Netflix continues to build an impressive library of action films. Whether you’re interested in violent action films (The Equalizer, Extraction 2, The Outpost) or sci-fi action (The Hunger Games, 65, Looper), Netflix has multiple genres to choose from to satisfy your action needs.
Scrolling through Netflix can be daunting, especially if you don’t know where to look. For April, we curated a list of three action films you need to watch. Our selections include a bloody revenge saga, a prison neo-noir, and an action thriller starring one of Hollywood’s biggest names.
Kill Bill: Volume 1 (2003)
To say Kill Bill: Volume 1 is violent would be an understatement. But writer and director Quentin Tarantino gave a classic quote to explain the excessive use of violence in Kill Bill Volume 1. When asked if he needed to justify the violence, Tarantino said, “Sure, Kill Bill is violent. Sure, it’s fucking intense. But it’s a Tarantino movie. You don’t go to a Metallica concert and ask the fuckers to turn the music down.”
Kill Bill: Volume 1 is Tarantino’s homage to the martial arts movies and spaghetti Westerns from the 1960s and 1970s that he so loves. Uma Thurman stars as the Bride, a former member of the Deadly Vipers assassination group, who wakes from a coma four years after being betrayed by the group and ambushed at her wedding. This led to the death of her unborn child. Leading the ambush on the Bride was her ex-lover and father of the unborn child, Bill (David Carradine). With a thirst for vengeance, the Bride sets out to murder Bill and every deadly Viper who wants her dead. As Tarantino said, it’s his movie. Get ready for violence.
Stream Kill Bill Volume 1 on Netflix.
Brawl in Cell Block 99 (2017)
Audiences typically see Vince Vaughn crash a wedding or act as the life of the party. Brawl in Cell Block 99 is a sharp turn in the other direction. Bradley Thomas (Vaughn) can’t catch a break. He lost his job as an auto mechanic, and his wife (Jennifer Carpenter) had an affair. Desperate to change his life, Bradley becomes a drug courier, which leads to financial security and a happier marriage. After a drug deal goes haywire, however, Bradley is detained by the police and sentenced to seven years in prison.
The gang that was supposed to receive the drugs kidnaps Bradley’s now-pregnant wife and forces him to kill an inmate in the dangerous cell block 99. If Bradley refuses, the gang will kill his unborn child. Brawl in Cell Block 99 presents Vaughn like you’ve never seen him before. His persona has never been more menacing. Watching him commit horrific acts of violence will shock you. Yet, Vaughn gives a committed and well-acted performance. it’sa great change of pace for an actor who rarely shows his dramatic side.
Stream Brawl in Cell Block 99 on Netflix.
The Accountant (2016)
I imagine The Accountant’s pitch went something like this — Ben Affleck is a mathematical genius and martial arts expert who works as an accountant for criminal organizations. I would have greenlit the movie, too, if I were Warner Bros. Christian Wolff (Affleck) is a brilliant CPA (hence “The Accountant” moniker) on the autism spectrum who works in a small office in suburban Illinois. The office is a front for his real job: laundering money for criminal enterprises. Wolff takes a legal job auditing a wealthy robotics company and discovers that over $60 million has been embezzled.
As Wolff works to find the thief, U.S. Treasury agent Ray King (J.K. Simmons), who has been hunting “The Accountant” for years, finally makes a breakthrough in his case. With the FBI and crime syndicate on his tail, Wolff is now a marked man. It’s time for The Accountant to do what he does best: solve math problems and kill whoever is in his path.
Stream The Accountant on Netflix.
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