My Favorite Action/Adventure/Sport Movies

Wade’s Ranking	Action Film	Wade’s Ranking	Action Film	Wade’s Ranking	Action Film	Wade’s Ranking	Action Film
#1	James Bond Series	#16	48 Hours	#31	Top Gun	#46	Rocky
#2	Lethal Weapon Series	#17	Beverly Hills Cop	#32	Bourne Series	#47	The Three Musketeers (1973)
#3	Dirty Harry Series	#18	The Karate Kid (1984)	#33	Reindeer Games	#48	Charlie’s Angels
#4	Die Hard	#19	Point of No Return	#34	Into the Night	#49	Kill Bill (Vol. 1)
#5	Blue Thunder	#20	Troy	#35	Cast Away	#50	Tristan + Isolde (2006)
#6	Mr & Mrs Smith	#21	Spartacus	#36	300	#51	Broken Arrow
#7	The Rock	#22	Midnight Run	#37	Romancing the Stone	#52	Sheena
#8	Ben-Hur	#23	ffolkes	#38	V for Vendetta	#53	Charlie’s Angels: Full Throttle
#9	ConAir	#24	A History of Violence	#39	The Swiss Family Robinson	#54	King Arthur
#10	Adventures of Robin Hood (1938)	#25	A Knight’s Tale	#40	First Blood	#55	Raging Bull
#11	The Man Who Would Be King	#26	The Three Musketeers (1993)	#41	Captain Horatio Hornblower	#56	Matt Helm Series
#12	Braveheart	#27	Crocodile Dundee	#42	The Last Samurai	#57
#13	The Man in the Iron Mask	#28	All the Right Moves	#43	Every Which Way but Loose	#58
#14	Mission: Impossible Series	#29	8 Million Ways to Die	#44	Flint Series	#59
#15	True Lies	#30	Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves	#45	SWAT (2003)	#60

Released in 1987 & directed by Richard Donner (Superman: The Movie & The Omen), Lethal Weapon stars Mel Gibson, Danny Glover, Gary Busey, Mitch Ryan, & Traci Wolfe.

The first Lethal Weapon film is essentially the most serious of the series with the fewest jokes & irrelevant plotlines, as well as the most menacing villains. Lethal Weapon is also the only film of the series featuring no romantic interest for Riggs (except his dead wife & Roger’s daughter).

Released in 1973 & directed by Ted Post, Magnum Force, second film in the Dirty Harry franchise, stars Clint Eastwood, Hal Holbrook, Mitch Ryan, & Margaret Avery. Magnum Force also features prominent roles early in the careers of David Soul, Tim Matheson, & Robert Urich as the vigilante motorcycle cops who are almost as expert revolver marksmen as Harry himself.

SFPD Inspector Harry Callahan seems to have done some soul-searching & been born again between the events of Dirty Harry & Magnum Force, as his philosophy on vigilantism seems 180 degrees different from that displayed in the 1971 intitial film in the series.

Magnum Force outgrossed its parent film & was Eastwood’s most successful film to date. Magnum Force also has the longest running time (124 minutes) of any of the Dirty Harry films.

Released in 1971, Dirty Harry, directed by Don Siegel, stars Clint Eastwood in the title role. Dirty Harry grossed $36 million domestically & spawned the loose-cannon cop film.
Gene Siskel has called Eastwood’s political ideology in Dirty Harry “fascist.” I would say that Harry Callahan is merely a Republican who doesn’t care for the Miranda decision or “criminals’ rights.” The strange thing is that Callahan flip-flops his position on vigilantism & the system in the sequel, Magnum Force.
My main complaint with Dirty Harry is that it’s less action film than psychological drama/political propaganda. “Do you feel lucky?” is classic ’though.

Released in 2005, Mr & Mrs Smith was directed by Doug Limon (who also directed The Bourne Identity), written by Simon Kinberg [who also wrote X-Men: The Last Stand & Sherlock Holmes (2009)] & stars Brad Pitt, Angelina Jolie, & Vince Vaughn.

Mr & Mrs Smith is, for me at any rate, one of those rare action/comedies that works on all levels. The action is exciting, the chemistry is good, & the premise is intriguing.

Released in 1996 & directed by Brian De Palma (The Untouchables, Body Double, Scarface, & Carrie), Mission: Impossible stars Tom Cruise, Jean Reno, Ving Rhames, Kristin Scott Thomas, & Vanessa Redgrave.

Mission: Impossible grossed $457 million worldwide against a budget of $80 million & was the third-highest grossing film of 1996.
Many fans of the original Mission: Impossible TV show have pointed out that the film series belongs to the action genre, while the original show was a suspense/thriller.

Three members of the cast of the original Mission: Impossible TV series (Peter Graves, Martin Landau, & Greg Morris) announced publically how disgusted they were with the film. Graves & Landau both refused parts in the film, Graves because of the characterization of IMF team leader Jim Phelps as a traitor & Landau because the original cast were all to die in the opening scene.

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