There are a lot of good action movies to choose from on Netflix…
Are you looking for the best action movies on Netflix right now? Sometimes your search can be in vain with all the different digital choices to stream! Fortunately, the service has plenty from the genre — pop culture blockbusters, adrenaline pumping fight films, robust animated adventures and shootout dramas galore… if you know where to look for them. And that’s where we come in with our monthly updates on the best new movies on Netflix.
See, here you’ll find the best action movies on Netflix right now. There are plenty of different awesome new releases that are on Netflix right now, including many of the top recent action movies from 2019, 2018, 2017, and 2016, as well as many of the all-time greatest classics, underrated b-movies, all-ages adventure and ultraviolent action. They all await you in our picks to watch for the hottest action movies on Netflix! So don’t bother to search any further. Just log-in because it’s time to watch…
Oh, and when you’re done here, be sure to also check out our list of the 25 Best Action Movies Ever and what’s new to Netflix this month.
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Or follow these links for the best of other genres:
The best sci fi movies on Netflix
The best comedy movies on Netflix
The best horror movies on Netflix
The best drama movies on Netflix
The best horror TV shows on Netflix
The best anime series on Netflix
Please note: This list pertains to U.S. Netflix subscribers. Some titles may not currently be available on international platforms.
Best Action Movies on Netflix Right Now
GoldenEye
With a new James Bond movie due for release in 2020, we imagine plenty of fans are planning a Bond binge over the next few months. Netflix is only home to the four Pierce Brosnan-led Bond movies, but the good news is that limited lineup includes 1995’s GoldenEye. This slick spy movie singlehandedly revitalized the franchise, cementing Brosnan as a worthy heir to the mantle and director Martin Campbell as one of the franchise’s best directors. You don’t get to the current Daniel Craig movies without GoldenEye lighting the way.
Kill Bill Vol. 1 & Vol. 2
With the Kill Bill duology, Quentin Tarantino proved himself to be every bit the master of the martial arts genre as he is witty crime dramas. Together, these two movies chronicle the journey of “The Bride” (Uma Thurman), a woman out for revenge against the secret society of assassins who betrayed her. With plenty of colorful characters, epic needle drops, a twisty, nonlinear plot and some of the finest (and bloodiest) fight scenes to be found in an American movie, Kill Bill has it all.
The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers & The Return of the King
We’re not sure why Netflix only has the latter two entries in the Lord of the Rings trilogy available, but better some of this grand fantasy epic than none at all. Even as they chronicle the desperate struggle of a motley band of hobbits, men, elves, dwarves and wizards to prevent the return of a great evil, these movies also deliver some of the biggest and most satisfying battle scenes ever committed to film. Literally thousands of combatants duke it out on screen, all thanks to the magic of WETA’s incredible CGI work.
Patriot Games
Patriot Games is the second movie to feature Tom Clancy’s CIA hero Jack Ryan, and the first starring Harrison Ford. It remains among the best Clancy adaptations to date. Ford is still the best Jack Ryan, and the film soars as it delivers one great set piece after another and pits the hero against a radical Irish terrorist (Sean Bean). Clancy himself was none too fond of this adaptation, but audiences sure were.
The Grandmaster
While a great many martial arts movies have dramatized the life and exploits of Wing Chun founder Ip Man, none can match the explosive action and gorgeous cinematography of 2013’s The Grandmaster. But who would expect anything less with a director as acclaimed as Wong Kar-wai behind the camera? Kar-wai expertly distills a significant portion of Master Ip’s life into a tightly paced and beautiful martial arts drama. Superstars Tony Leung and Zhang Ziyi only further add to the film’s star power. Our only complaint? We wish Netflix would make the superior international cut available to stream.
And if The Grandmaster leaves you hungry for more Wing Chun action, be sure to check out the Donnie Yen-starring Ip Man trilogy, also available on Netflix.
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
The wuxia sub-genre of martial arts movies is characterized by a historical setting, stories involving conflicts between love and duty, and graceful, even balletic displays of fighting prowess. You’ll find all three of these in abundance in this classic film from 2000. One of the most popular martial arts movies in the West, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon revolves around the hunt for a legendary blade called the Sword of Destiny, a weapon that bestows great power but also brings with it only pain. The fight scenes in this one are epic, but the twin love stories are equally enthralling.
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Kung Fu Hustle
Long ago, Jackie Chan proved what a winning combination kung fu and slapstick humor can be. Few modern martial arts movies honor that legacy as well as Stephen Chow’s Kung Fu Hustle. This comedic gangster movie is basically a live-action cartoon. It manages to parody countless classic movies even as it delivers some hard-hitting fight scenes. The fact that Kung Fu Hustle features so many beloved actors from ’70s kung fu cinema is just icing on the cake.
Ant-Man and the Wasp
The sequel to Ant-Man is an inventive and lighthearted heist movie, in which The Wasp drags Ant-Man into an elaborate adventure involving a journey to the Quantum Realm, a building that gets stolen in the middle of a car chase, and lots of little, giant, clever action sequences. The Ant-Man movies are probably the most charming MCU movies, and the great ensemble cast and unique set pieces make this one stand out.
The Raid: Redemption
When a SWAT team goes after a powerful crime lord, they get trapped inside a building with seemingly countless killers, all of whom want them dead. Once Gareth Evans’ astounding action-thriller gets going it never lets up. It’s an exhausting series of breathtaking fight scenes, each one impressive and brutal. The Raid: Redemption raised the bar for action cinema, and most filmmakers are still struggling to catch up.
Avengers: Infinity War
The most epic live-action superhero crossover ever plays like a big budget, action-packed version of Robert Altman’s Nashville, complete with dozens and dozens of important characters, each of whom slip into each other’s stories on their own path to victory or tragedy. It’s the kind of sprawling superhero movie that would never have been possible, or even comprehensible, for mainstream audiences to appreciate 10 years ago, and it represents a vast uncharted landscape of superhero cinema in the future. And it’s also thrilling, funny, captivating action filmmaking to boot!
Black Hawk Down
Ridley Scott’s Oscar-winning war epic, about a daring rescue attempt following a botched mission in Mogadishu, isn’t about sweeping global politics or man’s inhumanity to man. It’s about the moment, in the middle of a firefight, where nothing matters but the people next to you. Scott captures the incredibly complex shootouts, geography, tactics and large ensemble cast with a deftness that can only be admired, and somehow makes the chaotic Black Hawk Down seem easy to follow. It’s not the most insightful war movie ever made, but it’s one of the most thrilling.
The Indiana Jones Series
George Lucas and Steven Spielberg collaborated on the classic Indiana Jones movies, taking the cheesy action movie tropes of their childhoods and translating them to the big screen using every new, exciting, expensive technique at their disposal. The first film, Raiders of the Lost Ark, is about as good as action movies ever get, with lovable characters and dastardly villains all searching for the same magical treasure, getting into one giant and unforgettable set piece after another. The sequels are mixed, but mostly great: Temple of Doom resorts to insulting stereotypes but also features probably the most breathtaking action sequences in the franchise’s history; Last Crusade has iconic set pieces and the fantastic Sean Connery as Indie’s stuffy father, but the jokey tone robs the series of its gravitas; and The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull is pretty dumb from start to finish, but at least it’s never dull.
Hellboy
Before he won an Oscar for directing the horror fairy tale The Shape of Water, Guillermo del Toro brought his oddball sensibilities to Hellboy, an adaptation of Mike Mignola’s award-winning comic book series. Ron Perlman is perfect as the title character, a demon from hell who was raised by humans to protect us from supernatural forces. The plot is perfunctory but the monster effects are spectacular, the action is cool and the lead performances by Perlman and Selma Blair, as a firestarter who can’t trust herself, are easy to fall in love with.
Headshot
Imagine the plot of The Bourne Identity, but with the fight scenes from The Raid. That’s the underrated action thriller Headshot, which stars Iko Uwais as an amnesiac who has to protect himself, and his psychologist, from an army of martial arts assassins who want him dead. Headshot arguably works even better on streaming, because the action is so stunning, and so merciless, you might need to pause the film just to catch your breath.
Black Panther
The biggest Marvel movie ever, and with good cause. Chadwick Boseman stars in Black Panther, a film that combines Afrofuturism with the superhero genre, giving audiences something they’d never seen before, on a scale that’s hard to imagine. Michael B. Jordan co-stars as one of the great MCU villains, and Letitia Wright steals all her scenes as a technological genius who puts Tony Stark to shame. This is the combination of classic heroism, bold cinematic style and meaningful themes that superhero fans yearned for. And they got it all.
The Castle of Cagliostro
Before he became the universally acclaimed director of films like My Neighbor Totoro and Spirited Away, Hayao Miyazaki directed The Castle of Cagliostro, a ripping adventure story about a charismatic thief named Lupin III who stumbles across a wild conspiracy involving counterfeit money and kidnapping. Miyazaki’s trademark vibrancy is already in full swing, and the movie still feels wondrous and timeless.
So there you have it: what to watch on Netflix right now in the world of action movies. Check back here each month for new titles as Netflix adds them!
Note: This article is frequently amended to remove films no longer on Netflix, and to include more action films that are now available on the service.
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Source: IGN.com Best Action Movies on Netflix Right Now (January 2020)