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Sunday, May 14, 2023

My Ten Favorite Action Movies -- 2023 Update

I'm narrowing my criterion for this list more than I did for my original list in 2013.  Only movies set in the 20th or 21st century allowed.  No swords.  Movies with lots of swords recently got showcased on my Ten Favorite Swashbucklers post anyway!


1. The Fugitive (1993)  Dr. Richard Kimble (Harrison Ford) is wrongly convicted of his wife's murder, escapes, and goes hunting for the real killer while U.S. Marshal Sammy Gerard (Tommy Lee Jones) hunts for him. My second-favorite movie of all time.

2. The Man from U.N.C.L.E. (2015) An American (Henry Cavill), a Russian (Armie Hammer), and a German (Alicia Vikander) team up during the Cold War to stop neo-Nazis from creating a nuclear bomb. This is an unabashedly fun movie, and I love it ever so dearly.

3. The Bourne Identity (2002) Amnesiac Jason Bourne (Matt Damon) races across Europe, evading unknown pursuers, seeking answers about his past, and falling in love with a quirky stranger (Franka Potente). The movie that changed my mind about Matt Damon. And based on one of my favorite books.

4. Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981) Archaeologist/adventurer Dr. Indiana Jones (Harrison Ford) tries to keep the Ark of the Covenant away from the Nazis. One of the finest adventure movies ever made. I had the deep joy of seeing this on the big screen a few years ago, and it was even more spectacular there than I had hoped.

5. Witness (1985) Detective John Book (Harrison Ford) goes undercover to protect a little Amish boy who is the only witness to a murder. Taut and sweet at the same time, and one of the very, very few R-rated movies I own.

6.  Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989) What's better than one Dr. Jones? Two Dr. Joneses! Indy and his dad (Sean Connery) try to keep the Holy Grail away from the Nazis. The chemistry between the two of them is as perfect as possible. This movie makes me laugh so much.

7. GoldenEye (1995) James Bond (Pierce Brosnan) battles his ex-partner (Sean Bean) to save Britain from an electronic meltdown. The first thing I ever saw Brosnan, Bean, and Judi Dench in -- and I became a total fan of all three.

8. Conspiracy Theory (1997) Paranoid cab driver Jerry Fletcher (Mel Gibson) convinces the woman he loves (Julia Roberts) to help him uncover a conspiracy. I think this is the first thing I ever saw Patrick Stewart in other than Star Trek: The Next Generation. It manages to be twisty and tender, creepy and sweet, all at the same time.  And it's also another of the very small number of R-rated movies I own.

9. Skyfall (2012) James Bond (Daniel Craig) must confront, not his own bitter past, but M's (Judi Dench) when MI6 headquarters is attacked.

10. R.E.D. (2010) Retired black-ops agent Frank Moses (Bruce Willis), his new girlfriend Sarah (Mary-Louise Parker), and a bunch of his old pals (Morgan Freeman, John Malkovich, Helen Mirren) and enemies (Brian Cox) team up to figure out who's trying to kill them, and why. Hilarious from beginning to end. You guys wanna get pancakes?


Do we share any favorites?  Do any of these surprise you?  I'm curious!

12 comments:

  1. I'm a big fan of "Witness" too and have seen it several times. I think it is Harrison Ford's best movie.

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    1. Debra, Witness is very special, isn't it? Definitely one of Ford's finest, and it really bugs me that he lost out on the Oscar for it.

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  2. Fun list! I might watch "Witness" some day, if only to see Harrison Ford pretending to be an Amish boy.

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    1. Katie, I actually think you might really dig Witness. It has all kinds of great stuff about identity and belonging and community and expectations and loyalty and... it's really meaty. And pretty. I think you would get a lot out of it.

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    2. Nice! :D I'll give it a try!

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    3. Katie, oooooh! Let me know what you think of it when you do watch it.

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  3. This made me realize most of my favorite action movies can be classed into different genres! This is a cool list. I still haven't seen Conspiracy Theory, though. One of these days!! We definitely overlap on several of these. I think my list would be (in alpha order):

    Casino Royale
    Die Hard
    Expendables 3
    Fugitive
    Ghost Protocol
    Man from UNCLE
    Raiders of the Lost Ark
    Ronin
    Skyfall
    Temple of Doom

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    1. DKoren, yeah, so many action movies cross genres! I discovered that too. I don't know if you would like Conspiracy Theory, but you might. My brother and I love it and my parents found it very off-putting, so, who knows? I'm not sure if it has any of your personal buttons, but it might.

      I went back and forth and back and forth on whether to put the first M:I here vs. RED. It could have swung either way, really.

      I should see Ronin again some day. And the other Expendables movies -- I think I only saw 1.

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  4. Ayye! I love action movies. :D And there's actually a couple here I haven't seen - Witness or Conspiracy Theory! I must add them to my list. :D

    There is a LOT of Harrison Ford in your list. xD He is pretty great, I'll give you that, hehe. I've enjoyed all movies I've seen (8/10) from this list, particularly The Man From U.N.C.L.E., The Bourne Identity (and the whole series) and the Indiana Jones movies. The only one I didn't like was Red. :/ Some of my friends were excited to introduce that movie to us but I just could NOT get into it. It seemed pretty boring and predictable and clearly I did not have the right kind of humour to appreciate it. ;)

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    1. Gabby, well, Harrison Ford has been one of my top favorite actors for about 30 years now, so yup, lots of his movies here :-) How nice you've seen a lot of these! R.E.D. definitely has a kind of spoof-ish humor to it, which is not to everyone's taste.

      While I love Witness and Conspiracy Theory a lot, do be aware they're both rated R. Just so you know :-)

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  5. Raiders and the The Fugitive are two of my favorite movies. There's just something about Harrison Ford!

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    1. Eva, yeah, he is sooooo suited to this particular genre!

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