MY PERSONAL TOP 52 ACTION MOVIES PT 1: 52-43

This is a massive undertaking for me, counting down my top 52 favourite action movies, I'll finish it and i'll probably think "oh crap i forgot this film", but that's the way it goes I guess, anywho, this here is part one and we look at films 52-42, hope you all enjoy it...

Last night in the U.K, TV channel, Channel 5 presented a countdown of the 40 greatest action films of all time, it's safe to say that I didn't agree with the list, there were some decent films within the top 40 but to put Tomb Raider and Charlies Angels above action films such as The Raid, Lethal Weapon and Commando kinda pissed me off. There was also no mention of The Killer, Hard Boiled or any other classic Hong Kong action film, so being the nerd that I am i've decided to make my own personal top 52 countdown of my favourite action movies....

Kicking off in style with some Chuck Norris badassery....

52. INVASION U.S.A (1985) Invasion U.S.A is essentially Red Dawn Chuck Norris style, Norris plays Matt Hunter, a one man army intent on stopping an invasion force from taking over the states led by the evil Mikhail Rostov Played by Richard Lynch. Directed by action master Joseph Zito (Red Scorpion) and featuring a great Jay Chatterway score, Invasion U.S.A is great action fun at the highest level of switch-off-brain entertainment.

51. STONE COLD (1991) Biker, bombs and the Boz. A skunk mullet, a former NFL player, Bishop and scene chewing William Forsyth under the direction of acclaimed stunt co-ordinator and second unit director Craig R. Baxley. Stone Cold is pure late 80s early 90s badassery and follows a cop as he goes deep cover to infiltrate the Brotherhood, a army-like biker gang causing mayhem on the streets of Mississippi. Featuring car chases, gun fights and a brilliantly staged finale in a court house, Stone Cold is a film for men.

50. CODE OF SILENCE (1985) From the director of The Fugitive comes this action film starring none other than Chuck Norris (again), this time Chuck is playing tough as nails Chicago cop Eddie Cusack who finds himself up against evil gang leader Henry Silva. Apparently Code Of Silence started out as a Dirty Harry film but was changed when Clint Eastwood turned it down. CoS is a fun film that's a little more serious than some of the other Chuck Norris vehicles and features some great action scenes including a warehouse finale which seemed to be a major staple in the 80s action movie.

49. THE DIRTY DOZEN (1967) The WW2 movie to end all world war 2 movies, I could have included Where Eagles Dare because that's a fairly action packed film but The Dirty Dozen is the quintessential Men on a Mission movie. It follows Lee Marvin as he puts together a rag tag team of military prisoners for a suicide mission, we follow their training and the eventual mission. Featuring a cast of badasses from Lee Marvin, Donald Sutherland, John Cassevetes, Fucking Kojak and the baddest of them all, Mr. Charles Bronson, The Dirty Dozen is a must for war movie and action movie fans.

48. DISTRICT 13 (2004) Written by Luc Besson and directed by Pierre Morrel, This dystopian near future action film from France is one adrenaline fuelled beast. The scum of France have been placed into sprawling ghetto districts and cut off from the rest of France in dstricts. This one obviously takes place in a the 13^th and follows a cop tasked with entering the district to secure a nuke that's fallen into the hands of a ruthless crime kingpin. The cop teams up with a ghetto punk who's trying to save his sister and what follows features some insane action sequences including a speak-easy raid, some insane free running and well choreographed fight scenes. D13 has just been remade starring the late Paul Walker (in his last complete film) under the title Brick Mansions.

47. AVENGING FORCE (1986) Avenging Force follows the further adventures of Matt Hunter, the character played by Chuck Norris in Invasion U.S.A who this time around is played by the Koff himself, Michael Dudikoff. We follow Hunter as he searches for his missing sister, kidnapped by a ruthless paramilitary organization called The Pentangle. What sets AF apart from most mid 80s Cannon films is that it turns from generic action fodder at the half way mark into a pretty dark revenge thriller and features some great photography set in the Louisiana swamps. Directed by cult action director Sam Firstenberg (Ameican Ninja), Avenging Force is cool, action packed and at times quite a dark film and the final scene will leave you wanting more Matt Hunter adventures that sadly we never got.

46. KISS OF THE DRAGON (2001) Jet Li's best western movie happens to also be one of the best actions films to be set in France too. Again written by Luc Besson, Jet li is a chinese cop set up by a team of corrupt police officers during a sting. Jet basically races around Paris trying his hardest to get away from the police and teams up with an american hooker played by Bridget Fonda, who's daughter is being held by the head of the corrupt coppers. Featuring some incredible fight scenes mixed in with some well handled drama, Kiss Of The Dragon surprised audiences when it came out. It's a great film, it's fast paced and well worth your time.

45. THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN (1960) Based on Akira Kurosawa's samurai masterpiece, Seven Samurai, writer William Roberts and director John Sturges, effortlessly transports the plot from Samurai era Japan to cowboy era America. Featuring a cast of badass that included Yul Bryner, Robert Vaughn, James Coburn and two of the most bad ass mother fuckers ever to live, Steve McQueen and Charles Bronson, as a team of cowboys hired to protect a small Mexican border town from a ruthless gang of bandits. For a film shot in 1960, The Magnificent Seven features some epic actions scenes and even at a run time 128 minutes, the film flies by. The plot has been used several times but most noticeably in the medieval action film Ironclad and the low budget action flick The Bad Pack, both of which I’ve previously reviewed.

44. JOSHUA TREE aka Army Of One (1993) Our first Dolph Lundgren movie of the list is one of his best, a rip roaring action chase film from director and legendary stuntman, Mr. Vic Armstrong. Dolph plays a former race driver turned truck driver who finds himself in prison after an altercation with some corrupt police offers ends with the death of his friend Eddy and a dead copper. Dolph escapes with the intention of finding the cops who set him up. Seeing as this film is directed by such a legendary stunt/action Icon, you can just imagine the scale of awesomeness that Joshua Tree presents us. High Speed car chases, blistering shoot-outs, epic explosions, all set in the sweltering heat of the Arizona Desert. Joshua Tree will definitely not let action fanatics down, a must see.

43. DREDD (2012) Dredd is the kind of film no-one ever expected to happen after the 1995 Stallone adaptation (which BTW I absolutely adore), but that film is more suited to the Sci-Fi genre, however this incarnation of the 2000AD comic book character loses the “I am The Law” side of that movie and brings in a much more narcissistic Dredd, brillantly embodied by Karl Urban who doesn't remove his helmet once (yay). This Dredd is a killer plain and simple, the dude doesn't hesitate when backed into a corner and the film reflects this with it's brutally violent and bloody action set pieces which to be fair, the entire movie is one long set piece, but the movie works, it's violent and unpredictable and while the film didn't do what was expected at the box office, it's made an absolute killing in the home media market. It's a brilliantly staged action film and one I hope to see a sequel too in the not too distant future.  

Stay tuned for part 2 which covers 42-33...