Netflix isn’t just a great place to find high-quality TV shows like Mindhunter, Stranger Things, and Jessica Jones. The popular streaming service also has a treasure trove of excellent and underrated films, some of which have flown under the radar in recent years. Nowhere is that more apparent than in the action-adventure category, a genre built on hair-raising explosions and the harrowing exploits of a select few.
Whether you prefer gritty films or the charm of modern superhero films, the premium streaming service has it all. Unfortunately, there are also plenty of action films on Netflix you may want to avoid — including a shocking number of late-period Steven Seagal films — so we’ve curated a list of the best action movies currently on Netflix.
‘Thor: Ragnarok’
The first two Thor films straddled an awkward line between theatrical drama and superhero camp, but director Taika Waititi — best known for comedies like What We Do in the Shadows — wisely pushed the franchise into all-out absurdity with the psychedelic action-comedy Thor: Ragnarok. The film begins with Thor (Chris Hemsworth) returning to Asgard only to discover that his trickster brother, Loki (Tom Hiddleston), has banished their father, Odin (Anthony Hopkins), to Earth and assumed his identity. After reuniting with their father, the brothers learn that Odin is about to die of old age, and that his death will release their older sister, Hela (Cate Blanchett), goddess of death, who promptly vanquishes them both, leaving them on the dystopian planet Sakaar. Captured and sold as a slave to the planet’s ruler, the Grandmaster (Jeff Goldblum), Thor must fight as a gladiator to win his freedom. Ragnarok is a bright, colorful fantasy, like a ’70s prog rock album in movie form, and it’s stuffed with clever, funny dialogue.
‘Raiders of the Lost Ark’
There have been a few entries in the Indiana Jones franchise over the decades, but the first remains the best. Set in the 1930s, Raiders of the Lost Ark follows Indiana Jones (Harrison Ford), a professor of archaeology who moonlights as an adventurer, exploring ancient ruins and plundering their treasures in the name of science. When he learns that Nazis are seeking the legendary Ark of the Covenant, Jones and his former lover Marion Ravenwood (Karen Allen) head to Egypt to find the Ark first. Raiders of the Lost Ark is a pitch perfect throwback to classic pulp adventure stories, with a charming, wisecracking hero, nefarious villains, and spectacular set pieces sprinkled throughout a tight script.
‘Green Room’
Jeremy Saulnier’s Green Room is a furious thriller — tense, violent, and clocking in at a brisk 95 minutes. The film follows a punk band called The Ain’t Rights — bassist Pat (Anton Yelchin), guitarist Sam (Alia Shawkat), singer Tiger (Callum Turner), and drummer Reece (Joe Cole) — who, after playing a show at a neo-Nazi bar in Oregon, stumble upon a murder in the green room. The neo-Nazis decide to cover up the crime, and for that they’ll need to kill the witnesses. The Ain’t Rights don’t go gently, however, arming themselves and proceeding to fight their way out of the bar. With tight direction and great performances — including Patrick Stewart as the skinhead leader — Green Room is an excellent, fast-paced slaughterhouse of a film.
‘The Castle of Cagliostro’
Years before founding Studio Ghibli, animation legend Hayao Miyazaki made his feature debut with The Castle of Cagliostro, a film in the Lupin III franchise. For those not familiar with the franchise, The Castle of Cagliostro follows the thief Arsène Lupin III, grandson of Maurice Leblanc’s iconic gentleman thief. The film opens as Lupin and his partner, Jigen, rob a casino, getting away only to discover that the cash they stole is counterfeit. They trace the counterfeit money to the country of Cagliostro, a country whose ruler, Count Cagliostro, is planning to marry Princess Clarisse, giving him total control over the country and its hidden treasure. The Castle of Cagliostro gallops from scene to scene, with daring set pieces and smooth animation. Although hardcore Lupin fans may dislike Miyazaki’s lighter, more heroic interpretation of the character, viewers open to Miyazaki’s vision will find this a fun adventure.
‘Heat’
Michael Mann’s 1995 heist film Heat was billed as a showdown between two legendary actors — Al Pacino and Robert De Niro, who both appeared in The Godfather II, though never on screen together — and while the novelty of that may no longer hold up today, Heat remains a superb action movie. The film follows two men playing a game of cat and mouse: Neil McCauley (De Niro) is a professional thief who tries never to get attached to anyone or anything, and Lt. Vincent Hanna is a detective who chases criminals with a zealous obsession, to the point that it strains his marriage. As McCauley and his crew gear up for one last job, Hanna will stop at nothing to bring them down. Heat is a superb action film, with dazzling heists and gunfights, but the real meat of the film is in the quieter moments, where two men who live only for the thrill of their jobs wonder where it all ends.
‘Kill Bill: Volume 1’ and ‘Kill Bill: Volume 2’
Quentin Tarantino has always been a master of pastiche and his fourth film, Kill Bill (broken up into two parts), shows off the director’s passion for old-school grindhouse cinema. The film follows a woman known as The Bride (Uma Thurman), a former assassin who awakens from a coma. Years earlier, her former comrades, the Deadly Viper Assassination Squad, and her boss, Bill (David Carradine), shot her in the head at her wedding rehearsal. Now she’s out for revenge, traveling the world to hunt her former comrades in what she describes as a “roaring rampage of revenge,” a name the film lives up to. These are violent films, with slick fight choreography and barrels of gore, as Tarantino draws on martial arts films, Westerns, and more.
Watch now (Volume 1) Watch now (Volume 2)
‘Slow West’
The first thing viewers may notice about John Maclean’s Slow West is just how bright it is. The greens of the trees, the vast blue of the Western sky, everything pops with such striking color. Maclean has captured the raw beauty of the Old West, but the bright palette doesn’t mean this is a happy film. As Jay Cavendish (Kodi Smit-McPhee) leads his horse through a burned-down village, the movie reminds viewers that this was a land where death was never far from your trail. Jay is searching for a young woman he loved back in Scotland, who fled with her father to America after an unfortunate incident. Following a run-in with some soldiers, Jay finds help in the form of a bounty hunter, Silas Selleck (Michael Fassbender), who offers to be his bodyguard. Silas isn’t being honest with the naive Jay, however, and as they venture west, their interests, and those of a rival gang of bounty hunters, are at odds.
‘Scott Pilgrim vs. the World’
When Scott (Michael Cera) falls for the new girl in town, Ramona Flowers (Mary Elizabeth Winstead), he realizes that she has a bit of baggage. That baggage being seven ex-boyfriends, whom he must literally battle to the death in order to win her heart. Much like the graphic novel series on which it is based, Scott Pilgrim vs. the World is part video game, part love story — an inventive pairing that should sit well with anyone who grew up amid the SNES craze of the early-’90s. The splashy visuals, deadpan dialogue, and numerous speech bubbles just add to the film’s comedic charm.
‘National Treasure’
Nicolas Cage has been languishing so long in the dungeons of bad B-movies that it’s easy to forget he was once one of Hollywood’s most dynamic leading men, headlining a variety of wild, big-budget action films like 2004’s National Treasure. The film stars Cage as Benjamin Franklin Gates, a historian who, hailing from the Indiana Jones school of academia, moonlights as a treasure hunter. Ever since he was a kid, Gates has sought one treasure above all others: A mythical object found by the Knights Templar and passed down through the ages to America’s Founding Fathers, who, it turns out, hid clues to its location in the Declaration of Independence. When Gates’ former comrade, the nefarious, British treasure hunter Ian Howe (Sean Bean), attempts to steal the Declaration, Ben decides to steal it first. National Treasure is a delightful romp, as Gates and his companions traverse the world in search of more clues and hidden secrets. If you’re seeking an adventure film about secret societies and historical conspiracies, this will do nicely.
‘Fearless’
Starring Jet Li, Fearless is a biopic of Chinese Martial Arts Master Huo Yuanjia, who is the founder and spiritual guru of the Jin Wu Sports Federation. Yuanjia was the son of a fighter who did not want his child to follow in his footsteps, but he decided to teach himself anyway. After a fight leads to another master’s death, Yuanjia’s family are killed in revenge and a grief-stricken Yuanjia wanders the country. Near death, he is rescued by a woman who nurses him back to health. It is then that Yuanjia realizes that martial arts should be about sportsmanship and not violence. With this goal, Yuanjia forms the Jingwu Sports Federation. Members of the Foreign Chamber of Commerce catch wind of Yuanjia’s intentions and devise a tournament where he has to fight four of the greatest fighters in the world. Fearless is an action-packed martial arts film about one man’s journey to self-realization.
