Let the fists, bullets, and blades fly: Daniel Rutledge has picked the very best of the adrenaline-pumping action category on NEON, guaranteeing you all the fatal one-liners and car chases you could ever dream of.
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Blue Thunder (1983)
WATCH ON NEONHelicopter combat over early ‘80s downtown LA? Heck yes! Written by the guy who wrote Alien, and featuring a climactic helicopter duel between the leads of Jaws and A Clockwork Orange, this is a lot of fun. Despite almost the whole movie being airborne, they still somehow crowbar some gratuitous nudity in. And there’s also a great helicopter chase down the LA River that precedes Terminator 2′s truck-versus-motorcycle sequence.
Django Unchained (2012)
Watch on NeonQuentin Tarantino’s first western is an amazing slavery revenge pic that’s wildly entertaining from beginning to end. Being a Tarantino flick it of course features brilliant actors giving superb performances and is about as richly cinematic as movies get. It might not be as clever as most of Tarantino’s films, but damn it delivers cathartic, bloody as hell action thrills oh so sublimely.
The Equalizer 3 (2023)
WATCH ON NEONThis third tale of Denzel Washington as a brutal mathematician ramped up the violence and pushed the franchise into gorier exploitation cinema. It’s fantastic to have a film this grimy with an actor of Denzel’s calibre in the lead, and his performance really does elevate it. After a brilliant opener, things slow down as Denzel recuperates in an Italian town for a while, before the peace is shattered as he exacts violent retribution on the mafia.
Fast & Furious 5 (2023)
WATCH ON NEONThe apex of this beloved drag races and crazy heists franchise, number five is the one that fires on all cylinders and gets the balance just right. It’s comedic and ridiculous enough; it isn’t too crammed with VFX; and it delivers varied and often exhilarating set pieces that aren’t too cartoonish. This also remains Dwayne Johnson’s best film role to date, his potential so often squandered.
Fast & Furious 6 (2013)
Watch on NeonAfter the success of the fifth film, the sixth cranked things up with “vehicular warfare,” delivering an awesome road battle halfway through the movie that features an actual tank. There’s also a great race through London and the climax has two teams of cars fighting on a freakishly long runway, on which they also have to fight an enormous moving plane.
Fast & Furious 7 (2015)
Watch on NeonThe last great Fast & Furious movie before the franchise switched gears from silly fun to silly shit, this one also served as a gorgeous farewell to Paul Walker. Before all that emotional goodbye stuff, we get to enjoy our two main boys in dapper suits pilot an ultra-luxurious Lykan HyperSport and fly it between the opulent Etihad Towers in Abu Dhabi. The final chase and battle sequence through LA is also pretty sweet.
G. I. Joe: Retaliation (2012)
Watch on NeonThis 2013 sequel was miles better than its predocessor, 2009’s Rise of Cobra, thanks to Jon M Chu’s stylish direction and Dwayne Johnson at the height of his awesomeness, before he came too self-aware and silly. Of course it’s ridiculously cheesy and has sanitised and bloodless violence, but it’s still a hell of a lot of fun if you’re in the mood for big, dumb Hollywood action.
John Wick: Chapter 2 (2017)
WATCH ON NEONAlthough this does start to overstuff things with silly lore, the first John Wick sequel still delivers incredible thrills and ups John’s bodycount considerably (128 kills versus 77 in the original, if you’re counting). It features two of the franchise’s purest, most exquisite sequences of Wickian gun battle choreography, during a climactic museum shootout and another set in Rome’s catacombs. The latter includes a shotgun reload kill that’s one of Wick’s very best.
John Wick 3: Parabellum (2019)
Where to watchArguably the weakest of the franchise, this still beats the pants off most action movies. The best sequence kicks off 15 minutes in as John wastes loads of assassins around New York—with Keanu’s best blade action to date, delightful use of horse kicks in combat, and a meticulous reconstruction of an Old West revolver, used with the coolest timing ever. After that, there’s still more than 90 minutes to go.
King of Killers (2023)
Watch on NeonAn ideal lead man for B grade violence, Frank Grillo is almost always worth watching, no matter how crappy his movies are. In this one it’s him versus the world’s greatest team of hired killers in a big old kill each other competition, the likes of which we’ve seen countless times before. For turn-your brain-off action fun, it’s fine.
Mad Max: Fury Road (2014)
Watch on NEONEasily one of the best action flicks of the millennium so far, George Miller’s return to the franchise that made him famous is just straight up exhilarating. Its narrative is far more engaging than it needs to be and the wondrous world-building is adept in a way that’s often missing from modern movies, but driving it all is a near non-stop assault of unforgettable, breathtaking action sequences that truly raised the bar. Genre fans have this on heavy rotation for good reason.
Mission: Impossible – Fallout (2018)
Watch on NeonFor the most thrilling big budget stunt work and epic set pieces on Neon, look no further this. It’s so rare for a franchise to continuously improve upon itself, but the sixth Mission: Impossible movie is arguably the closest it’s come yet to perfecting the awesome formula, with the climactic helicopter action filmed in Aotearoa taking it all to a new level.
Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol (2011)
Watch on NeonMission: Impossible is the best franchise in the world for spectacular Hollywood stunts, and perhaps the greatest sequence in the series so far is in this film. The whole movie is wonderfully entertaining, but the Burj Khalifa scene is one of finest examples of what Mission: Impossible does best. It was best enjoyed in IMAX cinemas, for sure, but it still rules at home, especially if you’ve got a nice big screen.
Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation (2015)
WATCH ON NEONThe first Christopher McQuarrie-directed Mission Impossible is one of the franchise’s highlights, getting the tone just right with its combination of comedy and drama in between awesome fights and stunts. We get an amazing car chase in Morocco, the crazy underwater breath-holding bit and of course the opening Tom Cruise-hangs-off-a-plane-as-it-takes-off bit, among other thrills.
Nowhere to Run (1993)
WATCH ON NEONFew things are cooler than Jean Claude Van Damme in his prime. As an escaped convict who comes to the aid of rural single mother being victimized by evil property developers, he stars as a Clint Eastwood sort of guy carrying out righteous justice. Nowhere to Run is sexy in ways films these days aren’t, delivering solid violence with a classically American, almost fairytale like vibe.
Salt (2010)
Watch on NeonOne of Angelina Jolie’s two best action flicks as the lead (the other being Wanted) here she’s a James Bond-esque superspy forced to act alone and waste baddies while proving she’s loyal to the CIA, not the KGB. The violence is sanitized, but the stylish excessiveness is fun. It’s also potently feminine in cool action flick ways, like when she gets a sanitary pad from a vending machine in a nightclub toilet to stop a wound bleeding.
Sniper G.R.I.T. (2023)
Watch on NeonThe 10th (!) film in the Sniper franchise is a super easy watch. It’s standard low budget DTV fare with a generally jovial feel and loads of firearm action, the majority of which isn’t actually of the sniper variety, but delivers the goods. It never gets stressful or does anything particularly imaginative with its characters or plot, but in the right frame of mind that’s just what you need.
The Terminator (1984)
Few films have had as big an impact on the action genre as this 1984 classic. But regardless of its legacy and what it did for Arnold Schwarzenegger and James Cameron’s careers, it’s also just a bloody good movie—and great to rewatch every year or so. Darker and more sinister than you might remember, it absolutely rules.
Top Gun (1986)
Watch on NeonWhen you have the need for a certain type of Hollywood blockbuster, nothing delivers quite like this one. Well, not until the unimaginably great sequel was released, but god damn the original is fun. There’s famously thrilling set pieces, loads of awesome military and machinery porn, and exquisite levels of hot homoeroticism. An absolute all-timer.
This guide is regularly updated to reflect changes in NEON’s catalogue. For a list of capsule reviews that have been removed from this page because they are no longer available on the platform, visit here.
