Netflix has a pretty vast collection of good action movies, but it can be hard to sort through the deluge of new titles regularly dropped onto the platform. That’s what we’re here for. We’ve collected a list of great action movies that span eras, subgenres, and nations, all of which you can watch on Netflix in the U.S. Whether you’re looking for a hard-boiled crime thriller, a period-piece swordplay adventure, a military drama, standout martial arts movies, or any other kind of action vehicle — we’ve got you covered.
If you’re looking for something that spans across genres, be sure to check out our frequently updated list of the best movies on Netflix. If you’ve decided you’re in the mood for a different genre on Netflix tonight, check out our lists of the best horror movies and comedy movies on the platform.
Extraction 2
In 2020, Netflix scored a big hit with its Chris Hemsworth-led action thriller Extraction. Directed by former stuntman Sam Hargrave, the movie leaned into an emerging trend in a post-John Wick world: hard-hitting, practical action shown cleanly in-camera, and performed by the A-list star.
Extraction was a fun time with solid action, but the movie struggled with the all-too-common yellow-washed tone meant to signify the movie takes place in Bangladesh. Thankfully, Extraction 2 is just a better version of the first movie.
Hargrave returns in the director’s chair, and Chris Hemsworth reprises his role as super-agent Tyler Rake. The movie’s fantastic set-pieces shine, especially the 21-minute prison break sequence, presented as a no-cut “oner.” But Extraction 2 also gives Hemsworth’s co-stars more time to shine, especially sibling mercenary duo Golshifteh Farahani and Adam Bessa. There are plans in place for an Extraction 3, and a late casting reveal in Extraction 2 promises even more hard-hitting action on the way. —Pete Volk
Thallumaala
The best action movie that not enough people talked about in 2022, Thallumaala (which literally translates to “Ballad of Brawls”) is an ambitious nonlinear narrative telling the story of a young man who meets a group of friends through their shared love of fighting, and the viral brawl that ensues at his wedding that makes him an internet superstar. Featuring sharp and inventive editing that keeps things fresh at all times, soaring musical numbers that will stay in your head, and just a ton of cute boys who bond over brawling, Thallumaala is one of the most fun times you could possibly have at the movies.
It’s not light on action, either. The movie opens with a series of cascading brawls that brings the group together, and it’s one of many fights we see throughout the movie (and some we see multiple times, as Thallumaala unspools its complicated narrative). It’s a movie that looks good and feels good at all times, and is as close to a guaranteed good time as you’ll ever get. This is one of those rare “watch this movie, even if you don’t consider yourself an action fan” recommendations: Watch Thallumaala! —PV
The Big 4
Timo Tjahjanto burst onto the scene for many international audiences with his bloody 2018 new action classic The Night Comes for Us, but that was after proving his bona fides as a horror director with his feature debut, Macabre (co-directed with Kimo Stamboel), segments in The ABCs of Death and V/H/S/2, as well as his solo feature debut May the Devil Take You. That horror background was definitely present in The Night Comes for Us, considering the amount of blood and gore Tjahjanto fit in that movie. With The Big 4, that energy is still there, but you can see Tjahjanto stretching himself as a filmmaker.
The Big 4 is a buddy action comedy about a group of quirky and lovable retired assassins who reunite after the suspicious death of their father figure. From there, mayhem and chaos ensue, with visceral and brutal fight scenes aided by Tjahjanto’s skill with the camera and his sick sense of humor (complimentary).
Tjahjanto is the rare filmmaker who lives up to the oft-used “from the twisted mind of…” label. You likely already know whether or not The Big 4 is up your alley. It’s certainly up mine. —PV
Day Shift
A loving throwback to ’80s-era mid-budget action comedies, Day Shift is the debut of legendary stunt man, fight coordinator, and action director J.J. Perry. Jamie Foxx is Bud Jablonski, a down-on-his-luck vampire hunter trying to get back in the good graces of the Vampire Hunters’ Union. He needs a big score, fast, and teams up with an eclectic group including a hapless office worker (Dave Franco), an eccentric pair of vampire hunting brothers (Scott Adkins and Steve Howey), and an old friend (Snoop Dogg).
Day Shift combines action, horror, and comedy in exciting ways, including an unconventional camera trick to make the vampires’ movement new and fresh. Foxx’s leading-man charisma helps make up for some script inconsistencies, but the whole thing works because of the action sequences. Perry’s one of the best in the business at that, and you get a sense of the kinetic energy flowing through this whole movie from the jump. —PV
Rurouni Kenshin: The Beginning
Though it’s the fifth and final installment of this live-action adaptation, you can still safely watch The Beginning first, as it is a prequel to the four movies that precede it (it does clue you into some parts of the story that are left a mystery in the previous movies, though). 50% origin story, 50% love story, and 110% kick-ass, The Beginning (and the rest of the Kenshin franchise) should be your first destination if you’re looking for terrific swordplay on Netflix. —PV
Lost Bullet and Lost Bullet 2
Both Lost Bullet movies are pure jolts of adrenaline, filled with vehicular mayhem and explosive action. The first movie is leaner, with a simple premise executed to perfection, while the sequel ramps things up with even more jaw-dropping stunts, led by car stunt coordinator David Julienne, who also worked on the incredible Athena and is the grandson of the great Rémy Julienne. A third one is on the way, slated for a 2025 release. —PV
Kill Boksoon
An expert mix of action thrills and domestic drama, Kill Boksoon follows an assassin who is at the top of her prestigious company of killers, but is pulled back home to her teenage daughter, who she barely knows. When a job goes wrong, Boksoon finds herself on the run, all while trying to keep her daughter safe.
It’s a simple enough setup, but Kill Boksoon excels due to its layered lead performance — Jeon Do-yeon brings emotional depth and nuance to a difficult and complicated character — and the attention to detail in its presentation. Filled with bright colors in the costuming and production design, Kill Boksoon’s action sequences soar without ignoring the sequences devoted to the domestic drama of Boksoon and her teenage daughter.
With multiple standout fights, a cast of memorable characters, and efficient world-building for the movie’s hitman-centric economy, Kill Boksoon is one of Netflix’s standout 2023 releases and the best action movie released on the platform so far this year. —PV
Psychokinesis
Yeon Sang-ho started his career in animation, before breaking out with the excellent 2016 zombie movie Train to Busan (no longer on Netflix, but it’s one of our favorite horror movies you can stream at home). He’s also made the great horror series Hellbound (on Netflix), but we’re here to talk about a project of his that went a little under the radar. —PV
As Matt Patches put it in our list of great superhero movies that don’t come from Marvel or DC:
Psychokinesis follows Shin, a bumbling, borderline-alcoholic security guard who drinks from a mountain spring recently contaminated by a meteorite and gains telekinetic powers. Ryu Seung-ryong is a joy as an oaf who’s learning to control his abilities, just as his estranged daughter re-enters his life and sucks him into a real-estate-driven class war. Psychokinesis plays Shin’s “fighting style” for laughs, and while it’s not as cartoonish as Chinese director Stephen Chow’s genre hybrids, the movie can make the flying object mayhem both cheeky and thrilling. The political edge gives weight to Shin’s super-powered decisions, but Sang-ho never loses sight of why everyone showed up: to push the psychic conceit to bigger and bigger heights.
Blood and Bone
Michael Jai White is a treasure around these parts, and of the many excellent DTV action movies he has starred in, Blood and Bone may be the best. White is Isaiah Bone, an ex-marine martial artist recently out of prison, who meets an eccentric local fight promoter named Pinball (Dante Basco) and starts entering underground fights. When he falls deeper into the world of underground fighting, he learns just how far the powerful people who run the circuit will go to maintain their illegal business. With jaw-dropping fights featuring former professional fighters Bob Sapp, Kimbo Slice, and Matt Mullins, Blood and Bone is an appropriately stellar vehicle for White as a movie star and as a screen fighter. —PV
RRR
Polygon’s favorite movie of 2022, RRR is an epic bromance for the ages filled to the brim with jaw-dropping action sequences, unforgettable music numbers, and two guys just being dudes. If you can, you should consider watching it in the original Telugu language version on Zee5. If you can’t, the Hindi dub on Netflix is still well worth your time. —PV
The Night Comes for Us
The only two ways The Night Comes for Us could be better are if (a) it were available on home video and (b) it had a sequel. Even so, Timo Tjahjanto’s bloody 2018 Indonesian action thriller inarguably stands as one of the best action films Netflix has to offer.
The Night Comes for Us is an unrelentingly brutal martial arts thriller packed with scenes of breaking bones, gushing geysers of blood, and no less than three impalements. Joe Taslim (Mortal Kombat) and Iko Uwais (The Raid) star as Ito and Arian, two childhood friends and Triad enforcers who find themselves at odds when the former turns his back on his life as a killer to save a child. That’s not even mentioning Julie Estelle’s scene-stealing turn as The Operator, a mysterious covert agent who faces off against two assassins in one of the most spectacular fight scenes in a film with no shortage of them. It’s a thrilling five-minute set-piece packed with brutal choreography, beautiful strobing light effects, a grisly garrote wire execution, and a tense one-on-one knife-fight finale. —Toussaint Egan
The Shadow Strays
Nearly six years after the release of The Night Comes for Us, Tjahjanto returned with another blistering martial arts crime thriller that confidently reasserts his place as one of his generation’s most prominent action directors. Aurora Ribero stars as “13,” a teenage assassin trained from youth to serve a mysterious organization whose stock and trade is the killing of high-value targets. After failing to complete her latest mission, 13 is put on suspension and sent to Jakarta for psych retraining. After befriending Monji (Ali Fikri), a recently orphaned 11-year-old who is subsequently abducted by a ruthless crime lord, 13 embarks on a mission of vengeance to save the boy and redeem her own conscience.
The Shadow Strays is an excellent spiritual follow-up to The Night Comes for Us, filled with brutal action sequences, dazzling fight choreography, and dark, brooding atmosphere. Here’s hoping that Tjahjanto is given the opportunity to continue carving out his vision for this particular universe, but even barring that, it’s still an exceptional action thriller in and of itself. —TE
Sentinelle
This dark French revenge thriller follows a traumatized soldier (Olga Kurylenko) who returns home and seeks revenge on the men who assaulted her sister. It’s a pretty standard (and dark) narrative structure, but it works because of the people behind it. Directed by Julien Leclercq, known for the excellent crime thriller The Crew and the outstanding series Ganglands (on Netflix!), Sentinelle thrives through Kurylenko’s commanding lead performance, a lean 80-minute running time, and Leclercq’s skill at filming action sequences — especially close-quarters action, with a terrific bathroom fight and an unforgettable final kill. —PV
Source：https://www.polygon.com/what-to-watch/23196729/netflix-action-movies-best-good-list
