Everyone who saw the recent remake instantly got nostalgic for the original Total Recall. It's not that it's a bad movie -- it's awesome -- but it's maybe not quite as good as people remember it. Still, any vintage Arnold is worth your time.
Yeah, I know that the movie was the moment we fell in love with Steven Seagal and his penchant for snapping humerus bones. But the real star of this movie was Tommy Lee Jones, whose performance was as batshit as his costume.
The original Die Hard is the best Die Hard, no argument there. But it was released in '88, disqualifying it from this list. Of the innumerable sequels, the third instalment best captured the spirit of the original.
For a movie that's supposed to be a political satire, it's a hell of a lot of fun. It's gory, ridiculous, and also happens to feature NPH, a white-hot Denise Richards and gratuitous nudity. It really checks all the boxes.
The Blade franchise gets a lot of flack nowadays, in part because the last two films were dumb and also because vampires became a pop culture phenomenon. But the original? The original was cool.
You've never seen actors have more fun than watching John Travolta playing a menacing lunatic across from Nicolas Cage trying his best to play someone not insane. Plus, John Woo films almost always kick ass.
God, this movie rules so hard. Based on a Michael Crichton novel, this movie features vikings, mysterious bear people, and Antonio Banderas making his own swords. It might be the best movie that (almost) nobody saw.
You could possibly argue that the second one was a little more fun, and Michael Bay is almost certainly a parody of himself by now. But in the halcyon days of 1995, when Will Smith wasn't yet quite the megastar he'd soon become, the whole package worked to spectacular, explosive effect.
Due to the accidental death of star Brandon Lee, we'll never know what kind of franchise The Crow might have become (yes, I'm aware they made a second one). The original was strange and wonderful, and as opposed to "gritty" movies nowadays, actually felt really authentic to the time and place where the story happened.
Are we even going to bother pretending that this isn't what Donald Trump dreams about for the few hours he sleeps each night?
Three things made this movie great: 1) The excellent, underrated cast; 2) Nicolas Cage's absurd attempt at an accent; and 3) that hair.
For a lot of people, T2 isn't just the best action movie, it's the only action movie. And while it is great, and had a massive budget, and effects that hold up to this day, it lacks a certain bombast that latter day films brought to the screen. If anything, it took itself a little too seriously.
Now this is peak Michael Bay. Nicolas Cage wigging out? Check. Sean Connery being an ornery old badass? Check. Gratuitous gun and military violence, and explosions? Omg, checkcheckcheckcheck. This movie is just fun.
This might be the most underappreciated movie on this list. While not technically his first film, this is definitely the movie that put Robert Rodriguez on the map. And for good reason -- it has everything: A phenomenal cast, great action and (of course) Salma Hayek doing incredibly sexy things.
Has to be, right? It's rare for a movie about aliens to be not-ridiculous (let alone good), but this movie takes career-defining performances from Will Smith, Bill Pullman and Jeff Goldblum and builds an action masterpiece around them. The sequel may have sucked, but Independence Day is definitely the best action movie of the 90s (and maybe ever).
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