MY PERSONAL TOP 52 ACTION MOVIES PART 5: 12-1

Now we come to the home stretch, 40 mini reviews for 40 action movies down and only 12 left to go. Which 12 will they be, will it be your favourite? Will it be a film you never though of? Well there's only one way to find out, click the read more button to see what comes in 12^th place...

12. DIE HARD WITH A VENGEANCE (1995) After the disappointing but still entertaining Die Hard 2: Die Harder from Renny Harlin, producers decided to bring back original Die Hard director John McTiernan and it was a wise choice because Die Hard With A Vengeance, for me, is the best of the sequels with Die Hard 2 coming in third place. It's also a direct sequel to the first as our hero John McClane comes up against Simon Gruber, the brother of Hans Gruber, the villain of the original film who puts McClane on a chase to find bombs planted around NYC. While the bombs are indeed real, they're also a distraction while Simon and his crew steal millions in gold. This time around McClane finds himself partnered with Harlem handyman Zeus, played brilliantly by Samuel L.Jackson and the chemistry between both Willis and Jackson makes the movie that much better. McTiernan's direction is flawless, the action sequences are awesome and Jeremy Irons is brilliant as the creepy Simon Gruber. Die Hard With A Vengeance is top grade action cinema.

11. TRUE LIES (1994) Arnold re-teams with director James Cameron for True Lies, a remake of a French film called La Totale! From 1991. Cameron took the story of a Spy who hides his spy life from his wife and casts Arnie as the spy and does what only Cameron does best, makes the movie of a grand scale. True Lies is almost non stop action from the opening scene through the horse in a lift chase to the island gun battle and the L.A harrier jump jet scene, True Lie barely lets up. It also a long film too clocking in at 141mins but due to the awesomeness of the film, the time flys by. Add into the already awesome mix of Arnie and Cameron, Bill Paxton, Tia Carrera, Tom Arnold, Eliza Dushku (Pre Faith) and Jamie Lee Curtis as Arnie's wife Helen who does one of the sexiest stripteases you'll ever see in an action film. True Lies is action on a grand scale, We've not seen action film on this bigger scale since that doesn't include the destruction of the White House or massive Robots beating the shit out of other massive robots. It's also a very very funny film with much quotable lines and Arnie's trademark one liners. True Lies is just awesome through and through.

10. PREDATOR (1987) “GET TO THA CHOPPAA!!!!” A year before John McTiernan brought John McClane to the world, he brought us the adventures of elite commando Dutch Schaffer and his team of bad ass mother fuckers, tasked with entering a hostile jungle on a rescue mission but the team come face to sort of face with a killer not of this earth. Featuring the hardest looking group of badasses this side of The Expendables and some outstanding moments of pure action, Predator earned it's place as one of the greatest action films ever made. It's also highly regarded in the sci-fi genre too. Predator introduced us to the alien to rival the Xenomorph, a hunter-killer-warrior intent on killing anything that gets in his way. It's almost like a slasher film as the Predator kills off each member of Dutch's team one by one. Good special FX, well staged action scenes and the tense finale between Arnie and the monster is brilliantly handled. Predator spawned two sequels, Predator 2 and Predators and the spin off films AVP: Aliens VS Predator and AVP: Requiem but this first incarnation is still the best.

9. POINT BREAK (1991) Before Kathryn Bigalow was obsessed with making films about the war in Afghanistan she made awesome genre flicks like horror flick Near Dark, the dark cop drama Blue Steel and this awesome slice of 90s action, Point Break. Point Break is about a young FBI agent who goes undercover in the surf culture of L.A to track down a gang of bank robbers known as the Ex-Presidents who might be surfers. Keanue Reeves plays the awesomely named Johnny Utah, the young FBI agent sent undercover by his partner Angelo Papas, brilliantly played by the legend that is Gary Busey, Utah mixes in with a group of surfers led by the mysterious Bodhi, played with all the heart and soul of the late Patrick Swayze ( a personal hero of mine). The film might not be the most conventional action film, there's no huge explosions, no massive gun battles and no helicopter chases, what Point Break contains is some expertly handled scenes such as a raid on a house, a skydive chase and the famous footchase, brilliantly parodied the Hot Fuzz. Point Break is an intelligent action film with some great performances and one of Swayze's best roles (his best role is Dalton in Road House). It's one of the best action movies of the 90s.

8. RONIN (1998) Some people may not class Ronin as an action film, my brother being of them, but my logic is this, Ronin contains not 1 but 4 gun battles, not 1 but 3 brilliantly shot, edited and choreographed car chases, a mounting road car explosion, shady KGB and CIA operatives working and even shadier IRA splinter group, Sean Bean getting ambushed by a cup of coffee and Robert DeNiro and Jean Reno and complete awesome badasses and the film is brilliantly directed by the legendary John Frankenheimer. Written by J.D Zeik who wrote the Seagal DTV flick Pistol Whipped, pretty much had his entire script re-written by an uncredited David Mamet under the name of Richard Weisz. I've probably seen Ronin more times than any other action film and it's one of my all time top 5 movies, the car chases are some of the best ever captured on film. The reason Ronin isn't higher on the list is because it's not an all out balls to the wall action flick, it's an intelligent action thriller but it doesn't compete action wise with the next few films, however, Ronin is an under appreciated film that brings an old school 70s vibe to a late 90s film. I love it.

7. DEMOLITION MAN (1993) Stallone and Snipes as 90s cop and villain transported to a weird totalitarian future? You's gotta be kiddin' me?,..nope, that's pretty much the opening of Demolition Man, Sly and Snipes are frozen in the late 90s and after Snipes is defrosted by an evil bloke to cause mayhem and destruction, Sly, the Demolition Man of the title due to his ability to get shit destroyed while chasing the bad guy, gets thawed to stop snipes. We follow both Snipes and Sly in the newly formed San Angeles as both need to adjust to future laws and ways including how to use the three sea shells (?). It's this fish out of water or fish out of time clash of cultures which make Demolition Man so much fun, watching two men use their old ways to fuck shit up and get shit done in the peaceful future. Demolition Man is pretty much non stop action from the opening to the finale and it's so so much fun. It's a very funny film too with Sandra Bullock providing the laughs as a young 20^th century obsessed police officer partnered with Sly's John Spartan. It's also very very quotable and even features a role for everyone's favourite comedian, Rob Schneider. Things explode, people get shot and it's such a speedily paced film you can't help but love it.

6. TERMINATOR 2: JUDGEMENT DAY (1991) Probably one of the most innovative action/sci-fi films ever made which still stands up today, see's Arnie's T-100 Terminator reprogrammed and sent back in time to protect John Conner, the future leader of the resistance. Skynet has created a new kind of terminator, the T-1000, a liquid metal based cyborg able to replicate people and grow swords and shit from his arms. James Cameron really set the bench mark for modern sci-fi action films with T2. Some of the action scenes are absolutely stunning from the viaduct motorbike/truck chase, Cyberdyne building scene and the final industrial smelting facility showdown. What also works is the idea of the terminator acting as a sort of surrogate father for you John. Terminator isn't just a film for showcasing ground breaking visual FX and action sequences, even though the film is about Robots, T2 has a lot of heart, it's about family and survival. It's an incredibly stunning film and boasts a stand out performance by Linda Hamilton reprising her role as Sarah Conner form the first film and a revelation in the form of Robert Patrick as the unstoppable T-1000. I highly recommend the directors cut of T2 by the way, the same as Cameron's Aliens.

5. THE KILLER (1989) Between 1986 and 1993, Hong Kong action maestro John Woo redefined the action genre. He made 6 films, A Better Tomorrow, A Better Tomorrow 2, The Killer, Bullet In The Head, Once A Thief and Hard Boiled. All six films followed themes of brotherhood, redemption, duty and honour and of course the stylized violence associated with these films. He ushered in a sub genre of action cinema called Heroic Bloodshed. This particular title, John Woo's 1989 action thriller is of particular note, The Killer contains hyper stylized gunplay mixed in with a dramatic narrative to create a film that follows a hitman who accidentally blinds a young night club singer, wrecked with guilt the killer finds himself drawn to her and feels he must protect her while a hard nosed cop is on his trail. Highly influential in it's action sequences, The Killer works on so many levels as an action film and a drama. Boasting superior performances from the legendary Chow Yun Fat as the hitman, Ah Long, Danny Lee as the cop on his tail, the two of them nicknamed Tom and Jerry and the beautiful Sally Yeh as blind singer Jeni. The Action is insane throughout The Killer and at one point director Walter Hill had plans to remake it, instead he remade Kurosawa's Yojimbo but adapted the double guns and stylized action for Last Man Standing. The Killer is brilliant.

4. COMMANDO (1985) From the director of cult classics Class Of 1984 and Dragon Wasps (?), the writers of Teen Wolf (the movie) and the writer of Die Hard and starring the Austrian oak himself, Arnold Schwarzenegger comes this film, Commando. A film so dumb, so OTT, that viewers will be dumber after viewing it. But pete, you put it at number four, why if it's so dumb?...because it also happens to be FUCKING AWESOME!. Yes Commando is dumb but it's so much fun, the action is insanely brilliant, every set piece leading up to the 108 kill finale is just awesome plain and simple. You have Arnie, his name in this is John Matrix, he's a former black ops special forces commando who's daughter is kidnapped and his mission which he chosen to except in about 2 seconds involves him killing a lot of people. The finale alone see's Arnie kill something like 108 people, including the main villain of the film, played with a screeching OTT style by Vernon Wells, best know for playing the evil Wes in Mad Max 2 who throughout the entire film sports a chain-mail vest and Freddy Mercury moustache. The film is endlessly re-watchable, it's endlessly quotable and see's Arnie essentially blow up an island. Mix all this awesomeness together and slap an epic 80s musical score by James Horner over it and you have one of the most epic, awesome and quintessential 80s action movies of all time.

3. HARD BOILED (1992) After toning down the violence and action after The Killer and Bullet In The Head with the action crime caper, Once A Thief, Woo returned to give us this film, Hard Boiled, his cops and robbers masterpiece, a film of intense action, humour and heart which follows a hard boiled detective who teams up with a deep cover agent to take down a criminal organization led by Anthony Wong who are smuggling guns into Hong Kong. Man oh man you ain't ever seen anything like this. Woo put everything into Hard Boiled to make the most insane gunplay movie ever made. How Woo manages to handle all the elements of drama, comedy and epic action sequences is a mystery. The Cast is incredible with Chow Yun Fat leading the film as the now Iconic Detective Tequila, a character which he resurrected for the Woo written video game, Stranglehold. We then have the brilliant Tony Leung Chai Wu (Bullet To The Head, Infernal Affairs) as the deep cover agent Alan and the villian played by one of the most recognizable actors of HK cinema, Anthony Wong (Vengeance, Full Contact). But it's the action sequences that makes Hard Boiled such an incredible film from the brilliantly staged tea-house shoot-out at the start of the film, the boat yard gun fight, the Warehouse raid and the final Hospital attack that spans 35 minutes and features one of the greatest examples of 1 take filming you'll ever see. Hard Boiled is a must see for any action fan and if subtitles puts you off then grow the fuck up and read for once.

2. MAD MAX 2: THE ROAD WARRIOR (1982) Before he was too pre-occupied with making films about talking pigs or dancing penguins, director George Miller brought the world the coolest anti-hero ever to grace the screen, Max Rockatansky aka Mad Max. The first film was set during an economical crisis as Gas and petrol dried up and followed Max on a mission of revenge when his wife and son are murdered by an evil motorbike gang lead by the Toe-Cutter. Fast forward five years and all of the gasoline is gone, Australia is a wasteland following a war over the gas and Max along with his dog and the last of the V8 superchargers, the car in which Max drives in the first film, wanders the desolate and depopulated outback. He finds a small refinery who are under constant attack from a biker gang lead by the lord Humongous. Max allies himself with the people of the refinery and helps them battle against the gang in return for all the guzzoline he can carry. For a world with shortage of gasoline it make you wonder why there are so many vehicles but then you see the reason why, that reason being to show some of the most incredible, death defying car stunts and chases ever captured on screen. Like the Knightrider said at the start of Mad Max, this film is a fuel injected suicide machine, it's a rocker, a roller and an outta controller. Mad Max is as close we'll ever get to a pure action movie, it's never been beaten and I doubt it ever will.

1. DIE HARD (1988) Well it was pretty obvious wasn't it, we got through 51 films and Die Hard wasn't in it, well here it is ladles and jellyspoons, in all it's glory at number 1 in my top 52 action movies countdown. I'm not gonna go through the plot because we all know what happens but I will say this, Die Hard wouldn't have been as good had Alan Rickman not been cast as Hans Gruber. Rickman is what makes the film so much fun, it's almost as if he carried Hans over to Prince Of Thieves, all the kids these days know Rickman as that dude from Harry Potter, to us, Rickman will always be Gruber or the Sheriff of Nottingham. Die Hard is blessed not just with Rickman but William Atherton and the introduction of Bruce Willis as an action hero. John McTiernan kicks so much ass behind the camera on this. I'm not going to write a huge thing about Die Hard as I've reviewed this beast multiple times. Die Hard is the greatest action film ever made.

Well there we go, it's been an arduous journey but there is it. I may have missed a few but this is my personal list. Well at least it's better than Channel 5's countdown...