Underrated Action Movies Worth Seeing Again

Being raised on the action genre made me who I am today. I grew up hearing stories about John McLane and his catchphrase that I was never allowed to repeat. Hearing about the tales of John Rambo and his missions. But over the years of being a movie buff, I’ve found some interesting action gems that don’t get enough credit. These are not in a particular order but I’d like to think they are all number one in my action movie loving heart.

1. No Escape

Dystopian island stories seem like a dime a dozen. But one with Ray Liotta as an action hero? From the producers that did the Terminator came the adaption of “The Penal Colony“. For what it’s worth, it’s a premise that could do more but made the most of it’s sci-fi Shawshank idea. It’s been confirmed Ray Liotta took this as his only shot to be an action hero while he could. So putting Henry Hill and some of the team from The Terminator made this possible. It lives underground in the cinema grapevines but it‘s worth a watch for those that love the premise of an escape from an inescapable island.

2. Blown Away

There is a running joke I make that Tommy Lee Jones doesn't have anymore energy in his movies because the 90’s used it all up. Blown Away is one of my new favorite TLJ villain that doesn’t get enough credit. It’s not a new action premise but it’s a enjoyable action movie that checks off the boxes. It’s a race against time with the past catching up to the hero faster than the bombs going off. For a film that came out in one of the greatest years of cinema recorded, it’s a 1994 movie that deserves…to blow up (all puns intended).

3. The Long Kiss Goodnight

Renny Harlin had name for continuing the Die Hard story. But when it came to his own double blunder in 1995 from the box office bomb of Cutthroat Island with the dissolve of his marriage to Geena Davis who was in that box office bomb. The obligations to the film put this separating couple into one of the most underrated gems. Unless your name was Sigourney Weaver, not many female actions stars can be shown like the way outside Sci-fi. Many male names were attached to it, but the chance was given to make the movie as it was. The spy story proved to be better than anyone anticipated, with it being one of Samuel L. Jackson’s favorite film of his own. For a film about the forgetful spy, it’s not a movie to forget anytime soon.

4. U.S. Marshals

Tommy Lee Jones strikes my list again. I’ve seen some rejuvenated following to this sequel in the past year. It works for an audience that wasn’t exactly looking to have it’s own spinoff. But it’s a decent venture into a sequel that no one was asking for from a movie that was a remake of a 1963 series. The effort to make a film that is just as thrilling in the chase just like chase for Richard Kimble. Today it almost feels like Action BINGO with how many action names you can name off this movie.

The storytelling process behind U.S. Marshal‘s action sequence is some of the greatest blueprints revealed on how to expand the action louder and crazier than The Fugitive.

On AMC Storynotes, the explanation of the scene is you have Harrison Ford had to fast-penguin walk for his life from a train about to kill him in The Fugitive. But in U.S. Marshals, there needed to be more than a train, it had to a plane. The writer said “If there was third one, it would be a rocket.”

U.S. Marshals isn’t the best sequel in form but it is a great example on how to do a great action movie.

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