1. Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991, James Cameron)
Terminator 2 features by no means a stellar cast, yet Cameron manages lift these characters into movie immortality. Very few people will disagree that T2 set the benchmark for all action movies to follow, yet very few have manage to exceed it (so far). Ahnuld was born to play the Terminator, and this movie was the source of my crush on Linda Hamilton for most part of the 1990’s.
2. Aliens (1986, James Cameron)
Cameron took the brilliant concept given to us by the equally impressive Alien (1979, Ridley Scott), and gives it his own spin. The result is my everlasting fear of ever having to venture into an air-duct, and anything that emits a “beep-beep-beep” sound. Unfortunately another example of bad movie franchise management. I’ll simply ignore the fact that Alien 3, Alien Resurrection, the and the god awful "Alien v Predator" spinoffs ever existed.
3. Leon (1994, Luc Besson)
Two words. Gary Oldman.
4. Die Hard (1988, John McTiernan)
Kick-started Bruce Willis’movie carreer, and is still one of his best. No action movie is complete without a villainous Jang to the good-guy’s Jing, and here Alan Rickman truly sets the standard. I’ve said it a million times: an action movie is only as good as it’s villain, hence the disastrous failure of Die Hard 4.0.
5. Saving Private Ryan (1998, Steven Spielberg)
From the opening Normandy invasion to the final battle in the village of Ramelle, what I personally find amazing about this film is how Spielberg captures the human emotion during these brutal engagements. Not for the faint of heart, but genuinely rewarding film. The Spielberg and Hanks collaboration followed this up with the excellent "Band of Brothers" (2001), and the (unfortunate) mediocre “The Pacific” (2010).
Should have won the Oscar for Best Picture in 1998 (went to Shakespeare in love), but we’ll settle for Best Director...
6. [Honorable mention] First Blood (1982, Ted Kotcheff)
Set the Hollywood one-man-army-action blueprint for eons to come. Hard to believe this came out the same year Rocky got slapped around by Clubber Lang. (Not to spoil it for you, but in this one, Rocky wins it in the end...)
