We've found trailers or clips for every film many of which, we should advise
younger readers, reflect the certification of their parent movies and may
not be suitable for all ages.
Times Online has teamed up with HMV to offer one lucky reader ten of the most
action packed films ever made on DVD – every movie featured on this page. To
be in with a chance of winning, answer the question at the foot of this
article.
1 Speed (1994)
It had a clichéd bomb-on-a-bus premise, an erratic leading man in Keanu Reeves
and an untested Dutch cinematographer called Jan de Bont at the helm. But
somehow, miraculously, Speed became the apotheosis of the action-movie form.
The hell-for-leather pacing is relentless. The structure is gorgeously
simple. The set-pieces are appropriately hysterical (see the gravity-defying
bus jump). While the performances too are uniformly perfect – even Dennis
Hopper’s über-villain stops short of screen chewing, with choice one-liners:
“Poor people are crazy, Jack. I’m eccentric.”
2 Raiders of the Lost
Ark (1981)
An old-fashioned ripping yarn with giddily fast-paced action sequences and a
star-making performance from Harrison Ford: it’s hard to find fault with
Spielberg’s stylish adventure story. Ford’s dashing 1930s archaeologist
Indiana Jones is an entertainingly flawed character. He’s phobic of snakes
and disrespectful of pretty much everyone. Indie has been hired by the US
Government to locate the Ark of the Covenant before it falls into the hands
of a band of evil Nazis. The result is a comic-book thriller full of
breathless stunts and audacious thrills.
3 Die Hard (1988)
The movie that launched a billion-dollar action franchise and the screen
career of Bruce Willis, then a TV actor, is actually a horror movie in
reverse. Here instead of a psychotic killer picking off his victims one by
one in a spooky building, we have a trapped victim (New York cop Willis)
picking off his psychotic killers (Euro-terrorist Alan Rickman and co) one
by one. It’s a genius move, and inspired an entire genre of action
knock-offs.
4 Point Break (1991)
Before the Matrix trilogy made him an international icon and Speed made him a
pin-up, Keanu Reeves made the compelling Point Break. Here, as the surfing
copper Johnny Utah, he is the archetypal action hero – physically beautiful,
strong but effectively silent (saying, “Vaya con dios, brah!” doesn’t
count), and more than a match for the quasi-mystical villain played by
Patrick Swayze. “If you want the ultimate,” says Swayze, “you’ve got to be
willing to pay the ultimate price.”
5 The Matrix (1999)
Pioneering in its use of time-slice photography, product placement and
endearingly dumb but eminently quotable lines (Keanu Reeves: “I know kung
fu”), this ultra-cool sci-fi actioner spawned a multitude of imitators and
two inferior sequels. Reeves plays Neo, humanity’s last hope in a
postapocalyptic cyber-controlled nightmare world. Laurence Fishburne is
Morpheus, Neo’s mentor and the leader of a band of leather-clad resistance
fighters, which includes Carrie Anne Moss as the feisty love interest. The
combination of arcane mysticism, techno-babble and paranoia guaranteed it a
loyal cult following.
6 Lethal Weapon (1987)
Danny Glover and Mel Gibson are the mismatched pair of cops at the centre of
this all-action buddy movie. Glover is the old-timer counting the days to
his retirement; Gibson is the loose cannon with a death wish. Together they
are a formidable team. Their foes are a ruthless, highly trained gang
running a drugs syndicate. There’s a hint of crazy in Gibson’s blue-eyed
gaze that’s unnervingly effective.
7 The Wild Bunch (1969)
It’s technically a western, but it’s really an action movie – one of the
greatest made. It’s all there: the gang of badass antiheroes led by William
Holden in pursuit of a hotshot law-man played by Robert Ryan; an orgy of
slow-mo machinegun action; a high-impact bloodbath finale; and the mother of
all action movie quips, hissed during a tense stand-off: “If they move,”
says Holden, prefiguring Schwarzenegger in Predator, “Kill ‘em.” Everything
from Rambo to Die Hard and beyond owes a debt to The Wild Bunch.
8 Terminator 2:
Judgment Day (1991)
The second film in the chronicles of John Connor surpasses the original in
scope, scale and visual élan. And in Robert Patrick’s T-1000, the ruthlessly
efficient shape-shifting cyborg on a death mission, it has a screen villain
of chilling single-mindedness and incredible destructive potential.
Featuring what is arguably Arnold Schwarzenegger’s most effective
performance – blank-eyed, huge and slightly outdated, the role was made for
him – the film also allowed the director James Cameron to indulge his taste
for insanely expensive pyrotechnics and devastating set pieces.
9 Hard Boiled (1992)
John Woo’s stunning oeuvre is largely responsible for launching Hong Kong
action movies on to Western screens. Spraying bullets and bad attitude like
an Asian Sam Peckinpah, Woo surpasses himself with Hard Boiled, a
cop-versus-mobsters thriller filled with exploding motorcycles, dry ice and
guns. It’s said that more than 100,000 rounds of blank ammunition were used
during the shooting of the film. Woo’s stylised approach to the violence has
been described as poetic. Certainly there’s a savage beauty about the ballet
of destruction at the heart of the film.
10 Predator (1987)
In the great 1980s movie battle between the action-throne pretenders Sylvester
Stallone and Arnold Schwarzenegger, Predator was the latter’s attempt at
capturing the jungle-movie terrain. Sandwiched in between Stallone’s Rambo
II and Rambo III, Predator was the more accomplished yarn. Thanks to the Die
Hard director John McTiernan, the movie’s invisible-alien-in-the-jungle
set-up never felt preposterous. Unlike Stallone’s efforts, Predator was free
from Commie-bashing sub-plots and instead rejoiced in interballistic mayhem
and stand-out quips. “If it bleeds,” gurgles the future governor of
California, “we can kill it.”
Crash, Bang, Wallop: win all 10 films on DVD
Times Online has teamed up with HMV to offer one lucky reader 10 of the most
action packed films ever made on DVD – every movie featured on this page. To
be in with a chance of winning, answer the question at the foot of this
article.
HMV is the UK & Ireland's leading DVD specialist, offering the widest
range of action and other film titles across 240 stores nationwide and
online at www.hmv.co.uk
with free delivery.
To enter simply answer this question
In the first of the trilogy, The Bourne Identity, in which European
city does Jason Bourne have an apartment - which gets thoroughly smashed up?
Enter
here
Also tell us below if you think we've got it right or wrong: what's your
favourite action film and why?
Terms and conditions
1. The Competition will run on www.timesonline.co.uk website
2. Closing date: 5pm, August 10, 2007. The winner will be selected randomly.
The judges decision is final.
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over, except employees of HMV, Times Newspapers Limited and their
associated, affiliated or subsidiary companies, and their families, agents,
or anyone connected with this Competition.
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an e-mail to the address provided by Times Newspapers Limited under this
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7.By entering, all eligible entrants agree to abide by each and all these
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cause, to exclude entrants and withhold prizes for violating any of these
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8. The winner will receive the 10 DVDs listed above.
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alternative.
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