There was no shortage of action movies released during the 1980s, with some of the best and most popular of all time within the genre – including the likes of Die Hard, The Terminator, Aliens, and Predator – coming out during this decade. Whether it’s fair or not, the ’80s tends to be looked back on as a time of excess and over-the-top entertainment. Such things pair well with the action genre, as those who watch such films want to see explosions, big action scenes, and various other exciting things.
It’s too difficult to assess whether the action genre genuinely peaked during the decade in question, but there were enough great action films released between 1980 and 1989 that many feel underrated, or lacking the sort of love they deserve. What follows are some of the most underrated action movies of the ’80s, ranked below, starting with the fairly good/overlooked and ending with the really good/overlooked.
10 ‘L.A. Takedown’ (1989)
Director: Michael Mann
Six years before the crime/action epic Heat came to fruition, filmmaker Michael Mann made a proof-of-concept TV movie called L.A. Takedown, which Heat was essentially a big-budget remake of. Though L.A. Takedown is about half as long, the core story is close to identical, following an ambitious detective who’ll stop at nothing to track down and arrest an equally ambitious bank robber who’s in the middle of planning a large heist.
That’s all to say that L.A. Takedown obviously isn’t as good as the movie that came six years later, but it’s fascinating to watch for anyone who’s a fan of Heat. It might not satisfy compared to action movies made with a large budget, but L.A. Takedownworks surprisingly well for a TV movie made on a budget, and delivers a strong central action set piece with the extended bank robbery/street shootout sequence (that, again, was topped in Heat, but it’s still good here).
9 ‘Zatoichi: Darkness Is His Ally’ (1989)
Director: Shintarō Katsu
Those who are particularly well-versed in the samurai genre will have undoubtedly heard of the Zatoichi film series, but more broadly speaking, it feels like one that tends to get overlooked. Perhaps there are only so many people who see the idea of watching 26 movies about a blind masseur/swordsman having adventures in the early 1800s as an enticing one, but anyone who likes samurai action should check at least some of these films out.
Most Zatoichi movies were made during the 1960s and ’70s, with Zatoichi: Darkness Is His Ally serving as a kind of epilogue to the whole thing, being released 16 years after the 25th film (though there was a TV series in between these movies). It’s not the greatest Zatoichi film, but it does deliver great action and works as a pretty good send-off for anyone who’s a fan of the series, notably also being directed by series star Shintaro Katsu.
8 ‘Tiger on the Beat’ (1988)
Director: Lau Kar-leung
With a nice lean runtime of 88 minutes, Tiger on the Beat wastes essentially no time in delivering thrills and fantastically fast-paced action sequences, one after another. Matching the speed and brevity of the movie is its fairly simple premise, as it’s essentially a buddy cop movie about an unlikely duo who engage in ridiculous banter while clashing with drug smuggling criminals they’re assigned to take down.
Tiger on the Beat has a seasoned director with Lau Kar-leung, who’s best known for his martial arts movies, though this film shows he also knows how to shoot a good shootout or two. This film’s also a good showcase for a young Chow Yun-fat, who’d go on to become even more popular an action star in the following years, thanks to starring in fantastic John Woo films like The Killer and Hard Boiled.
7 ‘The Soldier’ (1982)
Director: James Glickenhaus
The Soldier is narratively thin and perhaps some would say a little stupid, but it’s also fully aware of what kind of film it is and has no pretensions when it comes to delivering anything but action. Its stripped-back approach and the way it’s light on narrative can make it almost feel like an example of an arthouse action movie, as it defies various tropes and conventions and feels unique in the process, to say the least.
As for what the relatively thin plot entails: there’s a group of terrorists who are threatening to blow up an oil field in Saudi Arabia, which prompts authorities to send in a skilled soldier and his slightly less skilled team to stop them. Like the aforementioned Tiger on the Beat, The Soldier clocks in at under 90 minutes long and this ends up being one of its strengths, as it does what it needs to, proves entertaining, and then wraps up before it runs the risk of getting tedious.
6 ‘Killer Constable’ (1980)
Director: Kuei Chih-Hung
If one was unwilling to call Killer Constable one of the best martial arts movies of all time, then maybe calling it one of the most underrated of all time would still be on the table. For sure, if you’re looking for nothing but straightforward, bloody, and expertly choreographed martial arts action, Killer Constable delivers it in spades while admittedly not having a great deal that’s compelling thematically or narratively.
Still, who needs it if the most important scenes in a film like this are great? The story is simple and certainly benefits from avoiding anything convoluted (not all martial arts movies do this well), because it involves a fearsome constable hunting down robbers who’ve made off with a massive fortune. It’s explosive and almost always entertaining stuff, and even those who don’t tend to love martial arts movies should still find things to appreciate within Killer Constable.
5 ‘Streets of Fire’ (1984)
Director: Walter Hill
Neo-noir movies don’t get much more bombastic than Streets of Fire, which pairs certain film noir tropes with a somewhat cheesy story (that’s nevertheless charming in its simplicity), and throws in some bold colors and plenty of very ‘80s music for good measure. Narratively, it’s thin, but that’s okay, because it doesn’t strive to do more story-wise than simply be about one man’s quest to rescue his ex-lover after she’s rather abruptly kidnapped.
Streets of Fire uses this set-up to stage some fairly ridiculous action scenes, and when people aren’t fighting or yelling at each other, the movie also features plenty of elaborately staged music numbers. It’s an odd film, feeling kind of childish with its story and message while getting fairly dark with its world and violence, but there’s definitely enough to it to make it a fascinating watch. Ultimately, it impresses more often than it proves confusing, though it does still do a little of both.
4 ‘Subway’ (1985)
Director: Luc Besson
Luc Besson’s a filmmaker whose best-known movies came out in the 1990s (like Leon: The Professional and The Fifth Element), with 1985’s Subway being one of the director’s more under-appreciated efforts. It’s a very slick and stylish thriller with a good amount of action to boot, and follows various criminals and unusual characters who all interact and clash within a strange underground world in the vast Paris Metro.
Those who enjoy the world-building present in the John Wick series might get a kick out of Subway, because it has a good deal of fun showcasing an almost fantastical and exciting world that’s just out of view of everyday life. Subway is more about interesting characters doing weird things and sometimes getting involved in action scenes than it is telling a concrete story, but the overall vibe and its infrequent but impressive action set pieces make it more than worth watching.
3 ‘Miracles’ (1989)
Director: Jackie Chan
No one will deny that Jackie Chan is one of the greatest ever gifts to the action genre, but he’s starred in and directed so many iconic films that some of them ultimately get overshadowed. This could be said about Miracles, as while it’s not his absolute greatest film by any means, it is perhaps his most ambitious, large-scale, and intriguing, both for the action it provides and for the other things it tries to do.
Like many Jackie Chan movies, Miracles does combine action and comedy to great effect, but it’s also something of a crime/gangster movie and a farcical romance film on top of an action/comedy flick. Even those who enjoy the movie might well agree that Miracles doesn’t entirely come together, but much of it works more than you’d expect (especially considering the film’s been so overshadowed and not widely discussed), and, at the end of the day, any movie featuring action scenes with Jackie Chan in his physical prime is worth watching by default, especially for action movie fans.
2 ‘Runaway Train’ (1985)
Director: Andrei Konchalovsky
Few settings are as appropriate for action/thriller movies as the humble train (just look at the latest Mission: Impossible, where its final act was set on and around one, and proved to be the best part of the film). Action movies on trains are even better when the train is out of control and putting people in constant danger; see Tony Scott’sUnstoppable for a good modern example, even if the definitive/classic example might well be 1985’s Runaway Train.
The plot here sees two escaped convicts board a train, hoping it’ll help their getaway, yet they’re not so lucky, considering it starts running out of control. It then becomes about the pair trying to survive, along with a third person who happens to be on the train, tension and danger continually building throughout. It’s a beautiful-looking movie and still proves exciting when watched today; some of the filmmaking and technical qualities on offer are quite spectacular, really.
1 ‘The Professional’ (1981)
Director: Georges Lautner
Many great crime/action/thriller movies from France came out in the 1950s and 1960s, and legendary French actor Jean-Paul Belmondo starred in a bunch of them. Yet 1981’s The Professional shows that by no means were such movies exclusive to those decades, and neither was Belmondo’s capacity to play an action movie protagonist, given his performance in this film was one of his all-time best.
It’s essentially a revenge movie where certain people wrong a secret service agent they really shouldn’t have, and though he’s sentenced to prison, he escapes and vows vengeance on all the people responsible for putting him there. It’s a sleek movie that’s always moving forward and continually intense, taking this kind of direct premise and doing great things with it. As such, The Professional feels up there as perhaps one of the best 1980s action movies that doesn’t get quite enough love.
