It’s Fireworks Night this month in the UK, so, with loud bangs and big, bright explosions filling the air, it seemed like the perfect time to delve into the Limelight library and dig out ten of the most explosive action films currently in stock.
The VHS tapes of China O’Brien, 1 and/or 2, were responsible for getting a generation of 80s teenage boys into kung fu. And what a way to start!
Some of the gender politics may now seem woefully out of date, but with a female protagonist kicking the stuff out of all the biggest and baddest dudes, China O’ Brien’s heart is in the right place - on the end of spectacular star Cynthia Rothrock’s fist!
China returns home to Beaver Creek only to discover her father, the local Sheriff, has been offed by the baddies who have taken over her hometown. Rothrock’s character is basically a female Walker, Texas Ranger, dropped into a film which feels very Roadhouse, but with even more jaw-dropping scrapping!
Directed by Richard Clouse, who also helmed Enter the Dragon and Game of Death, and giving Western audiences their first chance to witness Cynthia’s incredible signature kick - The Rothrock Sting - China O’Brien’s action is even better and bolder in 4K UHD.
Criminally overlooked and underseen when released theatrically, 2023’s Monkey Man is not a simian superhero film - it is a no-holds-barred, bare-knuckle brawl, directed by and starring Dev Patel (The Green Knight), and produced by Get Out and Nope’s Jordan Peele.
Patel plays an underground fighter who must fight his way to the top of the city’s corrupt elite to get ultra-violent revenge for what those in power took from him as a boy.
The monkey part comes from Dev’s nameless character being inspired by the monkey god Hanuman. This is a deliciously and deliriously ANGRY film that sees one man channel all the rage and helplessness of the poor working underclass into a brutal, bone-breaking fighting style.
A combination of Ong-Bak, Game of Death and John Wick, if, like a lot of people, you missed this one first time around, grab the gorgeous 4K disc and see what you’ve been missing.
It’s twenty-three years old now (oof, right in the age), but we still don’t really talk about The Bourne Identity in the same game-changing breath as action films like Speed and Face/Off. This seems strange when it so clearly influenced films like the Daniel Craig Bond’s and Liam Neeson’s Taken.
Stripped right back to one man fighting in a fierce and merciless style that shocked audiences coming out of the hands and feet of nice young man Matt Damon, and from the mind of a director previously best known for charming comedy Swingers (Doug Liman), Jason Bourne was a character who blew audiences away and left the action genre in its dust and desperate to play catch-up.
Awaking with no memory, Bourne awakes in the ocean with nothing and sets out to find out who he is and who is responsible for doing this to him, while clashing with hitmen sent to off him, and blasting through two hours of thrilling car chases and wince-worthy fistfights.
Speak of the devil… Six years after Bourne, Liam ‘Dark Man’ Neeson got his own stripped-back, Euro-trotting, brutal bust-ups franchise: Taken.
Neeson is Bryan Mills, a man with a particular set of skills. And a daughter who just got kidnapped in Europe. If the baddies had any idea what hell and fury they had just unleashed on themselves, they would have left her well alone! Merciless, violent and fun, Taken takes inspo from Bourne, 24 and in one scene, even Hostel, as Mills does whatever it takes to get his daughter back.
Now, you can discover how Mills acquired these skills and became the man he is in a prequel series of the same name.
Talking of TV series, if you want your action not only binge-worthy but cooler than anything you will ever see or hear in your life, you owe it to yourself to see Michael Mann’s Miami Vice.
That’s right, from the mind of the man behind Heat, Miami Vice is one of, if not THE, coolest television show ever. Not only are the clothes, cars and characters amazing, but the soundtrack is incredible and packed with hits, while the action and storylines regularly dazzled a loyal viewing audience not used to these levels on a television programme.
Joining undercover cops Crockett and Tubbs on THIRTY discs of action-packed television is a galaxy of guest stars including: Wesley Snipes, Michael Madsen, Bruce Willis, Pam Grier and more!
Cult classic sci-fi action, set in a future London that is flooded after global warming caused the Thames to break its banks, a tough as nails and cooler than the ice in a polar bear's whisky cop (Rutger Hauer) is on the hunt for an alien serial killer who has a taste for ripping out hearts and his eyes and claws set on Rutger’s missus (Kim Cattrall).
Hard-bitten, scary, gory, incredibly quotable, action-packed and pulse-pounding, this one is an absolute must-see that you will watch again and again, and show to all your friends.
John Wick, but Charlize Theron in Berlin in the 80s, neon lit, full to bursting with pop music needle drops and with fight scenes that would make Jason Bourne decide she’s not worth it and cower away, Atomic Blonde is double, triple-crossing, sexy spy fun.
MI6’s most lethal assassin (Theron) is sent on a covert mission into Cold War Berlin and must navigate her way through a deadly game of spies to recover a priceless dossier while fighting ferocious killers along the way in this breakneck action-thriller from director David Leitch (John Wick).
Lots of Jet Li’s star in The One, a sci-fi spin on Highlander that sees a really evil Li travel between multiverses killing the other versions of himself and absorbing their powers. The only man who can stop him is… Good Jet Li. And… Jason Statham!
If its incredible fighting you’re after, Jet Li vs. Jet Li is absolute peak. Throw in Jason Statham (with hair still!) and Delroy Lindo chasing them between dimensions, and a love interest in the shape of Carla Gugino, plus direction from Final Destination and The X-Files’ James Wong, and you’re in for a heck of a good time!
If it's grounded and gritty car chases you’re in the mood for, buckle up with Ronin.
Directed by John Frankenheimer (French Connection II) and starring Robert De Niro, Jean Reno, Stellan Skarsgård, Sean Bean, Natascha McElhone and Jonathan Pryce, this is high-speed action with an all-star cast.
De Niro is a freelance former U.S. intelligence agent hired to track down a mysterious package that's wanted by both the Irish and the Russian governments. What follows is a barrage of car chases, each more exciting and dangerous than the one before, with all stunts performed practically, no CGI and thus eighty cars absolutely totalled.
The legendary John Woo (Hard Boiled) directs action royalty Jean Claude Van Damme (Bloodsport) in the tale of a gelled curly mulleted homeless man (who just so happens to be a martial arts master) being hunted for sport by Lance Henriksen’s evil mercenary in the swamps of New Orleans.
Many, many things blow up, and even more limbs are bent ninety degrees in the wrong direction in sublime slow motion in Woo’s first English-language film. If that hasn’t sold you then Van Damme punches out a snake.
Fast and Furious franchise
If it’s crazy car chases you want, plus ever-increasing amounts of fights and a who’s who of action films, including Vin Diesel, The Rock and Jason Statham, there’s one franchise for you: Fast and Furious.
It’s hard to imagine the first film being a street racing riff on Point Break with the surfing replaced with the cars and the bank robbery being replaced with (checks notes) stealing lorry loads of DVD places, but from the littlest acorns…
Since then, F&F has become a globetrotting car-toon featuring the most ridiculous action you have ever witnessed, that so far has even sent our heroes into space - time travel can’t be far off.
For more grounded racing action, jump to the much wrongly maligned third film, Tokyo Drift, and even for more of a focus on fisticuffs, do not miss the Stath and Rock’s spin-off, Hobbs and Shaw.