The 17 Best Action Movies of 2017

By Rob Hunter

Action movies come in varied flavors with martial arts fights and brutal brawls, car chases and super-powered destruction, and 2017 has seen a treasure trove of good to great ones. The plots are a mix of characters seeking revenge, characters on the run, and characters fighting Nazis, but they all deliver the knuckle-bruising goods along the way.

Keep reading for a look at the 17 best action movies of 2017.

16. American Assassin

This hopeful franchise-starter didn’t quite find an audience, but fans of more “realistic” action should give it a spin. Dylan O’Brien (Maze Runner) makes for an engaging antagonist as a man who gives his life over to killing terrorists. The action is plentiful, tactical, and accentuated by the presence of Michael Keaton and Scott Adkins.

15. 24 Hours to Live

It’s probably the least-seen film to make the list, but fans of Ethan Hawke and stories centered around the last acts of desperate men should seek it out for 90 minutes of fun. Hawke gets to rough people up in fights, gun battles, and from behind the wheel of a car. It’s familiar in its simplicity but worth your time.

14. Mayhem

Few films live up to their title as well as Joe Lynch‘s latest, and as he did with Everly he infuses the film with fun and excessive amounts of action. The weapons of choice are fists, staplers, and anything office workers can get their hands on resulting in some very creative brutality.

13. The Hitman’s Bodyguard

The combined wise-cracking of Ryan Reynolds and Samuel L. Jackson may not be quite as entertaining as you’d expect, but director Patrick Hughes (Red Hill) delivers on the action front. There’s plenty of fights — both with guns and fist — but the standout sequence is a car chase through the thin streets of Amsterdam.

12. Wheelman

Netflix had more than a few memorable original films this year, and while this one slipped by a lot of people it’s worth checking out for some unique action on a budget. The amazingly-coiffed Frank Grillo headlines and holds the screen while much of the car chase action and gun play is shot from inside or on the car itself.

11. Baby Driver

Edgar Wright‘s getaway driver flick with a dance beat has charm and style to spare, but it’s the rubber-peelin’ action (and a fun little foot chase) that lands it on this list. Wright and director of photography Bill Pope capture the car chases with creativity and energetic set-pieces, and the breathe new life into the expected.

10. Star Wars: The Last Jedi

Episode VIII of the long-running Star Wars saga has only just hit theaters, but it’s already proven itself to be the most beloved entry yet without a critical word to be uttered against it. Ha, kidding. It’s divisive as hell, but even those who take issue with plot choices can’t argue with the action beats. Space battles, stampedes through a casino, and more keep the energy high, but it’s the epic showdown in Snoke’s chambers that mesmerizes, anchors the entire film, and won’t soon be forgotten.

9. Logan

Wolverine, aka Logan, has always been the most engaging of the X-Men in part because his “power” is a pure physicality. He’s older and very tired when we reunite with him in James Mangold‘s modern-ish day western, but his claws are every bit as sharp. Sharper even, as now we can finally see the bodily damage those blades cause as Logan (Hugh Jackman) slices and dices his way across America. Toss in the pint-sized Dafne Keen as an equally deadly and dangerous sidekick and you have a film that tears at flesh even as it tears at your heart.

8. The Foreigner

Jackie Chan is a legend, but while he continues to churn out new movies each year (typically two per year!) they don’t typically make the cut on these annual lists. His latest, though, is an exception. Director Martin Campbell (Goldeneye, Casino Royale) proves a great partner for an older, more serious Chan, and together they pair a heartfelt story with fierce action beats. Chan’s old, but he’s still a formidable foe in close-quarters combat and beyond.

7. Headshot

The Indonesian filmmakers behind more horror-oriented fare like Macabre and Killers go full-on action with their latest — while still ensuring it’s a gory and grisly affair. The carnage comes via brutal fights and bloody weapon-work including guns, blades, and in one case a bullet simply pressed all the way into someone’s eye socket. It’s gnarly, but while it’s a messy and wet romp The Raid‘s Iko Uwais is on-hand to ensure it’s also stylish and painfully acrobatic.

6. Dunkirk

I’m generally more partial to the small-scale action of martial arts, gun fights, and even car chases, but some war films manage to pair intensity with their larger-scale action. Like Steven Spielberg’s Saving Private Ryan before him, Christopher Nolan‘s latest crafts massive set-pieces awash with adrenaline, energy, and visceral reactions to what we’re seeing onscreen.

5. Wolf Warrior 2

The film opens with director/co-writer/star Wu Jing (SPL) kicking butt in an underwater martial arts brawl, and it only gets nuttier and more awesome from there. Big action with tanks, rocket launchers, and machine guns shares the screen with terrific hand-to-hand bouts including a brutal end battle with the always impressive Frank Grillo. There’s a reason it’s earned nearly one billion dollars — that’s billion with a B — at the international box-office. (That reason is in part its flag-waving Chinese propaganda, but the killer action plays an equally big role.)

4. Atomic Blonde

Any doubts about the future of action cinema should be squashed in general by this year’s fantastic output and squelched more specifically by the filmmakers behind 2014’s John Wick. The pair split direction this year with one delivering that film’s sequel (see below) and the other knocking out a Cold War action feast starring Charlize Theron in the lead role. She proves herself (once again) capable of handing out some real beat-downs with her fists, feet, and from behind the wheel of a car.

3. Blade of the Immortal

You don’t expect someone in this day and age to direct one hundred feature films, and if they do you really don’t expect them to be any good. Well Takashi Miike (Audition, The Happiness of the Katakuris) is having none of that, and he doubled down this year by not only delivering his 100th film but also making it kick ass. It’s an epic tale of an immortal ronin, and his death-dealing fills the screen with blood, violence, and mesmerizing swordplay.

2. The Villainess

Action fans really can’t go wrong with any of the movies on this list, but the top half in particular are ridiculously fantastic examples of exciting, kinetic, and thrilling film-making. This South Korean gem from Jung Byung-gil (Confession of Murder) is a brilliant slice of action entertainment with a stellar collection of beautifully-choreographed fight scenes, chase scenes, and big stunts. What lands it confidently at #2, though, is the presence of at least one show-stopper that left me boggled as to how exactly it was accomplished. That’s the definition of movie magic.

1. John Wick 2

Actions have consequences, and in this case it’s the beautiful action from the first film that results in the even more electrifying antics of this follow-up. We’re once again treated to gun-fu and a crunch/crash-filled car chase, but it’s all elevated even more through some of the most gorgeous cinematography and production design you’re likely to find in the genre. You’re wowed by the action and simultaneously stunned by the visuals, and you can’t help but want to re-watch it all immediately.

Honorable mentions: Free Fire, Kidnap, Master, Overdrive, The Prison

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