Here are the guidelines I made up to help make my list seem better and more thorough:
*"All Time" = "1980 and on" for this purpose. Truly doing "of all time" would reveal a pitiful lack of knowledge of Bruce Lee movies on my part, and I'd be subjected to wading through the finer points of 1960s' war movies - and The Great Escape is three hours long.
Only one movie per franchise.
I went for "most entertaining" over best, groundbreaking, or intense, and most of the movies are Hollywood ones that had wide releases. I was thinking more Saturday afternoon on FX than IFC at midnight.
Overall Most Entertaining:
Air Force One (1997) - Facebook bombardment promoting The Raid 2 and watching Air Force One the other day on cable are what got me thinking of the best action movies. It's not like the action scenes in Air Force One are intricate or innovative, but the airplane setting creates some fairly original action scenes. Harrison Ford is a pleasing movie President, and the movie has enough cheesy, memorable lines and top notch character actors to make it successfully entertaining.
The Avengers (2012)
Bad Boys (1995)
The Bourne Ultimatum (2007)
Casino Royale (2006)
Con Air (1997) - 1997 was a good year for Nicolas Cage.
The Dark Knight (2008)
Die Hard (1988) - Ranks first in the minds of most as the quintessential and best action movie, for good reason. It is the best cop movie and top Christmas movie, too. The most recent Die Hard installment has McClane's spy son and him going to Chernobyl . . .and makes you wish you had just watched the original for the 50th time instead.
Face/Off (1997)
Iron Man (2008)
Kill Bill: Vol. 1 (2003)
Léon: The Professional (1994)
The Mechanic (2011) - Maybe not iconic enough to make a list of all time best/most entertaining action movies, but Jason Statham has carved out a specific action movie sub-genre that people seem to like, so that deserves representation.
Mission Impossible (1996)
Point Break (1991) - I try to fit Point Break on all movie category lists. Movie merits:
“Point Break is a legitimately great film. Bigelow’s action sequences are shot to perfection and the grandiosity of testosterone-infused bromance and is downright awe-inspiring. Also, poor Keanu Reeves gets a lot of flack for being a bad actor, yet as Point Break more than proves, when used properly, Keanu can be very effective. His Johnny Utah can emote with the best of them, perform the hell out of any action sequence… ”
The Rock (1996)
Speed (1994) - This would be my pick for most entertaining action movie; I never really get tired of watching it. I'd like to think this is because of the merits of the movie and not the hotness of young Keanu Reeves; but I make no promises. I do enjoy the briskness of the storyline and the little-to-no backstory provided the characters - good qualities of a mindless, crowd-pleasing action movie. Plus, the hyped-up musical score that plays throughout is overwrought and awesome, I bet it would be great to work out to.
Taken (2008) - Good action movies and stars make popular, goofy memes. See: Sad Keanu, Nicolas Cage everything, and "I will find you. . . "
Movies that definitely have great action, but are maybe too action-y (and violent) to be broadly popular. Sylvester Stallone and Arnold Schwarzenegger live in this area but occasionally venture out into action blockbusters.
First Blood (1982)
The Transporter (2002)
True Lies (1994)
This could obviously be an entire list on its own, but here are some not-Hollywood movies that have awesome action, but still are entertaining with broad appeal.
Battle Royale (2000)
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000)
Hard Boiled (1992)
Old Boy (2003)
The Raid: Redemption (2011)
Run Lola Run (1998) - (photo)
Top Gun (1986) - This isn't a category, just an excuse to link to Quentin Tarantino talking about the other romance in Top Gun. Homoerotic overtones aside, Top Gun is a great, cheesy 80s action movie.
A few of these could probably be considered most overall entertaining action movies, but then again might have too much sci-fi for those aren't into sci-fi movies.
Aliens (1986)
The Matrix (1999)
Predator (1987)
Robocop (1987)
A catchall category. Most of these movies are genre-crossing (action/drama, action/adventure, sci-fi/action) blockbuster movies.
300 (2006)
Armageddon (1998)
Avatar (2009)
Gladiator (2000)
Jurassic Park (1993) - (photo)
Pacific Rim (2013) - This is maybe the least blockbuster-y of this list of movies, but it is one of the most entertaining movies I've seen in the past few years. I remember reading a review after seeing it that said it was the movie that fans of the Transformers movies deserve, and I agree.
Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)
The Road Warrior (1981)
Big Trouble in LIttle China (1986)
Independence Day (1996) - (above photo) It's a super-entertaining disaster movie, but doesn't contain that many action sequences.
The Long Kiss Goodnight (1996)
Minority Report (2002)
Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves (1991)
Salt (2010) - I started feeling guilty that women were way underrepresented on this list: Salt does have some quality action scenes, plus Angelina Jolie in a a few different wigs (and in drag), the plot is just meh. This is pretty badass though:
Let me know what I forgot (Road House??)!