25 underrated action movies

Look, I'm not saying Nobody is a great film. It's noisy, it's messy, and it's derivative of every action movie since Taken. But a lot works in this story of a man who gets revenge on the thugs who robbed his house, mainly the action that sees Bob Odenkirk shoot a bunch of bad guys. 

Because of this movie's humor and glamorous stars, there is a sense that Charade is more of a trifle than an action flick. But watch it again today, and you'll see this is a bonafide thriller. It's the best version of the murder mystery, a genre that has been in theaters a lot lately. 

A ballet of bullets. A melee of mayhem. A symphony of shootouts. John Woo's action flick is what every action flick aspires to be. Its story of a police officer in Tokyo and the undercover cop who gets in his way is about as visceral as they come. There are several shootouts that will make your jaw drop and a scene with a baby that will make you cry with laughter. 

Yes, another Woo film. But it's hard to deny the director's knack for action, which is on full display in this tale of assassins in Tokyo. In the latter stages, Woo made a number of blockbusters that made no sense (see: Mission Impossible 2), but this one remains one of his best works. 

Men in tights! It's the first movie to see a bunch of heroes wear spandex, making it the forebearer to every Marvel movie since. But it's really the forebearer to James Bond. Errol Flynn's smooth-talking hero set the groundwork for Bond's persona. 

Move over, Tom Cruise. There's a new stuntman in town. The lineage of actors who do their own stunts goes back to Buster Keaton, who would put his body on the line to get a laugh. But between Cruise and Keaton was another actor who would do his stunts, jumping off a three-story building or hanging off the side of a bus. And his name is Jackie Chan. Watch as Chan does the impossible for two hours in this 1980s classic. 

You want more stunts? We got you. The Axe Gang are a bunch of martial artists who do their own stunts. With the help of special effects, they fly through 1930s Hong Kong in what can only be described as Wuxia Side Story. A musical with more stunts than songs, make sure to stick around to see someone drop-kick a person. 

There's a fine line between genius and insanity, and most of our "creative geniuses" cross that line at some point. While Nicolas Cage crosses that line 100 times in this movie about a group of convicts being transported on a plane, there's something really smart about how this movie goes about its business. It's a movie that knows it's stupid, which is exactly what makes it genius. 

Some guy is imprisoned in a hotel room for 15 years and then is released in a field, where he crawls out of a box. What is going on here? It's a question that sticks with you for the entire runtime, which includes a fight scene that ranks among the best in the genre. 

Not everyone was on board with Inside Man , mostly because people weren't on board with Spike Lee doing a heist flick. Why wasn't he making anothe r Do the Right Thing or BlacKkKlansman? I don't know, maybe cause making a heist film with Denzel Washington sounded like a blast. And guess what, it was! 

Is there anything more New York than The Taking of Pelham One Two Three? Right up there with taxi drivers and pizza, this movie embodies New York. The accents, the subways, the attitudes, the crowds, the sights, sounds, and smells. It's all here, and it's all fantastic! 

A man has to drive from Denver to San Francisco in two days, which might sound impossible to some. Not to Kowalski. This peddle-to-the-medal action flick sees Kowalski outmaneuver police officers in three states while helicopters track him from above. In a metaphor for post-60s America, he drives through a desert in search of freedom, only to find roadblocks at every turn. 

Jean-Pierre Melville's magnum opus, Shadows may be more of a thriller than an action film. But who said suspense couldn't be action? The story of spies during World War II lingers like a thick fog, covering everyone in a mist of confusion. 

We can't have an action list and not include a Western. That would be like making a Western list and not including Leone. While most of Sergio Leone's work is properly rated, the first entry in his No Name trilogy is often left for dead. It's the film that introduced Clint Eastwood as the squinty-eyed, poncho-wearing wanderer with a moral compass, and it's the film that made us saddle up for more Leone down the road. 

How could we ignore one of the biggest industries in the world? Honestly, it's time we started taking these Indian flicks seriously, especially since they make our action flicks look like indies. 

Saoirse Ronan teamed up with director Joe Wright a few years after Atonement in a movie that is nothing like Atonement. In Hanna, she plays a girl trained by her CIA father to kick butt. It's not a spoiler to say that she does much of that along the way. 

A man with no name. A hitman with no motive. A duel with no swords. Yojimbo has been an influence on everything from Star Wars to Mission Impossible, Leon: The Professional to The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, and yet most people don't even know it exists. 

Long before Tom Cruise and Jackie Chan, there was Buster Keaton. The first actor to do his own stunts, Keaton pushed the boundaries of what could be done on screen. From running on top of trains to running on top of cars, Keaton was the first guy to say, "I'm doing this by myself." The General is his best movie, a rom-com that sees the actor chase a bunch of Confederates on a train. 

The Wages of Fear is the perfect mix of action and suspense, white-knuckled tension, and cover-your-eyes horror. Henri-Georges Clouzot's masterpiece sees four men drive across a desert carrying explosives, which will go off if they hit a bump. A French version of Hitchcock, Clouzot makes the most of this concept by wringing out each scene like a wet rag. 

Clint Eastwood would become increasingly cartoonish as his career went on, but in the '70s, his schtick always seemed to work. He wasn't some guy telling kids to "get off his lawn," but a loner who fought against the crimes of humanity. His Josey may be an outlaw, but he's fighting for those in need. In Eastwood's directorial debut, he takes the formula Leone invented and pushes it to new extremes. 

Speaking of extremes, is there anything more extreme than a Zhang Yimou movie? This is a guy who makes most movies look like books and most actors look like ants. In the foreground of his set pieces, actors trade blows in the most epic ways possible. Giant temples, flags, and trees make a backdrop as our hero takes on multiple assassins. 

The definition of "underrated." Most people watch Road House and laugh at everything on screen. No matter who you are, you have to giggle when Patrick Swayze rips out a man's throat. But this story of a roadhouse bouncer also works on an emotional level. Who doesn't root for Swayze by the end of this movie? 

Oh yeah, this is an action movie, alright. The chases in Hayao Miyazaki's film demand to be seen, and even though this is a kid's film, this is about as fun as action gets. 

Michael Bay wasn't always the butt of the joke. The director used to make action movies that made sense, like the one he made with Sean Connery and Nicolas Cage as patriots trying to stop a group of terrorists. Too bad he wouldn't make another one of these movies for another 25 years. 

No one is saying The Princess Bride is a bad movie. But no one is calling it an action movie, either. What else do you call a movie with fencing, fighting, and true love?