like to remind you of this. Please vote.

i didn't get your ballot, dayo! might want to resend, just in case. ilxactionfilms at gmail.com

ok will do

Voted. Mine is '80s and guy-movie-centric. It simplified things to take out the sci-fi and costume stuff, then stick in a couple things at the bottom, though I wouldn't be sad to see stuff I think belongs in another poll--Hero, etc.--place high.

thanks!

Memory is a problem with actioners. I have no memory at all of Hard Target except Van Damme's hair bouncing in slow mo (reprised by Nick Cage in Con Air) and would have voted for Lone Wolf McQuaid if I could remember anything at all but that it was a good Chuck Norris movie.

Voted!

Hard Target is amazing, btw.

yeah, still dream of seeing the uncut verzh tho

If Hard Target finishes ahead of any of Woo's HK stuff so help me...

looking forward to extreme acrimony tbh

just watched hard boiled. fun movie. baby scene : there was a movie with clive owen that basically did the same thing iirc right? also thought there was a scene that was more or less reproduced in internal affairs iirc(the whole undercover cop meeting with the police commander and the commander gives him a birthday gift and reminds him it's his birthday). anyways already voted a while back so hard boiled not on my ballot.

It will be my number one more than likely

guys can we take it steady with the poll spoilers?

Sorry. Anyone who hasn't seen Hard Boiled should watch it though

wasn't just u tbf NN. am all for discussion/hype tho.

just watched hard boiled. fun movie. baby scene : there was a movie with clive owen that basically did the same thing iirc right? also thought there was a scene that was more or less reproduced in internal affairs iirc(the whole undercover cop meeting with the police commander and the commander gives him a birthday gift and reminds him it's his birthday). anyways already voted a while back so hard boiled not on my ballot.

― Jibe, Saturday, February 4, 2012 11:31 AM (11 minutes ago) Bookmark

reading this descript is kind of like reading comments on the smooth criminal youtube that say "ALIEN ANT FARM sent me here"

If anyone votes Shoot 'Em Up ahead of Hard Boiled so help me...

why isn't star wars on there?

and wait 50 is your favorite and 1 is your bottom pick? i'm kinda dumb. i will vote just making sure. never voted in any ilx poll ever.

ok whatever i'll just send in a list. i'm including alien on mine too. and star wars. and the taking of pelham is the original right? probably.

50 is the number of points, for your top movie

okay

oh man I was totally ready to rank it the other way

(I fibbed, I haven't actually done my ballot yet, and I didn't actually vote for junior....yet)

sent mine. didn't do 50 though. just my troo faves. can i post it here? does anyone care?

wait until after the poll's been revealed? more suspense that way

dont post it until after the poll results are unveiled! i think thats how it works

oh okay i'll probably never come back here is all. these things take months right?

vote closes next friday so it shdn't take that long

I left out John Woo movies because they're great scenes surrounded by a lot of stuff I never need or want to see again, but it made me sad to do it.

there are dupes on the list - omar's gonna correct for that, yeah? (mononoke hime and princess mononoke, for example)

gentlemen!

i will correct for dupes so don't worry about that. i'm hoping to begin the revealing on monday the 13th, monday the 20th at the latest. it all depends on my work schedule.

did u get my ballot bro?

did u get my ballot bro?

bros, i did get your ballots

i would like to rep for johnnie to's films repped here, particularly 'the mission' and the 'election' flicks.

'exiled' has been on my to-watch (get it? to-watch?) list forever, I will add the mission too

the mission is pretty chill for an action movie:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AnqIC3IU3j8

not worth the time so much and sort of a lesser 'exiled': 'vengeance' w/johnny halladay and the usual to crew.

lol i thought you guys were talking abt the roland joffe mission

'the mission' has a few gunfights that are all very still and composed like this and the rest is filled in w/these bored bodyguards chilling out and dealing w/conflict within their crew. pretty outstanding, and only 81 min.

roland joffe's 'the mission' needed more guns and fewer waterfalls+crosses~

the music in that film sounds like something by the studio fwiw!

which one?

the mission!

johnnie to

downloading.

i shouldve voted for 'election'

election is top notch

love the ending. lamp you can always re-submit if you care to~

VOTED!

lol for a couple mins I thought you guys were talking about the Reece Witherspoon "Election" and I was very very confused as to how that fit in here.

yeah wtf hong kong stop stealing our movie titles

the chinese title is just 'triad society' or even simpler 'triads'

might have to fill up the majority of my top 10 w/HK films.

the election/election thing confused me a lot in the '00s films poll

'election' missed out on the top 100 in that poll by only a couple of spots iirc

just wanted to make sure you know I'm not voting

dammit i was hoping to see The Great Train Robbery place

dr morbius, you're a man of action! decisive! let your ballot sequentially meet the inbox of ilxactionfilms at gmail dot com and the excel spreadsheet i'm working on!

http://images.zaazu.com/img/thumbsup-thumbs-up-approve-ok-smiley-emoticon-000283-facebook.gif

just wanted to make sure you know I'm not voting

― Literal Facepalms (Dr Morbius), Tuesday, February 7, 2012 1:18 PM (28 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/.a/6a00d8341c630a53ef01538e961048970b-300wi

damn, morbs.

http://snarkerati.com/movie-news/files/2010/04/bruce-willis.jpg

i'm guessing this also serves as the campaigning thread: hope i won't be the only one voting for time & tide people, it's awesome !

i hereby endorse the film Point Blank

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TRj7sTZpf7M

point blank also great. haven't seen it in a while but loved the dresses angie dickinson wore.
this trailer is great ! the way point blank shows up on screen when he fires his gun, "walker is an emotional and primitive man", all the "... at point blank rage" towards the end of the trailer.

Love the music in Point Blank.

aaaaaaaaand it's not an "action film"

i think i excluded it for that reason, but i'm thinking i may have been wrong

def an action film

Haven't seen Point Blank, but I love Lee Marvin, so It's going in the queue.

I assume ilx is familiar with Clapping Music, which is pretty much the greatest thing:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BY4bL_bO8sA

VOTED

(including write-ins for Haywire, Three Days of the Condor and Elevator to the Gallows)

oh man three days of the condor...

thanks gr80 -_-

you got my ballot right omar?

yes sir!

how many do you have now?

ps- i tried talking s1ocki in to voting/participating but you've all ruined ILE film threads for him

wtg everyone

aw slocks really isnt participating?

nope.

i think i just convinced him

oh s1ocki, what fun we'll have!

only one day remains... can he make it? *timpani drums*

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BnLewFjBGEw

it's written into tom cruise's contract that every action movie he stars in must feature a scene of him running at full speed

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5tuEaG-buvo

what a great opportunity for a good joke, fumbled

ok so how do i do this

email omar with your top action films, and make it clear what direction the list is going

omar are you soliciting comments too or just a list

when is it 'due'

just a list, i will search for comments in ILX. though you may comment if you wish.

it is due by, let's say, saturday morning.

what's your email?

ilxactionfilms at gmail

and s1ocki?

http://www.threadbombing.com/data/media/2/DILLON_predator.gif

welcome home

lmao

:D :D :D

looool

gif otm

pulling him back in for one last job

omg i just realized judgement night wasnt nominated smdh

was mad max II really not nominated

is max mad too?

guys, i really think we're beyond thunderdome at this point

i'm just gonna post this here:

http://29.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lz4z8otfIJ1r59dcio1_500.jpg

http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/entertainment/2012/02/schwarzenegger-stallone-friends-who-have-surgery-together/

Arnold is looking Shatner-esque.

simultaneously injured in a grueling 4 hr arm wrestling match

http://media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lgzppcRpb71qddh36.jpg

^^made my ballot

oh man the run-down is gonna be spectacular

The rundown will be on my ballot

want y'all to know right now i love you, whatever gets said in the heat of the moment

im already ashamed of my ballot

cant believe they pulled slocki outta retirement

i'm bemused at half of my ballot, shd really have watched some of the other noms before i went all in

he wasn't really retired, just doing freelance work for some south american militants when the bureau finally figured out he was still alive

tragic yet inevitable that slocki takes a bullet just as the winner is announced

need to see a picture of his retirement yacht first

i saw predator on netflix last year for the first time in 20 years and it was a lot of fun. (didn't vote for it though.)

anyway, in my ballot,

schwarzenegger - 3 movies
harrison ford - 4
keanu - 3
bruce willis - 2
stallone - 1

interesting idea for a breakdown after results imo

Seems unfair to count Kill Bill as 2 sep films IMO

my ballot was p much just john woo, the 90s

so many spoilers already :(

s1ocki earlier today

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MEtqfRg3x0E

haha sorry thats vague enough to be p inaccurate, luckily

i am shamefully behind wrt woo/chow movies

hadn't seen a lot of Woo's HK flicks for near 20 years, may have under-rated

red cliff (full-length version) is pretty great, kind of appeals to me on the same tip as the director's cut of kingdom of heaven.

albeit with tony leung in the lead instead of orlando bloom and therefore an improvement.

post-MI: II woo has only directed that plus windtalkers (didn't see it) and paycheck (terrible except for one car chase scene.)

have you seen 'reign of assassins' omar? i think woo was involved with that p heavily as well

don't think anything he's done after Hard Target bears comparison to his HK work

oh i guess he 'co-directed' it with su chao-pin

oh i forgot yeah i really wanna see Red Cliff but i dig historical epix anyway

i was really young when i saw if but face/off was sort of just viscerally thrilling for me in a way few movies have ever managed to top. like it was just so slick and engrossing and big.

reign of assassins looks pretty cool, i will check it out.

xp

i can completely see that but i came to it pretty late and it's good no doubt but it felt underwhelming and when i've watched it again it was diminishing returns. it's def slick, but i like Hard Target's rough edges better and i think i like van Damme hamming it up better than Travolta or Nic Cage. that said Face/Off maybe has better set pieces but there feels like too much padding between them to me now

watched face/off so many times in 97/98 that i think i got sick of it and by extension a lot of woo's repeated tricks

my ballot was vanilla as fuck but had to go with my heart in an action poll. dropped a lot of my favourite movies because i couldn't justify them as 'action', nv obv got to me upthread

nah i'm kidding myself Hard Target is properly mental and Face/Off tries too hard

i think one of the purposes of an Action Movie poll shd be to argue the fuck about what an Action Movie is even tho there's no answer

otm

think you could knock a relatively ok answer out of a test whether plot is there to serve up action or action occurs to serve the plot

but in the best action movies the line is blurred anyway

question about whether car chases and no gunplay/fist-fights can be action

did anybody nom the fucking Cannonball Run??

dropped a lot of my favourite movies because i couldn't justify them as 'action

This is the problem i'm wrestling with right now

Trying to cut down my list based on "awesome action shit" over "awesome movie with some action shit" but I'm not so sure now.

question about whether car chases and no gunplay/fist-fights can be action

depends on whether crashes occur or not imo

xps i thought i wouldn't have to do any of that whittling but i ended up with a shortlist of 130-odd so

can't remember what my first shortlist was, probly about the same

then getting down to 60-odd wasn't too bad

final 50 meant sacrificing a couple of deserving flicks just so i cd put personal favourites that only i'll vote for and won't make the chart

ashamed to admit that I read the face/off novelization before I saw the movie

half my list was anime

i tried to strike a balance between not-really-action-movies i love and solid-action-movies-i-like for about half my ballot

wondering how many films have actually got multiple votes now

half my list was anime

i really hope this is true

shit, no reign of fire

am watching 'in the name of the king: a dungeon siege tale' and tell you what

DON'T EVEN

Jason Statham ... Farmer

Leelee Sobieski ... Muriella

John Rhys-Davies ... Merick

Ron Perlman ... Norick

Claire Forlani ... Solana

Kristanna Loken ... Elora

Matthew Lillard ... Duke Fallow

Brian White ... Commander Tarish

Ray Liotta ... Gallian

Burt Reynolds ... King Konreid

i defy you to f/w that cast tbph

i know, i've seen 2 minutes of it too

but not even Statham wd make me sit through

might save it for the comedy thread, just for lillard

I just voted in this

I hope that's ok

I put "Destroyer - Kaputt" as my number 1 as a write-in

haha dmac, in the name of the king... i have that on dvd & blu-ray, just in case i want to see it in hd. i'd like to thank my previous workplace for giving me shitty movies all the time. even as a big statham fan i still haven't found it in me to watch this pos.

also, just to make sure,did u get my ballot omar little?

Sent my wack ballot.

Yo fools, La Femme Nikita better not be one of those movies y'all are skipping over because it's "not actiony enough" or some shit

get your ballots in by tomorrow morning!

mine arrive ok omar?

yessir

mine arrive, ok omar?

what action movie soundtrack should i jam while i make my list

now accepting suggestions

what would you guys do if i only put zombieland on my list

'be the best
arrroound'

something by tangerine dream is my suggestion

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/9/9d/To_Live_and_Die_in_L.A._album_art.JPG

omar OTM

http://images.uulyrics.com/cover/t/tangerine-dream/album-sorcerer-1977-film.jpg

btw The Hunted is the friedkin movie and not the Christopher Lambert one, right?

yeah i think it's the friedkin movie.

i watched "The Mission" last nite and loved it-- totally mys kind of action movie

tho only the song in that one scene sounds like Studio

what other johnny to hk stuff should i check out?

election, triad election
I haven't seen but have heard is good: exiled

man you know what i wish i had nominated is "outland"

we should do a sci-fi poll if this is successful

would be down w/ a sci-fi poll

totes mcgotes

y'all got til tomorrow morning to get the ballots in

omar is desperate for a ballot that will knock 'over the top' out of the top spot

http://cache2.artprintimages.com/p/LRG/8/882/1GJJ000Z/art-print/boy-praying.jpg

mine is coming tonight, gotta get good and drunk

sent from irl email

max if yr drunk plz bump that old thread.

i can't

Oh shit, I forgot to send my ballot! Will email it immediately!

yeah i forgot to do this drunk last night so i doing it real quick right now

PS slocki you need to do this sorry

if you dont submit a ballot i am just going to send omar the top ten you sent me yesterday

no manhunter :-/

whoa, no pulp fiction

there is literally zero action in Pulp Fiction

oh sorry there's a bit of a fist fight in the middle

eh, im not really a stickler

there are a lot of guns in it

there's a bunch of guns in The Deerhunter but

ban max

ballot sent, already regretting my choices

dont forget to vote for Amistad and Blue Velvet, for there are guns in those movies as well

im gonna send mine off in a few mins. ive got my movies down, but putting them in any kind of order sux ~_~

sent, not satisfied w/it at all but thats what i get for putting it off until the last minute

do people draw a line between 'action' movies and 'war' movies? just noticed blackhawk down isn't on the list

like is 'battle of algiers' an action movie? idk!

I did vote, I don't know what I was talking about up there, I was drunk

Oh god did I make amistad my #1

i actually sent omar your IMed ballot just in case

Lol. That wasn't the final version

s1ocki you made "I can't" your fbook update last nite and you also sent me a text message that said "I can't"

pulling for you, buddy

gentlemen, thank you. 35 ballots submitted. the unveiling of the top 75 will commence on monday.

s1ocki's vote for 'amistad'....

SPOILER ALERT

...pushed it to #4 on the list.

no laydees?

none afaik : /

laurel!!!!!!!!

laurel still has time to submit! where is she?!!

i'm going out for a couple of hours, no tallies are set in stone. latecomers welcome. my deadline was hazy.

Oh shit I'm here!

Um okay I haven't really thought about this also mine will be a bunch of one-offs, probably, thirdly Ronin is so clearly going to win this.

And Robyn should have a vote!

Tschoo I did it. They got all murky after the top 10, like they aren't really THAT much distinguished down at the bottom.

I CAN'T BELIEVE I HAD TO WRITE IN WING CHUN, YOU GUYS.

thanks for the ballot, laurel!

okay everything is now actually closed for real though. the !!!explosive!!! JPGs are getting done.

watched the seven-ups and to live and die in LA today thks to this & nominations thread

latter is utterly fucked

sent in my ballot a couple of days ago. 5 Arnie movies, 3 Paul Verhoeven movies, 1 John Woo movie. didnt vote for some all-time faves (They Live, Pulp Fiction) as I wouldnt really classify them as action.

to live and die in l.a. is truly something else

Bah I forgot to vote for Vengeance. Oh well. Can't remember 'em all when you wait til the last minute.

to live and die in LA definitely went on my ballot, what an awesome movie

great sdtrk too

and the moment when ~~spoiler~~!!!!!

fuck ya

V ilx movie

so many weird scenes in that movie. there's lots of residual material friedkin didn't use for 'cruising' that somehow ended up in TLADILA, it seems.