MY PERSONAL TOP 52 ACTION MOVIES: PART 4 22-13

And we come to the fourth part of my action movie countdown. Part 4 counts down from 22 to 13, but what will feature in this ten? Well all you have to do is click the read more button and marvel at more awesome action films chosen by my and some of my trademark swearing...Enjoy...

22. FACE/OFF (1997) John Woo's third theatrical English language feature (He directed Black Jack with Dolph but that was DTV) stars Nic Cage and John Travolta in a film about a criminal called Castor Troy and

an FBI agent called Sean Archer. Archer Undergoes a face transplant and assumes the identity of a master criminal. The plan back fires when the same criminal assumes the cop's identity using the same method. It's a very complicated plot device to describe in a short paragraph but this is a John Woo movie so we once we get past that initial set up it's a game of cat and mouse as Archer and Troy go Face to Face to face to face. Face/Off contains Woo's trade mark action sequences and two incredibly over the top performances by both Cage and Travolta culminating in one of the most entertaining studio pictures to come out of Hollywood. The rooftop apartment shootout is worth the price alone and feature somewhere over the rainbow as a musical cue while bullets are being fired and people are being killed. It's a pretty crazy film but man is so much fun...

21. RAMBO (2008) Sylvester Stallone probably made one of the greatest comebacks ever seen in movie history with his final Rocky film, the brilliant Rocky Balboa which returned to the drama of the first film and which showed you the passion Sly still had for Rocco. That film was the complete opposite of Rambo. Rocky Balboa was a film for the family, Rambo was a film for men who wanted to see their 80s action icon comeback and blow mother fuckers up. Stallone didn't lets us down and released Rambo in 2008, he didn't tone down the violence either, infact he probably upped the ante. We find John Rambo living in Thailand as a boatman, he's hired by a group of missionaries to take them into war torn Burma. Shit happens and the missionaries are kidnapped. In comes a group of mercs hired to rescue the churchies. Shit happens again but this time blood gets spilled, lots and lots of blood as Rambo starts killing the entire Burmese army. Rambo is a definite winner in the action genre and too see a film like this released in this day and age where war films are more about the politics surrounding war, to see a film where once man can wield a fucking M2 Aircaft Machine gun hooked to the back of a lorry, firing it at the man sat in the front seat and show all the viceral gore drenched violence is a quite a sight. Rambo is fucking awesome.

20. THE ROCK (1996) “Womack! Why am I not surprised, You piece of shit” and so starts one of the greatest examples of kinectic action film making of modern cinema. Micahel Bay (him again) brings his quick paced style from Bad Boys to The Rock, casting Nic Cage alongside Sean Connery tasked with entering Alcatraz prison which has been taken over by renegade soldier, General Eugene Hummell, brilliantly played by Ed Harris, who has stolen very dangerous VX-nerve gas and has the rockets pointed at various points in San Francisco. Connery plays John Mason, a former SAS operative how has been in prison for 30 years and is the only man who has ever escaped Alcatraz. Cage plays Stanley Goodspeed, an FBI Biochemist tasked with disarming the VX Rockets. What we got from it's 136min runtime was one of the greatest modern action films featuring some brilliant action sequences including the famous washroom gunbattle which was homage'd in one of the Call Of Duty games. The film moves at lightening pace and while being quite a serious film, there some choice comic moments between Cage and Connery who have great chemistry on screen. We also get William Forsythe playing a rare good guy role and not chewing up the scenery. Hans Zimmer's perfect score really sets the tone for this epic action flick. Even if you are not a fan of Bay in genreal, there's no denying that The Rock is a modern day action masterpiece.

19. TOTAL RECALL (1990) “HAHA, you think this is the real quaid?...It is”. Paul Verhoeven brought the violent pain in Robocop back in '87 then brought even more to the tale of a man who's identity is screwed up who finds himself chased to mars. Essentially a spy film, Total Recall, based on a novel by Phillip K.Dick, features some of the most graphic violence ever presented in a major motion picture, Verhoeven lingers on the death, lingers on the bullet hits and soaks the screen in red for the films epic action sequences such as the scene where Quaid gets chased through a commuter building and that poor person on the escalator gets ripped to shreds by bullets for like two minutes is so violent and so epic that only someone like Verhoeven could pull something like that off and not actually give a shit. Lets look at the cast, well we only really need to look at one person, mother fucking Schwarzenegger. That's right this film totally belongs to Arnie, his performance as Dough Quaid is one of his best (his best being Richard Kimble in Kindergarten Cop obviously) and he just owns every scene. Support comes from the awesome Michael Ironside, Rachel Ticotin, Sharon Stone and Ronny Cox as Cohaagan pretty much reprising his role from Robocop. Total Recall is a not just a brilliant action film but it's also a great sci-fi film. Check it out but make sure you check out the Arnie version and not the shitty remake.

18. CONAN THE BARBARIAN (1982) directed by John Milius and written by Milius and Oliver Stone, Conan is an epic fantasy action flick. It's the film that put Arnie of the action map and for me everytime I see it, it gets better and better, I personally own four copies of the film, three on DVD and one on Blu-ray, that's how mich I love the film. Conan watches his family get slaughtered by an evil sorcerer and his band of follows. He's taken away and forced to turn a big wheel for twenty years, doing this as he grows make his strong and turns him into Arnold Schwarzenegger. Arnie is then taken by another man and trained as a gladiator. A few years later Conan is set free and joins up with a beautiful thief and a small bearded Archer. When Conan and his friends are asked to save a princess, Conan discovers she is being held by the evil snake cult lead by Thulsa Doom, the sorcerer responsible for killing his parents. Conan sets out to exact revenge for the death of his parents. I got into argument with someone over whether or not Conan The Barbarian was an action film because that person was adamant that is was a sword and sorcery film. The film contains some great action sequences, the gladiator battle at the beginning are brutal, the raid on the snake cult is bloody and the battle of the rocks sequence is expertly handled. With Basil Pouldaris' bombastic score backing these scenes, for me Conan is the definite fantasy action film.

17. ALIENS (1986) “Game over man, Game over”. Ridley Scott's Alien is one of the greatest sci-fi horror movies ever made but how could the filmmakers ever top that first film? Had it over to up and coming director and former Corman protégée James Cameron, hot off the heels of his low budget genre defining sci-fi flick The Terminator. Instead of going down the same sci-fi horror route as it's predecessor, Cameron gave us the difinitive sci-fi combat movie. Aliens gets shot of the whole haunted house in space style that Ridley presented and gave us an in your face action flick with brilliantly staged action sequences, that fucking power loader, Bill Paxton, Michael Biehn and Sigourney Weaver as Ellen Riply, possibly the strongest female character to ever appear in an action film. Aliens feels more like a 'Nam movie than a sci-fi flick. When you see Vasquez and Drake strap on those massive M56 Smart Gun's you know this isn't going to be like the first film, this one is a beast of its own. When I bought my 5.1 surround system this was the first film I tested on it, the gunfire alone killed my ears. Aliens is a fucking epic film of machismo but also of heart and of family. Cameron got this shit right and would continue to do so until 1997 with that film about the Titanic but I forget what that's called, now get away from me you BITCH!!!

16. ROBOCOP (1987) Paul Verhoeven's English language debut is still his best film, a mix of science fiction, action and satire about a Detroit of the future, run by the evil OCP, Omni Consumer Products. Officer Alex Murphy has just been transferred and on his first day is killed in action when a chase to stop a notorious terrorist ends with his brutal death. Murphy is resurrected by OCP as an experimental Cyborg. It sound ridiculous but it's a truly marvellous film, it's funny, action packed and incredibly violent. Robocop is played perfectly by Peter Weller (Buckaroo Banzai) who embodies not only the human aspect to murphy but also the robotic aspect. He's partnered with Nancy Allen who you'd never expect to see in a film like this after playing hookers and femme fatales in a few Brian De Palmer movies and there's a great villian in the form of Kurtwood Smith who played Red Forman on That 70s Show. Much like Verhoeven's Total Recall, he goes for the brutal when it comes to the violence, one of the most shocking scenes is the death of Murphy, limbs blown off, blood everywhere with a final fuck you bullet to the head. Robocop may have a title that sounds like a film straight out of the Asylum's catalogue of silly titles, but Robocop is a smart, funny, brilliantly made and action action classic.

15. THE RAID (2012) Filmed in Indonesia by a welsh director on a small budget of $1.1 million, The Raid took the action world and film world by storm after festival screenings and word of mouth promoted it as one of the greatest action films ever made and they weren't half wrong, The Raid is an astonishing achievement in action film making. The plot is simple, a swat team raiding a run down apartment building run by a ruthless crime boss are locked in. The crime boss says that anyone who can kill the cops will get to live in the building rent free, so starts the ultimate fight for suvival as everyone with a knife comes after the cops. We follow Rama, a rookie swat officer who despite being new to the force happens to be a total fucking badass who turns out to be a master of the martial art Silat. Rama has to make it to safety and battles his way floor by floor of the apartment building. It's a simple plot that we've seen countless times before most notably Die Hard and the film does wear it's influences with pride. What makes The Raid stand out is it's nihilistic approach to action, as Rama battles his way through floors of killer goons, he doesn't hesitate to kill anyone who gets in his way. The fight scenes are insane, some of the camera work is innovative and very very clever and the violence is brutal. I don't want to say too much because I want you people who haven't seen The Raid to check it out immediately, you won't be disappointed.

14. LETHAL WEAPON (1987) Riggs and Murtaugh, the best double act since Morcombe and Wise, one a family man the other a mentally unstable maverick. Shane Black wrote the script for Lethal Weapon when he was 22 and is considered one of the pioneers of modern action cinema. Lethal Weapon features some brilliant action scenes such as the epic fight between Mr.Joshua and Riggs on Murtaugh's front lawn, the bus chase with Riggs running down the street firing his gun plus many more but what works best is the polar opposites of Riggs and Murtaugh. Riggs has nothing, his wife is dead, he live with his dog in a trailer and contemplates suicide all the time, he has nothing to lose if he dies where as Roger has a loving family, a nice house in the burbs, a boat and is just celebrating his 50^th birthday, he's got it good. How the two interact is what makes Lethal Weapon such a great film because it's action packed, it's funny, it's violent but the chemistry between the two is spot on. Shane Black would go on to write The Last Boy Scout, Long Kiss Goodnight, Last Action Hero and wrote and directed both the brilliant Kiss Kiss Bang Bang and Iron Man 3. Lethal Weapon was follows by 3 excellent sequels but it's this first film in the series that's faired the best.

13. THE LONG KISS GOODNIGHT (1996) Gina Davis as an action hero? Fuck off, it didn't work in Cutthroat Island and it ain't gonna work now...what, hang on did she just snap a man's neck with the chop of a hand, what the fuck, they just jumped through a window five stories up, holy shit she just took out an entire camp full of bad guys, what the hell she's blonde now, holy jesus fuck, she just took out a chopper with an uzi...okay okay, Gina Davis was freakin' badass in that film. Those were my words the first time I saw The Long Kiss Goodnight, I fucking love this film with a passion, for me it's Renny Harlin's best film and it's got an awesome script by Shane Black not only that but it co-stars Samuel L.Jackson. The Long Kiss Goodnight is such an awesome film, Samantha Caine is seven years old, she's a teacher, how can she be a teacher if she's only seven? Well she woke up on a beach seven years ago with no memory....long story short, Samantha is actually a highly trained government assassin named Charlie Baltimore. Still with me?...good. It's essentially the Bourne Identity but with insane over the top stunts and explosions and Samuel L.Jackson telling a man that he will pay someone personally to “ass fuck” him. The action is great, the script is funny and Gina Davis kicks ass.