With 2024 coming to an end, I like to look over the year to see what films really struck a chord with me, as well as look at those ones that totally missed the mark. It’s important to remember that these are merely my favorites. I’m sure some (maybe many) will disagree with me but below are just some of my personal highlights of the year.
Top Ten of 2024 (in no particular order)
Twilight of the Warriors: Walled In
Easily one of the best, if not the best, action film of the year. Twilight of the Warriors has everything you’d want in an action movie, with awesome fight scenes, terrific performances and a captivating plot. Combine this with award winning production design that makes the Walled City a character in itself, and you have a near perfect actioner.
Soi Cheang is no slouch in the directing department, but even he may have excelled himself here. A more mainstream offering from him, he still brings about his more indie sensibilities to make Twilight of the Warriors more than just a typical action movie. Of course, elaborate fight choreography from Kenji Tanigaki also can’t be overlooked, with him creating some of the finest fight scenes to come out of Hong Kong cinema in some time.
The likes of Louis Koo, Sammo Hung, Richie Jen, Raymond Lam and especially Philip Ng all make Twilight of the Warriors a hard film to beat this year in terms of overall quality.
Read full review HERE.
The Shadow Strays
Based on his work on The Night Comes for Us (2018), to say I was looking forward to Timo Tjahjanto’s The Shadow Strays was an understatement. It had everything I’d hoped he would bring to proceedings, with beautifully choreographed action scenes, a gripping plot and lashings of blood and guts.
Although it may not reach the mighty heights of The Night Comes for Us, its not for want of trying, with The Shadow Strays easily being in the top 3 best action movies of the year. With some better writing it would have been a veritable masterpiece, but even so this takes some beating.
It also signals the dawn of a new action star in the form of Aurora Ribera who excels in the film’s fight scenes, with her being wholly convincing as a trained killing machine. A late in the day cameo from fan favorite Yayan Ruhian is merely a teaser of what’s hopefully still to come, with The Shadow Strays clearly being planned as a franchise. Fingers crossed there’s many more adventures to come for Tjahjanto and Ribera.
Read full review HERE.
100 Yards
Like Twilight of the Warriors, Xu Haofeng’s martial arts epic is filled to the brim with spellbinding fight scenes, but other than featuring a plethora of martial arts it’s a very different type of action film. Certainly more of an arthouse film than Twilight of the Warriors, 100 Yards has a strong focus on mood and character. As I said in my review, some may see 100 Yards as a cold picture, but look beyond this and you will see a film full of heart and emotion. It is just that this emotion is displayed through the action rather than typical histrionics that appear in many other Chinese produced movies.
Led by the never better duo of Jacky Heung and Andy On, with both being given ample opportunity to show off their skills, giving performances that will hopefully work as a calling card for higher brow fare like this.
Read full review HERE.
Deadpool & Wolverine
It wasn’t the greatest surprise that this turned out to be such a hit. Saying that, The Fall Guy seemed to have blockbuster written all over it and that failed to find the desired audience. However, The Fall Guy doesn’t have a dedicated fan base the way the MCU has. Not only was it another entry into their extensive franchise, it also brought together two of Marvel’s most iconic heroes.
Considering how difficult Ryan Reynolds worked to get a solo Deadpool offering off the ground back in the day, it’s somewhat ironic that he is now one of the MCU’s most powerful players. Obviously getting Hugh Jackman back as Wolverine certainly helped the film, with him and Reynolds playing off each other beautifully. As great as Logan (2017) was as a send off for the character, it’s wonderful to see Jackman back. The film jokes that they will have him doing this till he’s 90, and personally I would be okay with that.
Filled to the brim with Easter eggs, Deadpool & Wolverine is a Marvel fanboy’s wet dream. Couple that with the MCU’s first (well earned) R rating and you have one of the franchise’s best films in years.
Read full review HERE.
Life After Fighting
This one came as a complete surprise. I knew Bren Foster was an accomplished martial artist, having seen him in the likes of Force of Execution (2013) and the more recent Deep Blue Sea 3 (2023), but neither of these films featured him as the lead. Life After Fighting rectifies this, with him not only starring but pulling off a host of other duties, notably directing and fight choreography.
An excellent directorial debut, Life After Fighting shows what can be pulled off with a low budget when accompanied with a dedicated director and cast. The plot initially feels like a soap opera but it reaches into some dark places, with the plot culminating in a bravura set piece that features some of the most impressive fight action of the year.
It is a film that really should make Bren Foster a bigger name in the action genre but even if it doesn’t Foster should be able to hold his head up high knowing he’s made one of the best actioners of the year.
Read full review HERE.
The Fall Guy
I’m still perplexed that The Fall Guy wasn’t more of a success. Although it had a PG-13 rating, it brought together everything that director David Leitch has come to be known for. Fantastic action scenes, hilarious dialogue and a pitch perfect performance from leading man Ryan Gosling really should have made The Fall Guy one of the biggest hits of the year, but alas this was not to be.
Still, I don’t judge films by financial success, and for me The Fall Guy was a near perfect blockbuster that took everything that was great about the television series and ramped it up to 11. Filled with action, humor, as well as romance, The Fall Guy is perfect action entertainment and a film that should have led to a franchise.
Read full review HERE.
Monkey Man
Who would have thought the boy from Slumdog Millionaire (2008) would have had it in him to become a bona-fide action star. Not only that, but also has such a talent for directing. Monkey Man proved both. In front of the camera Dev Patel took part in no shortage of quality action scenes, with the quality fight choreography of Brahim Chab giving Patel ample opportunity to show off his martial arts skills.
Advertised as an Indian John Wick (2014), Monkey Man has many of the same attributes. Not only is the action on point but Monkey Man has a visual style that puts many bigger budgeted films to shame. However, merely labeling Monkey Man as a John Wick rip off does it a disservice. There’s so much more going on throughout this film for it to be classed as just another actioner, with Patel focusing as much on the characters and the culture, with Monkey Man being a near perfect directorial debut for the talented actor turned director.
Read full review HERE.
Long Gone Heroes
The majority of the films on this list were afforded large, cinema releases. Long Gone Heroes went a different route, with a VOD release and limited cinema screenings. It’s not a lesser film because of this, with it featuring everything I look for in an action film, with great performances, a decent plot and some well staged action scenes. That it did so on a fraction of the budget of its more famous counterparts is all the more commendable.
Frank Grillo may have starred in higher profile films and television series this year, but for me this is clearly his best work, not just in 2024 but for some time. Not only does Grillo get to shine but a supporting cast made up with the likes of Josh Hutcherson, Beau Knapp and Juan Pablo Raba all make Long Gone Heroes a stand out.
Director John Swab excels himself here, with a tension filled, action packed thriller which coupled with Brandon Cox’s excellent cinematography instantly put it in my top ten of the year for 2024.
Read full review HERE.
Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga
Like The Fall Guy, Furiosa is another film I expected to do better at the box office. I understood some were disappointed by the film, as it wasn’t what they expected. Many clearly wanted this to be another Mad Max: Fury Road (2015) while director George Miller had other ideas. Sure, it shares many similarities but Furiosa was much grander in scale, taking place over decades.
Admittedly, Furiosa is slightly overlong, but Miller creates such a visually arresting world for the characters to inhabit that I found myself just being carried along. Furiosa does have the same issue that most prequels have, that the plot is covering ground that is already known to the audience but Miller manages to overcome this by focusing majorly on the film’s villain who comes in the form of Chris Hemsworth.
Critics weren’t too kind to Hemsworth, but personally I found him to be Furiosa’s most captivating performer, with him easily running away with the film. Both Anya Taylor Joy and Tom Burke also do good work but it’s Hemsworth that kept me watching. Add in some awesome vehicular mayhem and you had one of the best and most overlooked action films of the year.
Read full review HERE.
The Beekeeper
The Beekeeper got 2024 off to a great start. Uninterested in changing the wheel, The Beekeeper gives its audience exactly what it expects, with Jason Statham taking out an assortment of bad guys for the majority of its runtime.
Statham’s Beekeeper isn’t much different from many other other Statham characters, but that doesn’t really matter here. The plot is made a bit more prevalent, with him going up against a team of internet scammers with some serious power behind them. Of course, Statham is never one to be deterred by the stakes, with him working his way through an assortment of villains, one more deadly than the last.
The Beekeeper was a real return to form for director David Ayer. It has a more basic approach than some of Ayer’s better realized films, but it is heads above the likes of Suicide Squad (2016) and The Tax Collector (2020).
The Beekeeper ended up being quite a success, with there already being talks of a sequel. Ayer and Statham clearly hit it off with them reteaming for the upcoming A Working Man (2025), working from a script by Sylvester Stallone.
Read full review HERE.
Notable Mentions
Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F
Axel F is a film fans had been waiting on for the better part of 3 decades. I doubt any of us expected it to live up to the original but the filmmakers work hard in giving us a sequel that’s worthy of following in its wake. Very much fan service, Axel F still managed to be a lot of fun that wiped away the stink of Beverly Hills Cop 3 (1993).
Eddie Murphy easily stepped back into the shoes of Axel Foley, with it being like the last 30 years never happened. Back to his wise cracking, cursing best, Murphy was more than worth the wait. The fact that legacy players such as Judge Reinhold and the late John Ashton also appear is just icing on the cake.
Some exciting action scenes are peppered throughout but director Mark Molloy smartly keeps them low scale which is in fitting with the rest of the series. Even with Jerry Bruckheimer as producer it’s smart to remember that this isn’t Bad Boys (1995), focusing more on the comedy and characters.
Axel F gave audiences exactly what they wanted from a Beverly Hills Cop sequel and it’d just a shame that it wasn’t given a proper cinema release.
Read full review HERE.
Kill
Kill is a wild ride, hardly wasting any time before the action kicks off. Mostly all taking place on a crowded train, the film plays like an Indian take on The Raid (2011) just with a change in locale.
Like The Raid, the level of violence on show is unreal. Anyone with preconceived notions over Indian cinema should put them aside as Kill is one of the most violent action films of the year. This is no Bollywood film with the action being hard hitting and brutal.
Coming in at a swift 100 minutes, Kill never overstays its welcome, with nary a minute being wasted. Sure the plot is overly simplistic but when the action is this memorable it doesn’t matter as much.
Read full review HERE.
Bad Boys: Ride or Die
This could have been in my top ten if the third entry didn’t only come out a few years prior. Ride or Die is more of the same, but it is still pulled off with considerable skill that this 4th trip for Will Smith and Martin Lawrence’s Bad Boys is never less than entertaining.
One aspect that somewhat changed with this sequel since last time is the scale of the action scenes, with each of the set pieces being more creative than the last, with each of them employing some elaborate camera work as well as some fine action choreography. Unlike Axel F, Bad Boys: Ride or Die screams Jerry Bruckheimer production.
Read full review HERE.
The Killer’s Game
After J.J. Perry’s terrific directorial debut with Day Shift (2023) I couldn’t wait to see what he would do next. The Killer’s Game may not reinvent the wheel, but like Day Shift before it, Perry makes this a wild ride, filled with one excellent action scene after another. Perry’s main aim was to have fun and he pulls that off with aplomb.
Not only does Perry have a terrific lead in Dave Bautista, but his supporting cast is made up of a veritable who’s who of modern action cinema. The likes of Scott Adkins, Daniel Bernhardt, Marko Zaror and a host of others all get their chance to shine, with each of them facing off against Bautista in a variety of well choreographed action scenes that are gleefully R rated.
Outside of the action, the film is almost stolen by an always welcome Ben Kingsley who gives the film its much needed heart, with his character being the closest thing Bautista has to family. Kingsley could easily have phoned this one in and it’s to his credit that he doesn’t.
Sofia Boutella is slightly wasted in the girlfriend role, especially when she has shown off her own considerable action credentials multiple times throughout her career. I was also disappointed that Daniel Bernhardt wasn’t given the opportunity to go one on one against Bautista, although Perry does have fun with how this plays out.
See our interview with Marko Zaror and director J.J. Perry HERE.
Chief of Station
Personally, Chief of Station didn’t reach the highs of Jesse V. Johnson’s previous movie Boudica: Queen of War (2023). This isn’t to do the film a disservice, as Chief of Station is still a well staged action thriller and a slight change of pace for Johnson. Sure, it has the action scenes that we have come to expect from him, but for a lot of the runtime Chief of Station is more interested in espionage and murky dealings, with there being no shortage of morally grey characters filling the screen.
Aaron Eckhart is dependable as ever, with him getting ample support from Boudica herself, Olga Kurylenko. The standout for me was Daniel Bernhardt, who is always a pleasure to see on screen. Unlike The Killer’s Game, Bernhardt is given the opportunity here to show off his martial arts skills, with a late in the day face off against Eckhart being one of the film’s most memorable set pieces.
Read full review HERE.
Land of Bad
Land of Bad was one of those films that seemed to come from nowhere. I had heard very little about it before delving in. I knew that it starred Liam Hemsworth and featured Russell Crowe in a supporting role, but I never expected it to be such a quality actioner. Director William Eubank had previously impressed with sci-fi horror Underwater (2020), even if it was derivative of James Cameron’s The Abyss (1989). Land of Bad is quite the change of pace, with Eubank showing a real flair for military style action.
Covering similar grounds as the likes of Bat 21 (1988) and Behind Enemy Lines (2001), Land of Bad focuses on a stranded Air Force TACP played by Hemsworth whose only support comes from Russell Crowe’s drone pilot thousands of miles away. This more than racks up the tension with Hemsworth getting himself in no shortage of dangerous situations as he tries to get to safety.
Liam Hemsworth always seems to be in the shadow of his brother Chris, but he more than holds his own here. The majority of the action is of the gunfight variety but he does get involved in some hand to hand combat as the film progresses. His other brother Luke is also along for the ride but his screen time is limited.
Speaking of limited screen time, I half expected Crowe’s role to be nothing more than an extended cameo, but he appears for the film’s entirety with the relationship that builds between him and Hemsworth being the backbone of the film. As expected, Crowe is great as the world weary drone pilot.
Most surprising is Milo Ventimiglia, who is an out and out badass as the leader of Hemsworth’s team. He gets some of the film’s best action scenes, with the violent finale where he and Hemsworth storm the villain’s compound being a standout.
Bottom Five
Road House
Unlike the other films in my bottom five, Road House isn’t necessarily a bad film, more just an extremely disappointing one. When remaking something as iconic as Road House, perhaps as a director you should make sure the action is at least up to snuff. For whatever reason, Doug Liman’s approach to the fight scenes here appeared lazy, with more of a focus on new technology rather than quality fight choreography.
Liman did well in casting Jake Gylenhall who is never less than excellent in any role. As expected, he put the work in, with him looking every inch the fighter. They also did enough with the script to differentiate his Dalton with Patrick Swayze’s original. Any time Gylenhall is on screen the film mostly works, but unfortunately he isn’t always on screen. For the other parts of the film Liman instead focuses on the god awful Conor McGregor. Now, I know McGregor isn’t an actor, but it seems like he doesn’t even know how to act like a human being, with his walk and swagger being ridiculous. Also, considering he and not Gylenhall has the background in MMA, his fight scenes are unconvincing.
Since the release of Road House, information about McGregor has come to light. I doubt the majority of us were surprised, although it does look like the promise of him returning for the planned sequel may not come to fruition.
Read full review HERE.
The Last Kumite
The Last Kumite is a film I really hoped I’d love. Bringing together a host of popular martial arts stars from the 80’s and 90’s and facing them off against each other in the fabled Kumite seems like a recipe for success, but somehow The Last Kumite never comes together to make a satisfying whole.
The odd decent fight scene doesn’t make up for near non-existent production values, inconsistent performances and a plot that moves at a snail’s pace. One of the film’s main issues is that it seems to be focusing on the wrong performers. No offense to Mathis Landwehr, but when your film advertises appearances from Cynthia Rothrock, Billy Blanks, Matthias Hues etc, this is who we really want to see. Unfortunately, none of them are the focus of the film, with Rothrock sitting on the sidelines for the entirety of the film, only throwing one kick before the credits roll.
The Crow
No matter how director Rupert Sanders tries to justify its existence, the remake of The Crow (2024) is an absolute trainwreck of a film that unceremoniously shits on everything that was great about the original. Other than a couple of decent action scenes, there is nothing in The Crow that I could recommend.
I understand the desire to make the remake stand on its own, but the changes to the narrative were so unnecessary. Whereas Brandon Lee’s Eric Draven was a tragic avenger, Bill Skarsgards is just an emo arsehole. I doubt the filmmakers intentions were for you to not like Draven, but that’s what ultimately happens here.
Upon watching the remake I wondered to myself, who is the audience for this film? It’s certainly not fans of the original, for as much as it has similarities to Alex Proyas 1994 classic, there are too many differences that seem to have no thought behind them. Rather than having a positive effect on the film, they would probably just piss you off.
This remake was decades in development, yet this poorly written “action” film is what they came up with. All of the characters are paper thin and disposable, and even the talented cast aren’t able to overcome such shortcomings. Proyas original looks like it was made with love whereas the remake is soulless, devoid of any passion. It seems to be made just because they could.
Duchess
Remember when Neil Marshall seemed to be a visionary director. Shooting cult classics like Dog Soldiers (2002), The Descent (2005) and Doomsday (2008) put him on the map, but then came Hellboy (2019). Now if you were to believe Marshall, this is where it all started to go wrong for him, with it being the worst experience of his professional career. Being a Millenium production, I can believe certain aspects of his story, but other information has since come to light.
To be honest, it would seem that Marshall’s real problem these days is his need/want to constantly cast his girlfriend Charlotte Kirk in every film he has made since the Hellboy fiasco. This would be less of an issue if Kirk was suitable for any of the films he cast her in, but each film has been worse than the last.
Duchess (2024) works like an homage to the films of Guy Ritchie, minus any of the style or wit he brings to his films. Honestly, I expected Marshall to bring more to proceedings. Also, considering how the film advertises itself as being a progressive female led actioner, it’s probably one of the most sexist films I’ve seen in some time, playing almost like something from the 70’s.
Kraven the Hunter
At least a film like The Last Kumite can put its drawbacks on lack of resources. Kraven the Hunter doesn’t have the same excuse. Reportedly coming in at around $120 million, there’s no reason Kraven the Hunter turned out as poor as it did.
To be honest, I could have chosen any of Sony’s Spider-Verse films from this year to fit on this list, with each being as bad as the other. The reason I’ve settled on Kraven the Hunter is because it had the potential to be better, with a decent director and a quality cast at its disposal. Yet, for the majority of its runtime the film settles for the mundane, with only a well staged chase scene in the middle of the film providing the level of excitement a film such as this should muster.
Thankfully, it appears the failure of Kraven the Hunter has put an end to any further attempts Sony may have had to extend their Spider-Verse.
Read full review HERE.