The 11 Greatest Action Movies That Put Hollywood to Shame

Iron Monkey

1993 · Action, Crime, Drama · 1h 25m

Robin Hood with kung fu, and fights that barely touch the ground.

A doctor by day, a thief by night

Iron Monkey is Robin Hood with kung fu. By day, Dr. Yang treats the sick. By night he puts on a mask, robs the corrupt officials bleeding the town dry, and hands the money to the poor. The governor wants him caught, so he takes a traveling doctor's young son hostage and forces the father to hunt him down. That doctor is Wong Kei-ying, played by Donnie Yen, and his son is a young Wong Fei-hung, who grew up to be one of China's most famous folk heroes. In an unusual bit of casting, the boy is played by a girl with the kung fu skills to hold her own against the adults.

Walls, rooftops and a pit of fire

The fights barely touch the ground. Fighters run up walls and across rooftops, building to a finale on tall wooden poles above a pit of fire. It came out in Hong Kong in 1993, but American audiences had to wait eight years, until Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon became a hit and a studio finally gave it a wide release. The fights pull you in, and the two doctors give you a reason to care once the fists stop flying.

Where to watch (US)

Checked 19 Oct 2026

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Ong-Bak

2003 · Action, Crime, Thriller · 1h 45m

No wires, no computer effects, and a star whose trousers caught fire for real.

A promise on the poster

Ong-Bak came with a promise printed right on the poster: no wires and no computer effects. Then it spent its running time proving it. Thieves steal the head of a sacred Buddhist statue from a small village, and a young fighter heads to Bangkok to bring it back. That young man is Tony Jaa, who spent years as a stuntman and stunt double before getting his first lead.

The replays that won people over

After some of Jaa's biggest stunts, the film replays them from another angle, practically daring you to spot the trick. He leaps through a ring of barbed wire and runs across moving cars. In one fight his trousers catch fire for real, and he went through more takes with burns before they got the shot. Thai action films had been around for years, but this one put that kind of bone-crunching martial arts in front of the world. Some of the acting is rough and the story is thin. Tony Jaa makes every fight look like it shouldn't be physically possible.

Where to watch (US)

Checked 19 Oct 2026

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Fist of Legend

1994 · Action, Drama · 1h 43m

Jet Li remakes Bruce Lee, and the fight choreographer ended up on The Matrix.

Remaking Bruce Lee

Remaking a Bruce Lee movie in Hong Kong is asking for trouble. Fist of Legend did it anyway. Jet Li plays Chen Zhen, a martial arts student who returns to Japanese-occupied Shanghai after hearing his master has died. The official story doesn't add up, so he starts asking questions. Bruce Lee's Fist of Fury painted its Japanese characters as villains. This version gives Chen a Japanese girlfriend and a Japanese karate master who becomes his mentor, which was a bold choice for a Hong Kong film in the 90s.

The film that hired The Matrix its fight team

Jet Li was a national wushu champion as a teenager, and his speed here is astonishing. The fights are quick and grounded, with less wirework than most Hong Kong films of the time, and he mixes boxing footwork into the kung fu. In one duel, he and his mentor fight blindfolded. The Wachowskis loved the choreography so much they hired Yuen Woo-ping for The Matrix. Bruce Lee's original still stands on its own, but this is a ferocious kung fu classic.

Where to watch (US)

Checked 19 Oct 2026

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The Man from Nowhere

2010 · Action, Crime, Drama · 1h 59m

The biggest Korean hit of 2010, and its star never made another film.

The quiet man behind the counter

The Man from Nowhere was the highest-grossing South Korean film of 2010, and its star, Won Bin, hasn't made another feature since. He was a television heartthrob, but here he plays a reclusive pawn shop owner who hides behind his hair and keeps everyone at a distance. The only person who gets close to him is the little girl next door. When her mother crosses a drug gang, both are taken, and the gang turns out to be into something far worse than drugs.

Short, ugly fights

From there it becomes a cold, patient hunt, with the police struggling to keep up as his past comes out. The fights are short and ugly: knives at close range and punches that look like they really hurt. Won Bin barely has to say a word to make you believe he's the most dangerous man in the room. The last half hour gets brutal, and it hits as hard emotionally as it does physically.

Where to watch (US)

Checked 19 Oct 2026

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Project A

1983 · Action, Adventure, Comedy · 1h 45m

Three opera school classmates, pirates, and a 60-foot fall Jackie Chan did twice.

Three schoolmates take over Hong Kong

Three kids who grew up together at the same strict Peking opera school ended up running Hong Kong action in the 80s, and Project A puts all three in one film. Jackie Chan plays a marine police officer fighting a gang of pirates, with his old schoolmates Sammo Hung and Yuen Biao alongside him. Set in Hong Kong around the turn of the century, it follows Chan as he goes after the pirates and the corrupt officials helping them. Their years of training together show in every fight.

The clock tower fall

One stunt pushes Chan to a terrifying extreme. He hangs from the face of a clock tower, lets go and falls roughly 60 feet through two awnings. On the first attempt he flipped and landed head first. A few days later, he went back and did it again. It mixes jaw-dropping stunts with the timing of a silent comedy, and Chan risks his neck for real every time.

Where to watch (US)

Checked 19 Oct 2026

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Drunken Master II

1994 · Action, Comedy · 1h 42m

Time magazine put it among the 100 greatest films ever made.

The more he drinks, the better he fights

Time magazine once put Drunken Master II on its list of the 100 greatest movies ever made, which is a big claim for a kung fu comedy where the hero fights better the more he drinks. Jackie Chan plays Wong Fei-hung, and his stepmother is happy to help him get around his father's rules, even though the actress playing her was younger than Chan in real life. The plot involves smuggled Chinese treasures and a foreign consulate. Nobody remembers the plot.

The steel mill finale

Everybody remembers the final fight in a steel mill. It took around four months to shoot, and at one point Chan falls back onto real burning coals. The man he's fighting was his real bodyguard, a former kickboxer who kicks so fast the camera struggles to keep up. The original director walked off after clashing with Chan over how the fights should look, and Chan finished it himself. That finale is the best fight of his career.

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Police Story

1985 · Action, Comedy, Crime · 1h 40m

Jackie Chan's answer to Hollywood, made with so much glass the crew renamed it.

Glass Story

Jackie Chan made Police Story after a miserable time in Hollywood. His previous film, The Protector, pushed him to play a standard American action hero with guns and swearing. He hated it, so he went home to Hong Kong to make a cop film his way, directing it himself and building it around the stunts he wanted to pull off. The crew nicknamed it Glass Story because they went through so much sugar glass.

The pole slide

The opening car chase tears straight through a shanty town built for the film. Then comes the shopping mall finale, where Chan leaps from an upper floor onto a pole wrapped in lights and slides several stories down. The bulbs were switched on, and the heat gave him second-degree burns on his hands. He also hurt his back, and several of the stunt team were injured too. It won Best Film at the Hong Kong Film Awards. The stunts are jaw-dropping, and the comedy is what makes it a classic.

Where to watch (US)

Checked 19 Oct 2026

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The Killer

1989 · Action, Crime, Drama · 1h 51m

Twin pistols, slow-motion dives and doves in a church.

A hitman with a conscience

The Killer is about as emotional as a movie with this many bullets can get. Chow Yun-fat plays a hitman who accidentally blinds a nightclub singer during a job. Racked with guilt, he takes one last contract to pay for surgery that might save her sight. The detective on his trail slowly realizes he has more in common with the killer than with the bosses giving him orders.

The look Hollywood copied

John Woo helped define Hong Kong's heroic bloodshed style here: long coats, twin pistols, slow-motion dives and doves flying through a church. Hollywood borrowed that look all through the 90s. The melodrama gets gloriously over the top, and the church shootout will still have you holding your breath. Under all that gunfire is a story about guilt and loyalty that hits harder than you'd expect.

Where to watch (US)

Checked 19 Oct 2026

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The Raid

2011 · Action, Crime, Thriller · 1h 41m

A phone company worker, a Welsh director and one apartment block.

From phone company to action star

The Raid's star, Iko Uwais, was working for a phone company when Welsh director Gareth Evans spotted him while making a documentary about pencak silat, the Indonesian martial art Uwais practiced. Evans had planned a much bigger crime epic, but couldn't raise the money, so he scaled it down to a police squad trapped in one run-down apartment block with a crime boss sitting at the top. It cost around a million dollars and made many times that.

Mad Dog

The fights are built around pencak silat, a full-body style of punches, elbows, knees and brutal close-range takedowns, and Uwais and Yayan Ruhian choreographed them. Ruhian plays Mad Dog, who prefers his bare hands to a gun, and his showdown with the hero is a savage highlight. The camera stays right in the middle of every impact. Hollywood has spent years chasing this kind of hand-to-hand action, and few American films have matched it.

Where to watch (US)

Checked 19 Oct 2026

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The Furious

2024 · Action, Crime, Thriller · 1h 53m

A lost 90s Hong Kong action movie, shot with a modern camera.

Two faces from The Raid

The Furious brings back two faces from The Raid. Joe Taslim, the squad sergeant, takes a lead role, and Yayan Ruhian, who played Mad Dog, turns up as a killer who works with a bow and a knife. He's still terrifying. Leading the film is Xie Miao, a child kung fu star in the 90s, as a mute handyman whose young daughter is snatched off the street by traffickers. The police show no interest, so he goes after them himself, helped by a journalist whose wife vanished chasing the same gang.

Built around each fighter

The director spent decades as a fight choreographer before he started directing, and every fight is built around what each actor does best: Xie's wushu speed, Taslim throwing people around with judo. It premiered in the Midnight Madness slot at the Toronto Film Festival, and the reviews were glowing. The fights put the bland, effects-heavy action Hollywood keeps churning out to shame. Add it to your watchlist.

Where to watch (US)

Checked 19 Oct 2026

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