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

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.