Looking for a great action movie? Already watched Avengers: Infinity War and now you’re on the hunt for something new?
Who doesn’t love a good action flick? They make the most revenue in the box office, after all.
If you like movies, there are a lot of ways for you to watch them on your TV and phone. It’s especially great when you want to watch the best action movies around. Depending on your tastes, some platforms have action movies from different time periods.
So get on Netflix, Hulu, or YouTube and look for some movies.
Not sure what to watch? Here are some of the top action movies in 2018:
1. Deadpool 2
Directed by Atomic Blonde’s David Leitch, Deadpool 2 got released back on May 18. It’s the latest chapter of the violent and smarmy spin-off series of the X-Men franchise. Starring Ryan Reynolds as the red-suit-wearing anti-hero Deadpool, he often breaks the fourth wall and cracks various one-liners.
The reason it’s great is due to the fact that it acknowledges clichés in a self-aware but joking fashion. It has comedic, over-the-top gags that make up for some of its uninspired action scenes. The CGI battles with self-aware, self-deprecating meta winks make this movie a lot more entertaining.
If you’re looking for a movie with a lot of pop culture references, Deadpool 2 is the movie for you.
2. Final Score
This movie has a star-studded cast like Dave Bautista, Pierce Brosnan, Ray Stevenson, and Alexandra Dinu. The reason this movie is one of the greatest action films is due to how Dave Bautista portrays his character. This actor strikes a good balance between toughness and sensitivity, and it shows as he plays the role of Michael Knox, an ex-military war hero.
The plot of this story is dense, with the main villain who searches for his brother. The latter is a political dissident who got a facial reconstruction surgery after faking his death. Despite the low budget action, it’s effective and it’s enhanced by Bautista’s charismatic performance.
Final Score has this scrappy charm that even Die Hard’s John McClane can appreciate. It’s a film that can make you look around for the best AR-15 trigger around for reference.
3. Venom
This movie’s director is Zombieland’s Ruben Fleischer, so expect it to have a similar atmosphere. But what makes this movie the best is the fact that Tom Hardy’s performance is nothing short of magical.
Hardy plays as Eddie Brock, an activist-journalist based from San Francisco. He works for a news outlet akin to VICE. His life changed when the hungry symbiote Venom fused with him.
This actor brings life to each scene with Brando-like tics. He also incorporates the physical comedy found in the Looney Tunes.
Some of the action scenes might be forgettable. But Hardy’s performance delivers the movie’s theme: the divide between the body and the mind.
4. Overlord
At first, a lot of people believed that this movie is a part of the Cloverfield universe. As it turns out, Overlord became a great, stand-alone movie without relying on an existing franchise. The plot isn’t all that original since it’s about the second World War and weird Nazi science projects.
What makes this movie stand out from the rest is the fact that it has a lot of practical effects. Couple that with the wry performances made by Jovan Adepo, you get a movie that can entertain crowds of moviegoers on Friday nights. It’s especially intense when you watch the tense confrontations make you wonder if the protagonists will make it out alive.
5. Beirut
If you saw the Machinist, you know how great of a director Brad Anderson is. He’s a veteran in directing both big screen productions and TV shows. Add in the screenwriter Tony Gilroy to the mix, you get a movie that’s close to the quality of the best entries of the Bourne series.
This movie follows a former U.S. diplomat played by Jon Hamm. It’s set in Beirut back in the 1980s, where the protagonist gets pulled back to Lebanon to handle an intense hostage situation. If you like spy movies, you’ll like this brisk-paced, clever thriller action movie.
Jon Hamm’s character is a familiar archetype—a broken, drunk negotiator with the ability to talk himself out of any situation. His morals aren’t as compromised compared to the CIA agents he’s with. If you want to see Hamm turn Gilroy’s cynical dialogue into a sales pitch, Beirut can make that dream come true.
6. Tomb Raider
The common trend among modern action movies is that they lack sequences that involve solving elaborate puzzles. The stakes are high since the price of failure is certain death. In a stroke of luck, Tomb Raider has a lot of those scenes and more.
Tomb Raider is the latest cinematic reboot of the video game series following Lara Croft. It has a lot of fun and thrilling sequences that don’t involve puzzles too. It has adrenaline-inducing bicycle races in the foggy streets of London as well as a high seas shipwreck worthy of a disaster movie on its own.
The melodrama connecting the movie scenes might be off-putting. But with Alicia Vikander taking on the role of Lara Croft, she can sell this convoluted plot to almost anyone. After all, she brings the same Oscar-winning enthusiasm to this action movie.
7. Den of Thieves
A lot of people believe that this movie steals a lot of things from Michael Mann’s crime saga, Heat. If you look at the plot elements, both movies have similarities. It’s about a team of highly-trained criminals with an ex-Marine as its leader, and they must prevail against an obsessed cop.
Den of Thieves has its own charm, making it seem like you’re reliving the 1995 robbery movie in a different light.
This movie is Christian Gudegast’s first time at the helm of a feature, but everyone went all out making the film. The way it turned out is a fine reflection of the respect-inducing hustle they put into this feature presentation.
8. Upgrade
Leigh Whannell is the writer behind the first Saw movie as well as the Insidious series. As the director of this film, you can rest easy if you’re looking to have a tension-filled action movie. This action-thriller movie dishes out gruesome twists and lets you get spooked by its atmosphere.
Upgrade is an action-thriller about a mechanic with a chatty microchip implanted inside his brain. It seems easy enough, but it’s enjoyable as it has a dose of action mayhem found in most Terminator movies. The story’s revenge aspect is like that of John Wick and Death Wish.
What sets it apart is the fact that Logan Marshall-Green’s performance is funny in a dark, gritty way. The way he portrayed the character put a great degree of vulnerability to it. It’s especially appalling once the microchip took control of his body—his limbs flailed in an eerie, believable manner as if a digital puppeteer pulled his strings.
You might find the shifts between the Silicon Valley satire and body horror rough and jarring. But for an action-thriller, it makes sense as it’s tricky and quite complicated.
9. Aquaman
Batman vs. Superman and the Justice League movies didn’t inspire that much hype for Aquaman. A lot of people didn’t believe there was a reason for this movie to exist at all. In case everyone forgot, the very notion of an Aquaman movie was the subject of an Entourage punchline almost ten years ago.
However, it seems that the tides turned and Furious 7 director James Wan. With Aquaman, he made a movie with a non-stop stream of spectacle. You can expect rooftop chase scenes like the ones you see from James Bond as well as an underwater battle worthy of the Lord of the Rings.
Jason Momoa is consistent with his loose humor and affable manners, just like in Braven. So, if you want pop thrills, Aquaman will deliver. After all, they used their entire $200 million budget to ensure that you enjoy every scene.
10. Black Panther
When it comes to superhero action movies, Black Panther is the highest-rated on Rotten Tomatoes.
It has a 97% rating, with an average of 8.2/10 across 448 reviews. Creed Director Ryan Coogler struck a great balance between high-tech gadgetry, palace intrigue, and fantasy action mayhem. It’s unparalleled compared to other movies within the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
Coogler took a pleasing and probing take on Superhero movies. With that, you get intense action battles with an underlying ideological conflict between King T’Challa (played by Chadwick Boseman) and Killmonger (played Michael B. Jordan). It’s arguably the best Superhero action movie of 2018, bar none.
Watch All the Best Action Movies Today!
If you’re looking for the best action movies, this list can give you a good start. Whether you’re watching it at home or during a long road trip, it’s sure to fill you with adrenaline with its action-packed sequences.
But why stop here? Check out our other lists to discover more! Read this post if you need a list of movies to watch for the rest of your life.