10 Most Exciting R-Rated Action Movies, Ranked
Even if you don’t live in the U.S., you’ve probably heard about R-rated movies. Something being R-rated can be shorthand for it being aimed at adults, but to be specific/accurate, the R-rating is given to movies in the U.S. that can only be watched by people under 17 if they have an adult guardian with them. With action movies specifically, they usually get R-ratings because of the level of violence involved.
Not all of the movies below are equally violent, and some deserve their R-ratings more than others, but they’re all action movies and they’re all exciting. There are also tons of highly intense and/or emotional action movies that don’t have R-ratings, like Seven Samurai, The Dark Knight, and Raiders of the Lost Ark, but the following ranking ain’t for those f**king movies, ya hear?
10
‘Predator’ (1987)
The 1980s was the decade where Arnold Schwarzenegger really established himself as an action star, and Predator was super important in that whole process. But he’s also part of an ensemble cast here, most of them playing elite commandos that venture into the jungle on what initially seems like a fairly easy mission for the bunch of them, but ends up being very much not that, thanks to an alien hunting them all for sport.
That’s all Predator really needs to be exciting and consistently intense, and it has that kind of structure where each time the alien scores a win, things get more desperate for those still standing. It’s very simple, but also very satisfying, and it would probably be the best film John McTiernan ever directed if not for another soon-to-be-mentioned action movie that was released just one year later.
9
‘Run Lola Run’ (1998)
Few movies have a need for speed quite like Run Lola Run, which is indeed about someone named Lola and she has to run a lot. Honestly, having the word “Run” appear twice in the title still isn’t enough, because three times would’ve arguably made more sense, since the same scenario plays out that many times, each one a little different, though the goal remains the same.
Specifically, Lola has a very small window of time to find a large amount of money, because if she can’t, then her boyfriend – pushed to his limits – is going to rob a convenience store. Truth be told, Run Lola Run is on the milder side of things as far as R-rated movies go, with the profanity probably being the main reason it got an R-rating, but even then, it’s not overly profane. But hey, it’s still R-rated, and it is an exciting action/thriller movie, so that’s what matters here.
8
‘Gladiator’ (2000)
Gladiator is one of the more stirring and exciting Best Picture winners in the history of the Academy Awards, and it also happens to be an action movie. It’s about a Roman general who gets betrayed by the son of an Emperor who then becomes Emperor, so it’s a story about revenge that also takes place against a backdrop of political intrigue and drama.
But the focus is a bit more on the action and spectacle than the drama, though it’s good that you nonetheless get something from both camps, which stops Gladiator from merely feeling like another movie about getting revenge. It’s not exactly a realistic or historically accurate epic movie, but one also gets the sense it’s not trying to be, instead using an interesting time in history to tell an ultimately moving and well-paced story.
7
’13 Assassins’ (2010)
Not all samurai movies are automatically action movies, but 13 Assassins sure does fit into both camps… eventually. The amount of action is pretty restrained for the first hour or so of 13 Assassins, with the focus being on establishing a truly despicable villain who needs assassinating, and then a team of (you’ll never guess how many) assassins being assembled to carry out that task.
That whole assassination mission ends up becoming a huge set piece, too, with the back half of 13 Assassins being pretty relentless with all the combat it depicts. Structurally, it’s all pretty straightforward and expected, but it’s the intensity of the whole thing – and the confidence with which an otherwise familiar story is told – that makes 13 Assassins both great and more than a little underrated overall.
6
‘The Matrix’ (1999)
It’s easy to take The Matrix for granted nowadays, since it ended up being so influential upon both the action and science fiction genres, but if you step back and try to put yourself in 1999, this one’s mind-blowing. It was ahead of its time technically, and it felt like an interesting blend of martial arts and heroic bloodshed-type movies rolled into one, exploring some intriguing sci-fi concepts in the process, too.
So, to call The Matrix ambitious would be an understatement, and it’s understandable why the sequels, though interesting and sometimes entertaining, never quite lived up to the original. You get a lot here, since The Matrix packs many ideas – and a great deal of spectacle – into just one movie, and so the fact that it ended up kicking off a franchise really isn’t all that surprising.
5
‘Hard Boiled’ (1992)
It’s not accurate to say that John Woo can make great action movies in his sleep, seeing as some of his movies (particularly more recent ones) have been a bit underwhelming. But, when he’s on fire, few have done action better than John Woo, and so you’ve got to highlight at least one of his films when talking about action movies that go big, get explosive, and feel exciting.
Beyond quality, Hard Boiled also satisfies when it comes to quantity, since it feels like most of this movie is action.
So, here’s Hard Boiled. It’s got a fairly standard premise, involving a couple of cops teaming up to take down a couple hundred bad guys, but that’s all you need when the quality of the action is so high. Oh, and beyond quality, Hard Boiled also satisfies when it comes to quantity, since it feels like most of this movie is action, and certain sequences go on for gloriously lengthy amounts of time.
4
‘The Raid 2’ (2014)
If you don’t usually like martial arts movies, for whatever reason, you should still check out The Raid 2, because it honestly elevates that action sub-genre and stands as one of the best of all time. Well, you should check out The Raid 2 if you’re okay with over-the-top violence, since this is one of the more gruesome action movies out there, to the point where it even pushes the boundaries of the R-rating.
Also, The Raid (2011) is similarly amazing, and probably more consistent with a better hook of a premise, but The Raid 2 contains more action and a greater variety of it, too, even if it might fall apart a little when it’s not depicting straightforward fighting/carnage. But it has a more ambitious scope narratively so it can have a wider range of action, meaning the trade-off is kind of worth it, in the end.
3
‘Kill Bill: Vol. 1’ (2003)
There are tons of Quentin Tarantino movies that get pretty violent, but only a handful count as genuine action movies. Of those, Kill Bill: Vol. 1 has the highest quantity of action, being the more bombastic and fast-paced half of a two-part revenge epic that’s about a woman waking up from a coma and setting out to systematically kill the team of assassins (and former co-workers) responsible for ruining her life.
Also, some Tarantino films are technically more complex and maybe even more “masterful” in the traditional sense, but Kill Bill: Vol. 1 is still absolutely amazing for what it is, and perhaps the quintessential style over substance movie. It gets away with it because the style is just that compelling and dazzling, and also because the second half of the story fleshes out most of the important characters so much more while featuring the kind of great dialogue other less action-packed Tarantino films are known for having.
2
‘Terminator 2: Judgment Day’ (1991)
Terminator 2: Judgment Day is, alongside The Godfather Part II and The Empire Strikes Back, one of those rare sequels that built on an already great first movie and potentially even exceeded it in quality. The Terminator (1984) did have a good deal of action, and was also well-paced, but it didn’t reach the same heights as a blockbuster that the sequel, released seven years later, did.
And that means if you want more of a horror-focused time travel story, you get that more in The Terminator, but if you want action and excitement above all else, that’s what you’ll find more of in Terminator 2: Judgment Day. James Cameron has made a handful of great sequels in his impactful (but rather small overall) filmography, and this is certainly one of them.
1
‘Die Hard’ (1988)
It’s boring to say Die Hard is the #1 anything when you’re talking about action movies in one way or another, but come on, it’s also Die Hard. This film puts an unlikely hero in a desperate situation, and it’s all so compact and tightly constructed, to the point where there are so many things about it that can be mentioned and/or praised before you get to pointing out/remembering that it’s also a Christmas movie of sorts.
It’s worthy of the top place here because it is indeed R-rated, and it also feels perfectly paced, and thereby remarkably exciting throughout. Die Hard is how you handle both the action and thriller genres at once, textbook example sort of thing, and even the idea of rewatching it yearly (say around Christmas-time; why not?) doesn’t sound like anything close to overkill.
