Director:Peter Jackson Starring:Elijah Wood, Sean Astin, Ian McKellen, Viggo Mortensen, Orlando Bloom, John Rhys-Davies, Billy Boyd, Dominic Monaghan, Sean Bean, Ian Holm, Christopher Lee, Liv Tyler, Hugo Weaving, Cate Blanchett, Andy Serkis, Bernard Hill, Miranda Otto, Karl Urban, John Noble, David Wenham, Bruce Hopkins, Brad Dourif,
Plot: Fellowship of the Ring:In a small village in the Shire a young Hobbit named Frodo has been entrusted with an ancient Ring. Now he must embark on an Epic quest to the Cracks of Doom in order to destroy it.
The Two Towers:Frodo and Sam continue on to Mordor in their mission to destroy the One Ring. Whilst their former companions make new allies and launch an assault on Isengard.
The Return of the King:The former Fellowship of the Ring prepare for the final battle for Middle Earth, while Frodo & Sam approach Mount Doom to destroy the One Ring.
The number 1 spot, of course, goes to the entire Lord of the Rings trilogy - extended and back-to-back. Yes, this one entry represents the entire LOTR trilogy. I consider the trilogy to be one movie.
Director:John McTiernan Starring:Arnold Schwarzenegger, Jesse Ventura, Kevin Peter Hall, Bill Duke, Carl Weathers, Shane Black, Sonny Landham, Richard Chaves, Elpidia Carrillo
Plot:A team of commandos, on a mission in a Central American jungle, find themselves hunted by an extra-terrestrial warrior.
1987's Predator is simply the perfect '80s movie, offering an amalgamation of the three most popular mainstream genres of that decade: action-adventure, horror, and science fiction - and it's a Schwarzenegger flick to boot. All of these components are mixed up to form this heady brew of violent action, macho posturing and ridiculously quotable dialogue, which is all set at a breakneck pace.
Click here for my full review of this masterpiece.
Director:Mark L. Lester Starring:Arnold Schwarzenegger, Rae Dawn Chong, Dan Hedaya, Vernon Wells, James Olson, David Patrick Kelly, Alyssa Milano, Bill Duke
Plot:A retired elite commando has only a few hours to find and rescue his daughter from an exiled dictator.
In the beginning, there was the masterpiece known as Commando. And the God of '80s Action Excess did look upon it and see that it was good. And lo did Arnold Schwarzenegger massacre hundreds of mercenaries in displays of awesome ultra-violence, and Alyssa Milano did rejoice. Amen.
My full review of this, the greatest thing mankind has ever created, is available here
Director:John McTiernan Starring:Bruce Willis, Alan Rickman, Bonnie Bedelia, Reginald VelJohnson, Alexander Godunov, Paul Gleason, William Atherton, Hart Bochner, James Shigeta
Plot:New York cop John McClane gives terrorists a dose of their own medicine as they hold hostages in an LA office building.
Director:John Landis Starring:John Belushi, Dan Aykroyd, James Brown, Cab Calloway, Ray Charles, Aretha Franklin
Plot:Jake Blues, just out from prison, puts together his old band to save the Catholic home where he and brother Elwood were raised.
Full of belly-laughs, contagious energy, toe-tappingly terrific tunes, hundreds of endlessly quotable one-liners, sharp suits and cool shades, The Blues Brothers deserves multiple viewings. No matter what appeals to you, this is a movie that can sustain your interest for 140 minutes. Personally, I cannot imagine anyone feeling dissatisfied after indulging in this marvellous movie.
Click here for my full review of the next Citizen Kane.
Director:Paul Verhoeven Starring:Arnold Schwarzenegger, Rachel Ticotin, Sharon Stone, Ronny Cox, Michael Ironside, Marshall Bell, Mel Johnson Jr.
Plot:When a man goes for virtual vacation memories of the planet Mars, an unexpected and harrowing series of events forces him to go to the planet for real, or does he?
What do you get when you merge Paul Verhoeven's ability for directing ultra-violent action films with the conventions of an Arnold Schwarzenegger action vehicle? The answer is Total Recall; an exciting, thought-provoking and violent science fiction action spectacle.
You'll find my full review of this awesome epic of epic awesomeness here
Director:Steven Spielberg Starring:Tom Hanks, Tom Sizemore, Edward Burns, Barry Pepper, Adam Goldberg, Vin Diesel, Giovanni Ribisi, Matt Damon, Jeremy Davies
Plot:Following the Normandy Landings, a group of US soldiers go behind enemy lines to retrieve a paratrooper whose brothers have been killed in action.
Director:Tim Burton Starring:Johnny Depp, Helena Bonham Carter, Alan Rickman, Timothy Spall, Sacha Baron Cohen, Jamie Campbell Bower, Laura Michelle Kelly, Jayne Wisener
Plot:The infamous story of Benjamin Barker, a.k.a Sweeney Todd, who sets up a barber shop down in London which is the basis for a sinister partnership with his fellow tenant, Mrs. Lovett. Based on the hit Broadway musical.
Director:Steven Spielberg Starring:Harrison Ford, Karen Allen, Paul Freeman, Ronald Lacey, John Rhys-Davies, Denholm Elliott, Alfred Molina, Wolf Kahler
Plot:Archeologist and adventurer Indiana Jones is hired by the US government to find the Ark of the Covenant before the Nazis.
Director:Sylvester Stallone Starring:Sylvester Stallone, Julie Benz, Matthew Marsden, Graham McTavish, Reynaldo Gallegos, Jake La Botz, Tim Kang, Maung Maung Khin, Paul Schulze
Plot:In Thailand, John Rambo joins a group of mercenaries to venture into war-torn Burma, and rescue a group of Christian aid workers who were kidnapped by the ruthless local infantry unit.
For Rambo (a.k.a. Rambo IV), Sylvester Stallone returned the character to his roots; emulating the tone and emotion of First Blood in order to craft a gritty, poignant war picture that doesn't skimp on the action. What's truly daring about Rambo - and what a lot of critics have missed - was Stallone's decision to resurrect the ironic warrior to lament his soul rather than celebrate his strength.
Director:James Cameron Starring:Sigourney Weaver, William Hope, Paul Reiser, Bill Paxton, Lance Henriksen, Michael Biehn, Jenette Goldstein, Carrie Henn, Al Matthews
Plot:The planet from Alien has been colonized, but contact is lost. This time, the rescue team has impressive firepower, but will it be enough?
Director:Rowdy Herrington Starring:Patrick Swayze, Kelly Lynch, Sam Elliott, Ben Gazzara, Marshall R. Teague, Julie Michaels
Plot:A tough bouncer is hired to tame a dirty bar.
Road House is the very definition of a guilty pleasure - it's packed with rousing action, a ludicrous story, a great soundtrack, gratuitous nudity, huge bare breasts, monster trucks, sex in strange places, roundhouse kicks and a great lead performance from Patrick Swayze in his prime. There isn't much weight to Road House, nor does it have any lofty ambitions, but it's a very enjoyable, breezy romp, and a perfect late night "guy flick".
Click here for my analysis of the perfect "guy flick"
Director:Matthew Vaughn Starring:Aaron Johnson, Mark Strong, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Chloe Moretz, Nicolas Cage, Clark Duke, Evan Peters
Plot:Dave Lizewski is an unnoticed high school student and comic book fan who one day decides to become a super-hero, even though he has no powers, training or meaningful reason to do so.
Kick-Ass quite simply kicks ass. While this particular analogy may seem lazy and obvious, it's appropriate. Relentlessly audacious, devilishly hilarious, gloriously violent and electrifyingly entertaining, Kick-Ass is a refreshing, decidedly adult reboot of the stale comic-book adventure genre that works on practically every level.
Here is my full review of one of the best films of 2010
Director:Jim Sharman Starring:Tim Curry, Susan Sarandon, Barry Bostwick, Richard O'Brien, Patricia Quinn, Nell Campbell, Jonathan Adams, Peter Hinwood, Meat Loaf, Charles Gray
Plot:A newly engaged couple have a breakdown in an isolated area and must pay a call to the bizarre residence of Dr. Frank-N-Furter.
Up until its release, there had never been - and, since its release, there never has been - a film quite like The Rocky Horror Picture Show. In terms of the mixture of horror, camp, rock n' roll, sci-fi and sexual transgression, as well as the cheesy B-movie dialogue and the behaviour it continues to inspire during midnight theatre screenings, this classic film is absolutely unique in the annals of cinema.
Director:James Cameron Starring:Arnold Schwarzenegger, Michael Biehn, Linda Hamilton, Earl Boen, Paul Winfield, Lance Henriksen, Bess Motta, Rick Rossovich
Plot:A human-looking, apparently unstoppable cyborg is sent from the future to kill Sarah Connor; Kyle Reese is sent to stop it.
The Terminator is one of the most important motion pictures of the 1980s - it launched the career of director James Cameron, and catapulted star Arnold Schwarzenegger to stardom. Cameron went on to helm a number of groundbreaking blockbusters in later years (Aliens, Terminator 2, Titanic, Avatar, and so on), while Arnie developed into a legendary big-name action star (with such movies as Commando, Predator, Total Recall and The Running Man). 1984's The Terminator begat these two Hollywood legends for good reason - this is one of the most remarkable, original science fiction/action films in history. While produced on a comparatively low budget, the film is suffused with a myriad of positive attributes and several justifiably legendary images and sequences. Benefitting from a number of still-impressive special effects, fine acting, lots of excitement and a mesmerising pace, The Terminator is one of the finest motion pictures of all time.
Director:James Cameron Starring:Arnold Schwarzenegger, Jamie Lee Curtis, Tom Arnold, Bill Paxton, Tia Carrere, Art Malik, Eliza Dushku
Plot:When a secret agent learns of his wife's extra-marital affair, he pursues her and uses his intelligence resources in a job he kept secret from her
Mention the name James Cameron during a conversation and one will immediately evoke thoughts of The Terminator, Terminator 2, Aliens, The Abyss, Titanic, Avatar and True Lies. That's one hell of an impressive run of movies. Over the course of his career, James Cameron (with his infamous trait of perfectionism) has single-handedly created some of the greatest action and science fiction movies of recent times, and 1994's True Lies is without doubt one of the greatest actioners to emerge from Hollywood during the 1990s. In addition to this being a James Cameron film, it's an Arnold Schwarzenegger vehicle, and their respective styles work extremely well together.
Click here to read my full thoughts on this action masterpiece
Director:Charles Crichton Starring:John Cleese, Jamie Lee Curtis, Kevin Kline, Michael Palin, Maria Aitken, Tom Georgeson, Patricia Hayes, Geoffrey Palmer
Plot:In London, four very different people team up to commit armed robbery, then try to doublecross each other for the loot.
Director:Sam Raimi Starring:Bruce Campbell, Sarah Berry, Dan Hicks, Kassie Wesley DePaiva, Ted Raimi, Denise Bixler, John Peakes
Plot:The lone survivor of an onslaught of flesh-possessing spirits holds up in a cabin with a group of strangers while the demons continue their attack.
Director:Renny Harlin Starring:Bruce Willis, Bonnie Bedelia, William Atherton, Reginald VelJohnson, Franco Nero, William Sadler, John Amos
Plot:John McClane is forced to battle mercenaries who seize control of an airport's communications and threaten to cause plane crashes if their demands are not met.
Director:Terry Zwigoff Starring:Billy Bob Thornton, Tony Cox, Brett Kelly, Lauren Graham, Lauren Tom, Bernie Mac, John Ritter
Plot:A miserable conman and his partner pose as Santa and his Little Helper to rob department stores on Christmas Eve. But they run into problems when the conman befriends a troubled kid, and the security boss discovers the plot
Are you sick and tired of the recent glut of strictly by-the-numbers, saccharine-coated Christmas movies? If so, then praise the skies for Terry Zwigoff's Bad Santa; a no-holds-barred misanthropic black comedy that casually takes every cherished cliché of Christmas movies, tears them to shreds and takes a piss on the remains. Crude, vulgar, crass and frequently side-splittingly hilarious, Bad Santa is a kick in the teeth to every exhibition of seasonal greetings.
Here is my review of this awesomely hilarious Christmas comedy
Director:Michael Mann Starring:Tom Cruise, Jamie Foxx, Jada Pinkett Smith, Mark Ruffalo, Peter Berg, Bruce McGill, Irma P. Hall
Plot:A cab driver finds himself the hostage of an engaging contract killer as he makes his rounds from hit to hit during one night in LA. He must find a way to save both himself and one last victim.
Collateral was released in the summer of 2004, and therefore emerged amidst an onslaught of big-budget, special effects-laden blockbusters. Yet, Collateral does not adhere to the standard summer season template - rather than a brain-dead action fiesta for the teenage crowd, it is a challenging thriller for mature audiences that was puppeteered by the boundlessly talented Michael Mann. As was the case with Mann's 1995 film Heat, Collateral is imbued with a sense of stark realism rarely witnessed in ordinary Hollywood products. The film may be escapist entertainment at its core, but Mann perpetually insists upon plausible scenarios and a gritty tone to ensure the film never drifts too far into the realm of fantasy. Most commendably, Collateral is a summer picture that eschews big explosions and gunfights in favour of suspense, intrigue, plot twists, and an understated style.
Director:Steven Spielberg Starring:Harrison Ford, Sean Connery, Denholm Elliott, Alison Doody, John Rhys-Davies, Julian Glover, River Phoenix
Plot:When Dr. Henry Jones Sr. suddenly goes missing while pursuing the Holy Grail, eminent archaeologist Indiana Jones must follow in his father's footsteps and stop the Nazis.
Director:Tony Scott Starring:Christian Slater, Patricia Arquette, Dennis Hopper, Val Kilmer, Gary Oldman, Brad Pitt, Christopher Walken, Bronson Pinchot, Samuel L. Jackson, Michael Rapaport, Saul Rubinek
Plot:Clarence marries hooker Alabama, steals cocaine from her pimp, and tries to sell it in Hollywood, while the owners of the coke try to reclaim it.
Due to his distinct directorial flourishes, it's easy to determine if you're watching a movie directed by Tony Scott. Likewise, the style of writer and director Quentin Tarantino is so unique that it's easy to tell if you're witnessing one of his motion pictures. There's a slight exception to these rules, however: 1993's True Romance. Those seeking a movie marked with either director's style will be pleasantly surprised by this Scott-directed, Tarantino-penned slice of filmmaking. Thankfully, the cinematic eyes of Scott and Tarantino form something organic; an irresistible mixture of both directors' strengths that's stylish and sublime. True Romance is simultaneously a drug picture, a chase movie, a gangster flick, and a wacky, turbulent romantic-partners-in-crime adventure. Think Bonnie and Clyde on speed.
Director:Edgar Wright Starring:Simon Pegg, Nick Frost, Jim Broadbent, Paddy Considine, Timothy Dalton, Bill Bailey, Olivia Colman
Plot:Jealous colleagues conspire to get a top London cop transferred to a small town and paired with a witless new partner. On the beat, the pair stumble upon a series of suspicious accidents and events.
Director:John G. Avildsen Starring:Sylvester Stallone, Talia Shire, Burt Young, Carl Weathers, Burgess Meredith, Thayer David, Joe Spinell, Jimmy Gambina
Plot:A small time boxer gets a once in a lifetime chance to fight the heavyweight champ in a bout in which he strives to go the distance for his self-respect.
The Rocky series may have ultimately degenerated into a flashy, soulless boxing franchise, but this first instalment is unlike the majority of its follow-ups - it is a remarkable, heartfelt, inspirational sports drama and a poignant character study concerning the determination of one man. It's easy to dismiss Rocky as just a motion picture about boxing, yet it works on several levels - the film is an inspiring fable of the underdog, a warm love story, and a dramatic tale of unrealised dreams all wrapped into one.
Director:Steven Spielberg Starring:Roy Scheider, Robert Shaw, Richard Dreyfuss, Lorraine Gary, Murray Hamilton, Carl Gottlieb, Jeffrey Kramer, Susan Backlinie
Plot:When a gigantic great white shark begins to menace the small island community of Amity, a police chief, a marine scientist and grizzled fisherman set out to stop it.
Though decades have passed since it first entered theatres in 1975, Steven Spielberg's Jaws still assuredly holds its position as one of the greatest thrillers of all time, and remains an important cinematic artefact. Central to the film's brilliance is the riveting suspense, the colourful cast of characters, the humour, the terrific dialogue, the unforgettable score, the thrills, and, above all, the way it taps into the most primal of human fears: fear of the unknown.
Director:Richard Donner Starring:Mel Gibson, Danny Glover, Gary Busey, Mitch Ryan, Tom Atkins, Darlene Love
Plot:A veteran cop, Murtough, is partnered with a young homicidal cop, Riggs. Both having one thing in common, hating working in pairs. Now they must learn to work with one and other to stop a gang of drug smugglers.
Director:Mark L. Lester Starring:Dolph Lundgren, Brandon Lee, Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa, Tia Carrere, Toshirô Obata
Plot:Detective Chris Kenner was orphaned as a child as his father was in the service and was killed and lived in Japan. Now he is on the trail of ruthless Yakuza leader named Yoshido, who helped establish a small Japanese area in Los Angeles and is now running a drug ring disguised as a brewery. However, Kenner must team up with a Japanese-American detective named Johnny Murata, and he also must protect a witness named Minako who would testify against Yoshido. But what Kenner will soon discover that he will be in a lot more than what he bargained for.
Superficially, there's nothing about Showdown in Little Tokyo to get excited about. It comes across as a typical, silly, by-the-numbers action picture. Dig deeper, though, and you will find Showdown in Little Tokyo to be one of the best actioners of the 1990s - and, indeed, one of the best buddy cop action pictures in history (right behind Lethal Weapon). When it comes to action films, most are pretty disposable and undistinguished, yet Showdown in Little Tokyo is distinctly separated from its unremarkable brethren due to a number of things: an ideal pairing of actors, a top-notch script bursting with hilarious one-liners, technical competency, and absolutely no pretentions. It had modest ambitions of being a goofily watchable pure action film, and it surpassed them with aplomb.
To see my full review of Mark L. Lester's second masterpiece, click here
Director:John Woo Starring:Yun-Fat Chow, Tony Leung Chiu Wai, Teresa Mo, Philip Chan, Philip Kwok, Anthony Wong Chau-Sang
Plot:A tough-as-nails cop teams up with an undercover agent to shut down a sinister mobster and his crew.
John Woo's Hard Boiled is a scrumptious feast for action lovers - an explosively visceral, operatic tour de force of amazingly choreographed violence and blistering pyrotechnics that's iced with Woo trademarks. At its core the film is a fairly standard cop drama with a limp emotional hook and cardboard characters, but with action extraordinaire John Woo at the helm, Hard Boiled is pumped up several notches. Woo grasps the conventional framework of an over-the-top action-thriller before adding a dense layer of visual artistry which is supplemented with meticulous choreography and the visceral punch of innocents in harm's way. Altogether, it's the perfect recipe for a John Woo actioner, and if this isn't his masterpiece then it certainly represents the director well enough.
Director:Martin McDonagh Starring:Colin Farrell, Brendan Gleeson, Ralph Fiennes, Clémence Poésy, Eric Godon, Jordan Prentice
Plot:Holed up in Bruges, Belgium after a difficult job, two hit men begin to differ on their views of life and death as they become used to local customs.
Director:James Cameron Starring:Leonardo DiCaprio, Kate Winslet, Billy Zane, Kathy Bates, Frances Fisher, Gloria Stuart, Bill Paxton, Bernard Hill, David Warner, Victor Garber
Plot:A boy and girl from differing social backgrounds meet during the ill-fated maiden voyage of RMS Titanic.
James Cameron's Titanic demonstrated the profitability of epic sagas in a modern age, and that films in the tradition of Ben Hur and Lawrence of Arabia were not a thing of the past. Meticulous in detail, and vast in both scope and intent, Titanic is a film you don't merely watch but experience - from the launch of the luxurious ocean liner to the night of the tragic sinking, it's impossible not to get swept up in the emotion and exhilaration of the picture.
Director:Sylvester Stallone Starring:Sylvester Stallone, Jason Statham, Jet Li, Dolph Lundgren, Eric Roberts, Randy Couture, Steve Austin, Terry Crews, David Zayas, Giselle Itié, Charisma Carpenter, Gary Daniels, Mickey Rourke, Bruce Willis, Arnold Schwarzenegger
Plot:A team of mercenaries head to South America on a mission to overthrow a dictator.
In the same vein as 2010's Predators, Sylvester Stallone's ambition with The Expendables was to transport modern audiences back to the action cinema zenith of the 1980s, when enormous muscle-bound stars utilised equally enormous firearms and slaughtered thousands of bad guys with ease. After resurrecting the '80s aesthetic with 2008's Rambo, Stallone has given the ailing style a new life to deliver an old-school, action-packed wallop of a cinematic experience. Armed with the most charismatic ensemble of badasses to grace cinema screens since 1987's Predator, along with enough testosterone and manliness to make your spleen explode, The Expendables is a blast; a fucking epic old-fashioned manly movie with infinite replay value.
Here is my full review of Stallone's newest tour de force
Director:Troy Duffy Starring:Sean Patrick Flanery, Norman Reedus, Willem Dafoe, David Della Rocco, Billy Connolly, David Ferry, Brian Mahoney, Bob Marley
Plot:Fraternal twins set out to rid Boston of the evil men operating there while being tracked down by an FBI agent.
Shot in a month on a scant $6 million budget, The Boondock Saints was crafted by a filmmaker who knew how to provide a hell of a lot of fun on a dime. Within the shell of a black comedy, writer-director Troy Duffy has mixed gunfights, the talent of Willem Dafoe, Tarantino-esque dialogue scenes, and a vigilante tale, all of which are complemented by cheeky intelligence and rambunctious humour.
I love this movie... Click here for my full review
Director:Sylvester Stallone Starring:Sylvester Stallone, Talia Shire, Burt Young, Carl Weathers, Brigitte Nielsen, Dolph Lundgren, Tony Burton
Plot:When Apollo Creed is killed in a match against a powerful Soviet boxer, Rocky decides to challenge him himself.
By this point in the Rocky series, Sylvester Stallone had transformed the once sincere and humble Rocky Balboa into a muscular action hero who has more in common with Arnold Schwarzenegger than Robert De Niro or Al Pacino. Despite this, 1985's Rocky IV is a guilty pleasure - this mind-blowingly ridiculous film is easy to enjoy due to the inclusion of so much testosterone and cheese. In this sense, the quality of Rocky IV drastically varies depending on how you perceive it. As a Rocky movie, Rocky IV is abysmal - the human element has been drained from the series, and the flick contains a number of scenes which the original Rocky from 1976 would've found repugnant. However, if judged as an '80s action film, Rocky IV scrapes a passing grade - it's just so damn entertaining, with a barrage of enjoyable pop songs, a few exhilarating boxing bouts, and manliness seeping from every pore.
Click here to read my full review on this awesome movie
Director:Paul Michael Glaser Starring:Arnold Schwarzenegger, Maria Conchita Alonso, Yaphet Kotto, Jim Brown, Jesse Ventura, Erland van Lidth
Plot:A wrongly-convicted man must try to survive a public execution gauntlet staged as a TV game show.
The Running Man is one of the most definitive Arnie movies of the '80s - it contains all the necessary violence, bad puns, hammy acting, and of course his signature catch phrase "I'll be back". It has it all! One may think that the movie would have aged horribly due to the inclusion of these aforementioned elements, but there's a certain quality that keeps it all afloat. Like similar action staples (such as RoboCop and Total Recall), the movie has been imbued with an odd charm that you just can't put your finger on.
Director:Mark Neveldine & Brian Taylor Starring:Jason Statham, Amy Smart, Dwight Yoakam, Efren Ramirez, Julanne Chidi Hill, Jose Pablo Cantillo
Plot:Chelios faces a Chinese mobster who has stolen his nearly indestructible heart and replaced it with a battery-powered ticker that requires regular jolts of electricity to keep working.
Crank: High Voltage is merely a celebration of action-comedy; a barely coherent collection of stunts, fights, plot absurdities, profanity-laced dialogue and sex...all set at breakneck pace. It's a grindhouse film for the MTV generation, and it's one hell of a rip-snorting rollercoaster ride in which Neveldine and Taylor push their movie to the limit and beyond (with absolutely no regard for restraint or basic standards of common decency).
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