30 for 30! Your Top Summer Action Movies

As World War Z, one of this summer's most action-packed movies, hits DVD and Blu-ray, we look back at 30 summer action movies of the last 30 years. Read on...and have a blast!
30.Crimson Tide (1995)

Grab your cigars and man your panels as Tony Scott's tense thriller kicks off our list of the top 30 action movies of the past 30 years. Featuring excellent back-and-forth dialogue between Denzel Washington and Gene Hackman (some scripted by Quentin Tarantino), the movie earned three Oscar nominations.
29. Mission: Impossible II (2000)

Legendary Hong Kong action director John Woo brought his unique touch to the Mission: Impossible franchise. The second installment in the Tom Cruise-starring franchise found the special agent in Australia trying to destroy a genetically modified disease.
28. Predator (1987)

If it's a list of action movies, you know Arnold is going to be in there. Teaming up with Carl Weathers, Arnold leads a team of special force ops to hunt down some ugly mother-effers.
27. True Lies (1994)

Staying with the Arnold theme, the action star joined forces here with James Cameron for the blockbuster True Lies. Co-starring Jamie Lee Curtis, Tom Arnold and a very young Eliza Dushku, the film features Arnie taking down a bunch of terrorists no matter what it takes... including a missile.
26. Fast and Furious Tokyo Drift (2006)

Interestingly enough, out of all the Fast & Furious movies, fans voted Tokyo Drift into the Top 30. Perhaps this means we'll be seeing more drifting in the next two Fast movies...
25. The Expendables (2010)

How do you make the ultimate action movie? Well, start off by casting a bunch of action movie icons, add in a rescue mission and kick back and watch the good guys blow stuff up and shoot down the bad guys real good.
24. District 9 (2009)

Four years ago, hardly anybody knew who Sharlto Copley was...then Neill Blomkamp's District 9 happened and put the actor on the map. Drawing on sociological themes, the sci-fi thriller about a government agent and extraterrestrial creatures captivated audiences worldwide.
23. Thor (2011)

The Asgardian God earns a solid spot on the Top 30 list. Before he teamed up with The Avengers or prepared to enter The Dark World, the son of Odin was banished to Earth, fell in love with Natalie Portman and took down a giant walking incinerating robot aptly named Destroyer.
22. G.I. Joe (2009)

The Joes returned to theaters earlier this year in full force, but four years ago the comic book/toy franchise made the leap to the big screen with big names playing famous (toy) characters.
21. Terminator 2: Judgment Day(1991)

Well, he did say he'd be back. Sure enough Arnold and that pesky T-1000 played by Robert Patrick make our top action movie list. James Cameron's sci-fi action flick deployed some breakthrough computer technology to animate the metallic T-1000.
20. The Day After Tomorrow (2004)

If the world is coming to an end, Roland Emmerich is probably behind the camera. Famous for destroying the White House in Independence Day, Emmerich took a much more global approach to mass destruction in this movie as Dennis Quaid and Jake Gyllenhaal were left to figure out how to save us all.
19. The Fugitive (1993)

We searched every warehouse, farmhouse, henhouse, outhouse and doghouse in the area and sure enough, Andrew Davis' action adventure and one of Harrison Ford's best thrillers was a fan favorite.
18. X-Men First Class (2011)

How do you revive a franchise that left a sour taste in fans' mouths? Start from the beginning. Matthew Vaughn brought us all the way back to the beginning of the X-Men story and interlaced real world events in a superhero movie that both fans and critics loved.
17. The Amazing Spider-Man (2012)

Speaking of superheroes and starting from the beginning, Marc Webb and the folks at Sony decided to start over fresh with the story of Peter Parker. Co-starring Emma Stone and Denis Leary, the superhero flick performed so well, we're getting two more installments over the next few years!
16. Die Hard (1988)

Yippie-kai, oh, you know the rest. In the late '80s John McTiernan helmed one of the most influential and entertaining movies ever made. While there was no indication of how the franchise would devolve over the years, the original Die Hard still stands as one of the smartest and best action movies ever made.
15. Inception (2010)

Is Christopher Nolan's mind-warping sci-fi flick really at number 15... or is it all a dream? Quick, grab your tops and give them a spin! Nolan steps outside the Batman franchise to weave this trippy tale of dream invasions that earned $800 million worldwide to become one of the highest grossing movies of all-time.
14. Iron Man (2008)

If you don't know his name, you're probably living under a rock. Just don't tell that to Tony Stark; you might bruise that massive ego of his. Marvel's run-up to one of the highest grossing movies of all-time *cough* Avengers, began here, with Tony escaping from a cave in Afghanistan and being forced to stop his business partner Obadiah Stane.The rest, as they say, is history.
13. Men in Black (1997)

Ah yes, Men in Black. Back in the late '90s when summer blockbusters starring Will Smith were accompanied by hit rap songs, Barry Sonnefeld's extraterrestrial busting flick was cleaning up at the box office, much to fans' delight. The unforgettable one-liners and characters are proof that Neurolyzers don't work on movie audiences.
12. Armageddon (1998)

Very few directors could bring Bruce Willis, Ben Affleck and Billy Bob Thornton together in the same movie and yet, Michael Bay did just that. While the premise of the movie is quite action-packed, the movie did earn Bruce Willis a Razzie Award for Worst Actor and left us with a terribly annoying Aerosmith song.
11. Star Trek (2009)

He may be the king of sci-fi nowadays, but just a few years ago, J.J. Abrams was rebooting the Star Trek franchise much to the nervous anticipation of Trekkies everywhere. Their concerns were for naught as Abrams delivered a solid movie worthy of a sequel and a ticket to prolonging the Star Wars franchise.
10. The Dark Knight (2008)

Of Christopher Nolan's three Batman movies, the second one remains the most beloved. Featuring an Oscar-winning turn by the late Heath Ledger as The Joker, The Dark Knight raised the level of drama and chaos in the Caped Crusader's life up to a whole new level.
9. Top Gun (1986)

“I feel the need. The need for speed!” Tom Cruise stars as ace fighter pilot Maverick in this glorified commercial for the US Navy. In fact, the US Navy set up recruiting booths in major cinemas to try and catch some of the adrenaline charged guys leaving the screenings. They had their highest applications rates for years as a result!
8. Transformers (2007)

Action director Michael Bay was tasked with turning a 20-year-old toy franchise into a super, action-filled mega movie and he did it with Transformers, the 2007 film starring Shia LaBeouf and Megan Fox. Giant robots that turn into cool cars and back again to fight each other -- What’s not to love?!
7. Return of the Jedi (1983)

Ewoks aside, 1983’s Return of the Jedi was a great action movie and the culmination of George Lucas’s original trilogy of Star Wars films at the time. Space battles, Jabba’s barge and, ok, the Ewok battle of Endor all make this movie an action-filled, fun ride.
6. Independence Day (1996)

One of director Roland Emmerich’s first big budget action/destruction films was this 1996 spectacle that had Will Smith fighting off an alien invasion, of course, on July 4th, Independence Day!
5. The Bourne Identity (2002)

The Bourne franchise started with a young Matt Damon playing the secret spy trying to figure out his identity in the 2002 film that started it all, The Bourne Identity. Damon starred in two more sequels before handing the torch off to Jeremy Renner in 2012’s The Bourne Legacy.
4. Jurassic Park (1993)

“Welcome to Jurassic Park!” Although the iconic Steven Spielberg film came out 20 years ago, it is back in the theaters in a modified 3D format for a whole new generation to enjoy. And, although the dinosaurs are mostly CG, we dare you not to be adrenalized when the T-Rex chases the jeep!
3. The Dark Knight Rises (2012)

Christian Bale's Batman shows up again in his last outing directed by Christopher Nolan and going up against a menacing Bane, played by Tom Hardy. The summer action flick was a huge success at the box office taking in over 1 billion dollars worldwide. That’s billion with a ‘B.'
2. Pirates of the Caribbean (2003)

Who can turn a theme park ride into a billion-dollar franchise? Johnny Depp can! And he did with the Pirates of the Caribbean movies as lovable pirate Jack Sparrow. The 2003 movie started it all and it’s had 3 sequels to follow, with a fifth planned for 2015.
1. The Avengers (2012)

"The Best Superhero Movie Of All Time" is the quote on the box art (and yes, it's our own)...and we still believe it. Joss Whedon’s A-list collection of Marvel superheros was an action lover's dream come true, the Star Wars for the new generation, and our favorite summer action movie of the last 30 years.
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