The Best Action Flicks of the '00s

Cinematical is most to launch into our best-of-the-'00s series, with a assorted illustrator tackling a assorted music over these terminal few weeks of the aughts (or whatever it was we definite to call this decade). Yours genuinely has been tasked with sifting discover the most elating state flicks these eld hit had to offer, and in the list-making equivalent of flinching, I've definite to cypher them up by superlative instead of ranking them in visit of awesomeness.

Oh, and before you interpret absent most what's missing (which we do want), I hit mitt soured The Dark Knight, Spider-Man 2, X2: X-Men United and The Incredibles, so they haw be included in any superhero or animated list to come. If those movies are mitt soured those lists, then by every means, provide them hell. I strength modify join you.

Best Action-Adventure: As new-fangled as things hit gotten in this hovercar-less forthcoming of ours, there's something downright old-fashioned most the spirit of swashbuckling that technology can't contain (that is, until the sequels become along). Case in point: 2003's Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Negroid Pearl nailed the unnatural intermixture of fuck triangles, riches hunts, unseamed effects, a breakneck measure and a free-wheeling significance of humor, thanks in no diminutive conception to Johnny Depp's performance as that rogue, Capt. Jack Sparrow. It's the artefact they used to attain 'em as they only could today. Honorable Mention: The alarming Korean ode to the spaghetti Hesperian known as The Good, The Bad, The Weird unsealed in that land terminal summer, but has been held up Stateside for legal reasons, so if you're keen on commercialism something earnestly fun, this should do the trick.

Best Buddy Flick: In an age when parody constitutes re-enacting a environs and adding a reflex or two, 2007's hyper-affectionate Hot Fuzz both dispatched up and tipped its hat to state extravaganzas with continual ferocity and whatever elating sequences of its possess -- namely, saint Pegg and Nick Frost's climactic siege on the asleep arts community they call home. Honorable Mention: It's a tie between the head-busting parkour fiends of District B13 and the quick-quipping stars of Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang and The Rundown (bonus points to the latter for showcasing the Walken).

Best Chop-Socky Offering: As unbelievably graceful as the wuxia likes of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and mathematician were, I wager a need to go with the proudly outlandish antics of 2005's Kung Fu Hustle for existence queer and wild in coequal measure. Honorable Mention: Quentin Tarantino's Kill Bill boasts digit of the decade's prizewinning stand-alone fights; between Volume 1's nightclub melee and Volume 2's trailer-trashing brawl, it transcended kung-fu commendation to become kick-ass in its possess right.

Best Fantasy Epic: This happening terminal decade, we ease weren't trusty these movies would actually intend made. Now, The Lord of the Rings hit ordered the forbid for every fantasy flicks to come, and patch WETA's impact prefabricated apiece and every battle more material than the last, it was the ensemble that prefabricated us tending most the wager among an unbounded amount of pixels.

Best Historical Epic: In its theatrical cut, 2005's Kingdom of Heaven change same a distinctly rushed effort by the commonly crisp Ridley Scott. Thankfully, bag recreation advancements crapper earmark for us to savor the flooded scope of his director's cut, modify if I crapper never quite correct the significance of sight the Crusades deform on a bounteous screen with a bounteous interruption and a big-ass salt to boot. (Seriously, though: the flick modify feels shorter at 192 transactions than it did at 144, and it'll attain you rethink commerce Orlando Bloom and Eva Green brief in the 'dramatic chops' department.)



Best in Excess: When I previously praised 2006's Crank for existence a vaporize example of trashy, nonmoral fun, a commenter asked, "how does a critic decide that a dumbass state flick with no plot or depth is beatific in digit happening and dopy in another?" It's a clean question, digit I ease don't hit an respond for. I do undergo that state auteurs Neveldine/Taylor hit not ease managed to be more perversely creative, nor has grapheme Jason Statham been more endearingly deadpan. I cared inferior for its 2009 supplement because it was more focused on the damper instead of the thrill, and I ease wager its predecessor delivered those in screwy spades. Honorable Mention: In a similar way, I crapper attitude 2006's Running Scared for existence sacred to its warped fairy-tale approach (Vera Farmiga rescuing her son from a couple of strangers haw be her best time yet), and patch I haw not attitude 2003's Bad Boys II, I rest in awe of its sure-handed, single-minded process of destruction. I haw not tending for most of Michael Bay's recent work, but the man trusty knows how to flick a mean automobile motion (see below).

Best One-Man Army: It's a beatific abstract I already gave it up for the Stath, since 2002's The Transporter has been bumped to Honorable Mention here in souvenir of this year's Taken, in which Liam Neeson tears up half of town in visit to save his stupid, dopy daughter. No digit has brought such gravitas to punching throats and crashing cars same Aslan has.

Best Sci-Fi Action: 2006's Children of Men was my favorite flick of that year, and it ease stands as a large organization of concept and execution, with director Alfonso Cuaron's long takes making post-apocalyptic state thrilling again and dramatic confrontation every the more potent. Honorable Mention: Since that strength not be strictly sci-fi enough for whatever of you, strength I humbly substance in its stead the jetpack chases and moral dilemmas of 2002's Minority Report, the dizzying route motion and fisticuffs scenes from 2003's The Matrix Reloaded, and the derivative narrative and inspired land-to-air-and-back-down-again motion centerpiece from 2005's The Island. (See? Michael Bay crapper attain 'em competent when he wants to.)

Best Spy Film: Before James Bond got rebooted in a grittier light, Jason Bourne brought whatever firm blood to the espionage genre, and patch every of his adventures hit prefabricated for exceptional fisticuffs scenes and hair-raising automobile chases, they are never place to more superlative ingest than in 2007's The Bourne Ultimatum. Honorable Mention: While Bond does merit his due for 2006's action-packed Casino Royale, I staleness admit a individualized alternative for Ethan Hunt's antics in 2006's Mission: Impossible III. That mid-movie bridge battle? Still sensational.

Best War Film: It haw not hit be ordered in the 2000s, but 2001's Negroid Hawk Down redefined modern struggle on screen, with Ridley Scott's content never more immersive or intense. Honorable Mention: 2007's The Kingdom takes a solidified procedural and ramps things up substantially in the third act, patch 2009's The Hurt Locker boasts greater relevance to our underway offend and its possess clean deal of ticking-clock tension.