The 20 best mindless action films

Michael Bay is one of those directors who is known for emphasizing style over substance, but there’s no doubt that he knows how to create an attention-grabbing Hollywood spectacle. Armageddon remains one of his most successful films, and while the film is often quite silly in its premise and its execution, it also has some genuine emotional moments. Moreover, although critics — particularly Roger Ebert — were quite harsh on it, it still managed to turn a tidy profit at the box office, suggesting that the audience’s hunger for spectacle outweighed their desire for a compelling story.

The 1990s were a decade obsessed with the prospect of destruction coming from outer space. Roland Emmerich, always with a keen eye for cinematic spectacle, was in his element in this film about an alien invasion that nearly destroys Earth. The film certainly doesn’t shy away from moments of tremendous spectacle, including the iconic moment when the White House itself is destroyed. This is pure big-budget Hollywood spectacle, and though it isn’t the most thoughtful or thought-provoking science fiction film ever made, there’s no denying its entertainment value.

John Woo is one of those directors with a keen sense of style, particularly when it comes to action cinema. This is much in evidence in Face/Off, which shows the director’s ability to take even an absurd plot about an FBI agent and a terrorist who switch identities and turn it into a stylized feast of violence and excess. This is one of those films in which men express their feelings and emotions through the brutality of violence, and, thanks to Woo’s direction, it manages to be thrilling from beginning to end. 

It would have been easy and expected for Twisters to be nothing more than a retread of the 1990s Twister, and to some extent, that’s true. However, there’s more than enough new movie magic in the legacy sequel to make it worth a watch. In particular, it’s worth watching for both the enhanced CGI, which makes the tornadoes even more terrifying, and the entertaining performances given by the main cast, including Daisy Edgar-Jones, Glen Powell, Anthony Ramos, and Brandon Perea.

Tremors is one of those horror comedies that really does excel at keeping its two genres in a productive tension. This is a film, after all, about a group of terrifying worms that torment a small town in the Nevada desert. While there are some funny moments, there are also some that are genuinely horrifying (particularly when the worms eat several residents of the town). It’s a very silly movie, to be sure, but it also wears its silliness on its sleeve, and this helps to explain its enduring popularity. 

Released in 1996, Twister  is one of those action films that is pure ‘90s joy. There’s no shortage of CGI spectacle, which is no surprise, given that this is a movie about a group of tornado chasers. Who could forget, for example, the moment when a twister picks up a cow and sends it spinning through the air? The characters might be a bit thinly drawn, but there’s no question that the film doesn’t lack for magnificent set-pieces, and there’s more than enough chemistry between Helen Hunt and Bill Pullman to make it succeed on a human level, as well.

The 1980s were a real golden age for mindless action films, and Road House  is a perfect example of the genre. Patrick Swayze is as swoony and handsome as always as James Dalton, a bouncer who ends up becoming the defender for a small roadhouse. It’s one of those films that it’s entirely impossible to take seriously, and it was indeed a stark failure with the critics. However, there’s also something more than a little fun about its brainless approach to the genre, and there’s more than enough violence and adrenaline to satisfy even a discerning modern viewer.

Based on the graphic novel of the same name by Frank Miller, 300  follows Gerard Butler’s Leonidas and his fellow Spartans as they attempt to keep the Persians, led by their mighty king Xerxes, from overrunning Greece. The film is a smorgasbord of blood, violence, and camp, and this is precisely what makes it so much fun to watch. It might not be particularly interested in the reality of history. Still, what it lacks in authenticity or accuracy, it more than makes up for with sheer over-the-top spectacle. 

One mark of the success of the John Wick franchise has been the fact that it has spawned a successful franchise. Ballerina, set in the same time period as the films, focuses on Eve Macarro, who sets out on a quest to avenge her father's death, in the process coming into contact with a sinister group known as the Cult. Though there’s less hand-to-hand combat than in some of the other entries in the franchise, there’s more than enough gunfire to satisfy every action cinema aficionado. 

Few movies have had quite as ridiculous a premise as Cocaine Bear,  which focuses on, unsurprisingly, a bear that gets into a large stash of cocaine and goes on a rampage. It’s admittedly a very silly and ridiculous film, but it’s also a great deal of fun, thanks in no small part to some committed performances from Keri Russell, Margo Martindale, and Ray Liotta. Cocaine Bear is the kind of movie that invites the viewer to just turn off their brain and enjoy the action and the bear kills.

If there’s one film that can be said to exemplify the mindless action aesthetic, it would have to be The Expendables.  It’s clearly an homage to the 1980s — in no small part due to its cast, which includes the likes of Sylvester Stallone, Dolph Lundgren, and Bruce Willis, as well as newer stars like Jason Statham — but also in its plot, which involves a dictator in Latin America. It might be filled with lots of explosions and not a lot of character development, but that’s precisely what makes it so much fun.

Bullet Train, directed by David Leitch, is pure adrenaline. Its story is a relatively simple one, focusing on a group of assassins who end up on the same train. It is certainly not afraid of being a bit silly, and it clearly borrows more than a little from Quentin Tarantino in its mix of martial arts and quippy dialogue. It’s also an embarrassment of riches when it comes to its cast, which includes the likes of Brad Pitt, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, and Sandra Bullock.

It’s not every film that can boast that it gave birth to a franchise spanning several decades and over ten films, yet this is precisely what makes The Fast and the Furious  such a special film. It might be a bit of empty fun with lots of kinetic car action — not to mention brooding performances from Vin Diesel and Paul Walker — but it also grapples with some heavier issues, including those surrounding masculinity. Even though all of the entries in the franchise deserve some praise, there’s no question that the one where it all began remains the very best that it has produced.

The 1990s were a very good decade for action cinema, as the success of the film Speed  demonstrates. After all, this is a film about a bus that is rigged to go out of control, but there’s no denying that it has a significant amount of power, thanks in large part to the performances of leads Sandra Bullock and Keanu Reeves. It’s pure pulse-pounding excitement from the beginning to the end, and it stands the rest of time as a piece of pure popcorn filmmaking.

Josh Hartnett is the very epitome of a mindless action film, focusing on Lucas Reyes, played by Josh Hartnett, a former Secret Service agent who tries to capture a notorious hacker on board an airplane. This is the kind of action film that wears its silliness on its sleeve, and it’s one madcap set-piece after another, including a notably hilarious and bizarre scene featuring a chainsaw. It’s a lot of fun, even if some elements of the story don’t hold up to a great deal of scrutiny.

Released in 2008, the film Taken  helped to transform Liam Neeson’s star image. Almost overnight, he went from being a serious actor with gravitas to an action star, and it’s a role that he has perfected in many subsequent films. Neeson slides perfectly into the role of Bryan Mills, who pursues those who kidnapped his daughter, and the actor’s gravitas and undoubted charisma end up being ideally suited for the types of avenging male roles he plays in this film and others.

Top Gun: Maverick proved that Tom Cruise still has what it takes to be a great movie star, and the movie did quite well at the box office, managing to rack up almost $1.5 billion in profits. What’s particularly remarkable about the film is that it manages to capture so much of what made the original great while also taking advantage of the changes in Hollywood filmmaking. At the end of the day, it is a pure popcorn flick, and it’s easy to see why it managed to charm both audiences and critics alike.

Tom Cruise is in his element in Top Gun, arguably one of the best mindless action films ever made. While its story might leave something to be desired, there’s no question that the action sequences, particularly those taking place in the air, are nothing short of exhilarating. It’s also a film that's definitely right out of the 1980s, with its emphasis on American firepower and its valorization of a go-it-alone vision of American masculinity. It certainly retains its entertainment value even almost forty years after its initial release.

Kathryn Bigelow has repeatedly shown that she is one of those directors with a keen interest in and understanding of masculinity. Point Break, for example, is a bromance dressed up as an action film, focusing on Keanu Reeves' FBI agent and Patrick Swayze’s criminal. The film certainly has many moments of absurdity, particularly the scene in which Johnny Utah and Bodhi jump out of an airplane, but there’s no question that this mindless action film has enjoyed quite an afterlife as a cult classic.

Keanu Reeves delivers a surprisingly powerful and poignant performance in John Wick, in which he portrays the title character — a retired hitman whose dog is killed, prompting him to seek revenge against those responsible. It’s the kind of action film that doesn’t make the viewer think too much, but it’s also remarkably beautiful. Its fight sequences are especially remarkable, choreographed in such a way that one could be forgiven for seeing they were a dance. It’s thus no wonder that it has given birth to a franchise that is still going strong.