Best Guy Films of All Time
by Der_Schnibbler | created - 25 Sep 2014 | updated - 1 month ago | PublicAction, violence, and explosions, sure...but also bleakness, darkness, and fear.
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1. Taken (I) (2008)
PG-13 | 90 min | Action, Crime, Thriller
A retired CIA agent travels across Europe and relies on his old skills to save his estranged daughter, who has been kidnapped while on a trip to Paris.
Director: Pierre Morel | Stars: Liam Neeson, Maggie Grace, Famke Janssen, Leland Orser
Votes: 634,865 | Gross: $145.00M
Liam Neeson taking out swarthy scum and making no excuses.
2. Pulp Fiction (1994)
R | 154 min | Crime, Drama
The lives of two mob hitmen, a boxer, a gangster and his wife, and a pair of diner bandits intertwine in four tales of violence and redemption.
Director: Quentin Tarantino | Stars: John Travolta, Uma Thurman, Samuel L. Jackson, Bruce Willis
Votes: 2,222,376 | Gross: $107.93M
Like a new film every time.
3. Shoot 'Em Up (2007)
R | 86 min | Action, Comedy, Thriller
A man named Mr. Smith delivers a woman's baby during a shootout, and is then called upon to protect the newborn from the army of gunmen.
Director: Michael Davis | Stars: Clive Owen, Monica Bellucci, Paul Giamatti, Stephen McHattie
Votes: 155,052 | Gross: $12.81M
Half-baked anti-gun message is easy to ignore thanks to the over-the-top action.
4. The Raid: Redemption (2011)
R | 101 min | Action, Crime, Thriller
A S.W.A.T. team becomes trapped in a tenement run by a ruthless mobster and his army of killers and thugs.
Director: Gareth Evans | Stars: Iko Uwais, Ananda George, Ray Sahetapy, Donny Alamsyah
Votes: 217,191 | Gross: $4.11M
Good cop kills bad guys. Lots of them.
5. Desperado (1995)
R | 104 min | Action, Crime, Drama
Former musician and gunslinger El Mariachi arrives at a small Mexican border town after being away for a long time. His past quickly catches up with him and he soon gets entangled with the local drug kingpin Bucho and his gang.
Director: Robert Rodriguez | Stars: Antonio Banderas, Salma Hayek, Joaquim de Almeida, Cheech Marin
Votes: 197,759 | Gross: $25.63M
He has a guitar and he's out for revenge.
6. Running Scared (2006)
R | 122 min | Action, Crime, Drama
A low-ranking thug is entrusted by his crime boss to dispose of a gun that killed corrupt cops, but things get out of control when the gun ends up in wrong hands.
Director: Wayne Kramer | Stars: Paul Walker, Cameron Bright, Chazz Palminteri, Vera Farmiga
Votes: 103,730 | Gross: $6.86M
The underworld through the eyes of a young boy. Okay, not quite that profound, but an interesting angle in a film full of death. Especially notable for a deeply disturbing side-story around the middle that'll have your skin crawling.
7. The Grey (2011)
R | 117 min | Action, Adventure, Drama
After their plane crashes in Alaska, six oil workers are led by a skilled huntsman to survival, but a pack of merciless wolves haunts their every step.
Director: Joe Carnahan | Stars: Liam Neeson, Dermot Mulroney, Frank Grillo, Dallas Roberts
Votes: 263,431 | Gross: $51.58M
Male loneliness.
8. Limitless (I) (2011)
PG-13 | 105 min | Sci-Fi, Thriller
A mysterious pill that enables the user to access 100% of his brain's abilities transforms a struggling writer into a financial wizard, but it also puts him in a new world with many dangers.
Director: Neil Burger | Stars: Bradley Cooper, Anna Friel, Abbie Cornish, Robert De Niro
Votes: 612,749 | Gross: $79.25M
A somewhat dull title for a very interesting movie.
9. Looper (2012)
R | 119 min | Action, Drama, Sci-Fi
In 2074, when the mob wants to get rid of someone, the target is sent into the past, where a hired gun awaits - someone like Joe - who one day learns the mob wants to 'close the loop' by sending back Joe's future self for assassination.
Director: Rian Johnson | Stars: Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Bruce Willis, Emily Blunt, Paul Dano
Votes: 603,292 | Gross: $66.49M
10. Repo Men (2010)
R | 111 min | Action, Sci-Fi, Thriller
Set in the near future when artificial organs can be bought on credit, it revolves around a man who struggles to make the payments on a heart he has purchased. He must therefore go on the run before said ticker is repossessed.
Director: Miguel Sapochnik | Stars: Jude Law, Forest Whitaker, Alice Braga, Liev Schreiber
Votes: 110,724 | Gross: $13.79M
A love scene you'll never forget.
11. Frankenstein's Army (2013)
R | 84 min | Horror, Sci-Fi
In the dying days of WWII, a battalion of Russian soldiers is lured into the secret lab of a deranged scientist and forced to face off against an army of horrific flesh-and-metal war machines.
Director: Richard Raaphorst | Stars: Robert Gwilym, Hon Ping Tang, Alexander Terentyev, Luke Newberry
Votes: 9,206
12. Kill Bill: Vol. 1 (2003)
R | 111 min | Action, Crime, Thriller
After awakening from a four-year coma, a former assassin wreaks vengeance on the team of assassins who betrayed her.
Director: Quentin Tarantino | Stars: Uma Thurman, David Carradine, Daryl Hannah, Michael Madsen
Votes: 1,195,107 | Gross: $70.10M
Requires no explanation.
13. Kill Bill: Vol. 2 (2004)
R | 137 min | Action, Crime, Thriller
The Bride continues her quest of vengeance against her former boss and lover Bill, the reclusive bouncer Budd, and the treacherous, one-eyed Elle.
Director: Quentin Tarantino | Stars: Uma Thurman, David Carradine, Michael Madsen, Daryl Hannah
Votes: 806,334 | Gross: $66.21M
See "Kill Bill: Vol. 1."
14. The Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call - New Orleans (2009)
R | 122 min | Crime, Drama, Mystery
Terence McDonagh is a drug- and gambling-addled detective in post-Katrina New Orleans investigating the killing of five Senegalese immigrants.
Director: Werner Herzog | Stars: Nicolas Cage, Eva Mendes, Russell M. Haeuser, Val Kilmer
Votes: 80,941 | Gross: $1.70M
15. Braveheart (1995)
R | 178 min | Biography, Drama, War
Scottish warrior William Wallace leads his countrymen in a rebellion to free his homeland from the tyranny of King Edward I of England.
Director: Mel Gibson | Stars: Mel Gibson, Sophie Marceau, Patrick McGoohan, Angus Macfadyen
Votes: 1,091,996 | Gross: $75.60M
16. Crank (2006)
R | 88 min | Action, Crime, Thriller
Professional assassin Chev Chelios learns his rival has injected him with a poison that will kill him if his heart rate drops.
Directors: Mark Neveldine, Brian Taylor | Stars: Jason Statham, Amy Smart, Carlos Sanz, Jose Pablo Cantillo
Votes: 263,771 | Gross: $27.83M
17. Crank: High Voltage (2009)
R | 96 min | Action, Crime, Thriller
Chelios faces a Chinese mobster who has stolen his nearly indestructible heart and replaced it with a battery-powered ticker which requires regular jolts of electricity to keep working.
Directors: Mark Neveldine, Brian Taylor | Stars: Jason Statham, Amy Smart, Clifton Collins Jr., Dwight Yoakam
Votes: 159,050 | Gross: $13.63M
18. Irreversible (2002)
Not Rated | 97 min | Crime, Drama, Mystery
Events over the course of one traumatic night in Paris unfold in reverse-chronological order as the beautiful Alex is brutally raped and beaten by a stranger in an underpass tunnel.
Director: Gaspar Noé | Stars: Monica Bellucci, Vincent Cassel, Albert Dupontel, Philippe Nahon
Votes: 147,794 | Gross: $0.75M
19. Extraction (2020)
R | 116 min | Action, Thriller
Tyler Rake, a fearless black market mercenary, embarks on the most deadly extraction of his career when he's enlisted to rescue the kidnapped son of an imprisoned international crime lord.
Director: Sam Hargrave | Stars: Chris Hemsworth, Bryon Lerum, Ryder Lerum, Rudhraksh Jaiswal
Votes: 263,266
20. Avengement (I) (2019)
Not Rated | 87 min | Action, Crime
After years of assaults on him in prison, convicted felon Cain Burgess escapes for avengement on those responsible.
Director: Jesse V. Johnson | Stars: Scott Adkins, Craig Fairbrass, Thomas Turgoose, Nick Moran
Votes: 20,665
21. The Night Comes for Us (2018)
TV-MA | 121 min | Action, Crime, Thriller
Ito, a gangland enforcer, is caught amidst a treacherous and violent insurrection within his Triad crime family upon his return home from a stint abroad.
Director: Timo Tjahjanto | Stars: Iko Uwais, Joe Taslim, Julie Estelle, Dian Sastrowardoyo
Votes: 29,266
22. Homefront (I) (2013)
R | 100 min | Action, Crime, Thriller
A former DEA agent moves his family to a quiet town, where he soon tangles with a local meth druglord.
Director: Gary Fleder | Stars: Jason Statham, James Franco, Winona Ryder, Kate Bosworth
Votes: 130,387 | Gross: $20.16M
23. Plane (2023)
R | 107 min | Action, Adventure, Thriller
A pilot finds himself caught in a war zone after he's forced to land his commercial aircraft during a terrible storm.
Director: Jean-François Richet | Stars: Gerard Butler, Mike Colter, Tony Goldwyn, Yoson An
Votes: 78,652
24. In Bruges (2008)
R | 107 min | Comedy, Crime, Drama
After a job gone wrong, hitman Ray and his partner await orders from their ruthless boss in Bruges, Belgium, the last place in the world Ray wants to be.
Director: Martin McDonagh | Stars: Colin Farrell, Brendan Gleeson, Ciarán Hinds, Elizabeth Berrington
Votes: 461,797 | Gross: $7.76M
A brief moment of woke stupidity and virtue signaling in the middle but it's an isolated incident and doesn't mar the entire movie.
25. The Wrestler (2008)
R | 109 min | Drama, Sport
A faded professional wrestler must retire, but finds his quest for a new life outside the ring a dispiriting struggle.
Director: Darren Aronofsky | Stars: Mickey Rourke, Marisa Tomei, Evan Rachel Wood, Mark Margolis
Votes: 320,074 | Gross: $26.24M
26. Brawl in Cell Block 99 (2017)
Not Rated | 132 min | Action, Crime, Drama
A former boxer-turned-drug runner lands in a prison battleground after a deal gets deadly.
Director: S. Craig Zahler | Stars: Vince Vaughn, Jennifer Carpenter, Don Johnson, Udo Kier
Votes: 75,797
27. Sisu (2022)
R | 91 min | Action, War
When an ex-soldier who discovers gold in the Lapland wilderness tries to take the loot into the city, German soldiers led by a brutal SS officer battle him.
Director: Jalmari Helander | Stars: Jorma Tommila, Aksel Hennie, Jack Doolan, Mimosa Willamo
Votes: 76,400
28. American Me (1992)
R | 125 min | Biography, Crime, Drama
A Mexican-American Mafia kingpin is released from prison, falls in love for the first time, and grows introspective about his gangster lifestyle.
Director: Edward James Olmos | Stars: Edward James Olmos, William Forsythe, Sal Lopez, Vira Montes
Votes: 10,395 | Gross: $13.09M
29. Apocalypto (2006)
R | 139 min | Action, Adventure, Drama
As the Mayan kingdom faces its decline, a young man is taken on a perilous journey to a world ruled by fear and oppression.
Director: Mel Gibson | Stars: Gerardo Taracena, Raoul Max Trujillo, Dalia Hernández, Rudy Youngblood
Votes: 331,544 | Gross: $50.87M
30. Mayhem! (2023)
R | 99 min | Action, Thriller
A model prisoner's leave ends in tragedy when his past resurfaces, forcing him to flee. He starts over in Thailand, until a local criminal coerces him back into crime. After this man attacks his family, he vows revenge.
Director: Xavier Gens | Stars: Nassim Lyes, Loryn Nounay, Olivier Gourmet, Chananticha Chaipa
Votes: 1,602
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