Many action movies start with a bang. But Back In Action, the new Netflix action comedy starring Jamie Foxx and Cameron Diaz, has started with a splat – multiple splats in the form of rotten tomatoes. According to the review aggregator at the time of writing, the film is far from fresh: it’s got a Tomatometer rating of just 24%.
The good news is that there are plenty of much better movies with much fresher ratings, all of them streaming right now on Netflix. Here are three action movies that are among the best Netflix movies you won’t regret starting.
RRR
RT critic score: 96%
This action adventure is getting rave reviews. It’s the epic, action-packed tale of a fearless warrior on a perilous mission who comes face to face with a steely cop serving British forces in what one reviewer says is “one of the most entertaining films I’ve seen this year” – and before you go “but it’s only January!” he wrote that on the film’s theatrical release in mid-2023.
According to Deadline Hollywood Daily, “RRR is one action crescendo after another, never dull but not exhausting either.” And the San Jose Mercury News loved it too: “The bonanza with a cast of what looks to be thousands and a storyline about getting back at colonizers is a blast throughout its three-hour-plus running time.” According to The Hollywood Reporter, “You won’t be bored for a nanosecond.”
Rebel Ridge
RT critic score: 96%
When ex-Marine Terry Richmond visits the town of Shelby Springs to post bail for his cousin, things go off the rails and he finds himself going head to head with the local cops and battling a deep-rooted conspiracy. If you’ve seen the same writer/director (Jeremy Saulnier)’s Blue Ruin and Green Room, you’re going to want to see this modern echo of First Blood. And if you haven’t, you should stream it anyway.
The movie is “as elementally satisfying as a great Western,” AV Club says, while the New York Times waxed lyrical: “Our pulses are elevated by the score, a relentless tattoo of drones and drums, plus the truly sensational camera work of David Gallego which, like our leading man, moves with measured intelligence and makes tactical use of every mirror in sight.” According to Empire, it’s “an undeniably fun night in.”
Hit Man
RT critic score: 95%
Based on an incredible true story, Richard Linklater’s wild neo-noir movie stars Glen Powell as strait-laced professor Gary Johnson, who moonlights as a fake hit man for the New Orleans Police Department. As the Irish Times put it, “this old-fashioned sexy caper makes merry with unreliable narration, slapstick and the stress of remembering which lie you told.”
Den of Geek says that “Linklater has long displayed a genius for riffing on and shifting between genre tones. And with Hit Man, he’s figured out how to turn a veritable film noir into a meet-cute comedy,” and we think ABC News liked it too: “Oooowee,” Peter Travers wrote. “What a scorchingly sexy thriller.”
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