Transformers (2007)

Santa brought my kids Transformers this Christmas. As soon as they opened the package, they immediately popped the disc into the DVD player, even before opening their other presents! Watching it again reminded me of all the things I loved in this movie:

(1) No more blocky and stiff Saturday morning cartoon transformers. Instead we get incredibly detailed (each of Ironhide's guns were reportedly composed of 10,000 parts) cars, trucks, fighter jets, tanks and helicopters that fluidly transform into some of the most dynamic and agile robots ever seen on screen.

(2) Mind-blowing fight scenes that would have been cool even if they didn't involved transforming robots. Kudos to whoever envisioned robots fighting with MMA "ground and pound" techniques or capoeira. Awesome!

(3) The way the size of the robots matches the size of the vehicle they transform in to.

(4) Realistic-sounding military chatter.

(5) Peter Cullen, the original voice of Optimus Prime, reprising his role for this movie. It does not matter how cheesy the line is, Cullen makes Optimus Prime sound cool!

(6) The way Megatron briefly turns himself into a giant gun.

(7) The use of the original "transforming sound" from the cartoon.

(8) Optimus Prime's Voltron-like sword. I would have liked to see more swordfighting, but the few seconds they had were pretty sweet!

(9) The way the transformers run, leap and tumble like free runners.

(10) Megan Fox.

Fast Shooter

This may not be an action movie, but sometimes truth is more amazing than fiction ...

In this clip, renowned competition shooter Jerry Miculek uses a REVOLVER to (1) hit a target EIGHT times in ONE second, (2) hit FOUR targets with TWO bullets each in just over a second, and (3) fire SIX bullets, RELOAD, and fire SIX more bullets in LESS than THREE seconds! Did I mention that he's using a REVOLVER? Unbelievable!

District 13 (2004)

This French action movie, originally entitled Banlieue 13 (and also released as District B13), combined martial arts and free running/parkour, and stars parkour founder David Belle.

This clip features Belle's co-star, Cyril Raffaelli, who was also the movie's fight choreographer, in an extended rough cut of the casino fight scene. The action features Jackie Chan-style acrobatics but, unfortunately, lacks his sense of humor. Still, you can't help but admire the athleticism of Raffaelli and his stunt men - some of those falls look really painful!

Street Soccer

This clip cleverly blends a CGI soccer ball and free running/tricking to promote a video game (FIFA Street 3). The fantastical soccer stunts were obviously inspired by Shaolin Soccer (2001), one of my favorite movies ...

The Hunted (2003)

This film, directed by William Friedkin (The Exorcist, The French Connection) and starring Tommy Lee Jones and Benicio del Toro, featured a unique vision of hand-to-hand combat and knife fighting.

The military training scenes and brutal fight sequences were choreographed by Rafael Kayanan and Thomas Kier. Their distinctive style is based on Sayoc Kali, a filipino martial art that specializes in knife fighting.

The Sayoc Kali influence can be seen in the way everything is treated as a weapon - a fallen tree branch, a rock, even blood running down an arm ... There is nothing pretty or clean about the fights in this movie. Each punch and slash looks like it hurts. Each combatant ends up exhausted, battered, bruised and bloody.

The Matrix (1999)

None of the actors in The Matrix were martial artists and, as a result, the kung-fu fighting (choreography by Hong Kong legend Yuen Woo Ping) was just so-so in my opinion, but the Wachowski brothers deserve the fame (and Academy Awards) they received for bringing their hyperstylized gun fights and bullet time to cinema.

It's been almost a decade since this movie came out, but I still love this scene in the lobby of the government building where the Agents are holding Morpheus ...

LotR: The Return of the King (2003)

Orcs got you feeling down? Need some inspiration?

This speech by Aragorn (Viggo Mortensen) at the Black Gate to inspire the men of Rohan and Gondor gets me pumped up every time!

Rob Roy (1995)

To be honest, I only caught the end of this movie once on TV, so I have almost no idea what it was actually about. All I know is that this swordfight (arranged by respected fencing choreographer William Hobbs) between Archibald Cunningham (Tim Roth) and Rob Roy MacGregor (Liam Neeson) was awesome!

For most of the duel, Cunningham toys with MacGregor, Cunningham's finesse with the smallsword seemingly too much for MacGregor, who wields a heavier and clumsier claymore. This mismatch makes the ending all the more shocking!

Equilibrium (2002)

This movie, sandwiched between The Matrix (1999) and The Matrix Reloaded (2003), only received a limited release and was panned by critics, but deserved better in my opinion.

Equilibrium has a great visual style and unique action choreography featuring gun kata, a fictional firearms-based martial art.

Christian Bale's character kills 118 people in the movie, giving him the third highest body count in cinema. But he does save the life of a puppy, which sort of balances things out ...

Pretty Boy Bam Bam

OK, technically this isn't an action movie, but this kid is only six years old! Unbelievable!

Dragon Tiger Gate (2006)

Dragon Tiger Gate was adapted from a comic book of the same name.

In this scene, Tiger (Nicholas Tse) battles gangsters, then comes face to face with his long-lost brother, Dragon (Donnie Yen). While Donnie Yen is a veteran martial artist and choreographer, Nicholas Tse is best known as a Hong Kong pop singer/songwriter. (Nice kicking though!)

The Princess Bride (1987)

How could anyone not love this duel between Inigo Montoya and the man in black atop the Cliffs of Insanity? Mandy Patinkin and Cary Elwes learned to fence both right-handed and left-handed for this movie

Note the references to Ridolfo Capoferro, Camillo Agrippa, Girard Thibault and Rocco Bonetti, actual 16th and 17th century fencing masters.