The Best Action DVDs
We showed you ours. Now you've showed us yours. Here are the letters we didn't have room for regarding our picks for the 100 Best Action Movies on DVD.
PREMIERE's picks for the 100 Best Action Movies on DVD (alphabetical order from the February 2003 issue)
Aliens
Assault on Precinct 13
Battleship Potemkin
Ben-Hur
Blackhawk Down
Blade Runner
Bonnie and Clyde
Das Boot
The Bourne Identity
Braveheart
Breakdown
The Bridge on the River Kwai
Brother
Bullitt
Clear and Present Danger
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
Desperado
Die Hard
Die Hard 2
The Dirty Dozen
Dirty Harry
Diva
Earth vs. the Flying Saucers
Enter the Dragon
Escape From New York
Excalibur
La Femme Nikita
A Fistful of Dollars
The French Connection
From Russia With Love
The Fugitive
The Getaway
Gladiator
Goldfinger
The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly
The Great Escape
The Guns of Navarone
Hard-Boiled
Heat
The Hidden Fortress
The Hunt for Red October
Independence Day
Jason and the Argonauts
The Killer
L.A. Confidential
The Last of the Mohicans
Lawrence of Arabia
Lethal Weapon
Lethal Weapon 2
The Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring
Mad Max
The Magnificent Seven
The Matrix
Nighthawks
North by Northwest
Once Upon a Time in China
The Outlaw Josey Wales
Patriot Games
Patton
Platoon
Predator
Rambo: First Blood Part II
Rservoir Dogs
Rio Bravo
The Road Warrior
Robocop
Ronin
Run Lola Run
Runaway Train
Saving Private Ryan
Set it Off
The Seven Samurai
Shaft
The 7th Voyage of Sinbad
Spartacus
Speed
Spider-Man
Stagecoach
Starship Troopers
The Taking of Pelham One Two Three
The Terminator
Terminator 2: Judgment Day
Thelma and Louise
Three Kings
T-Men
Total Recall
The Train
Training Day
True Romance
Twelve O'Clock High
Unforgiven
The Untouchables
The Wages of Fear
The Warriors
The Wild Bunch
Yojimbo
You Only Live Twice
Zulu
READER'S LETTERS
While I'm sure you will get many letters suggesting additions to your "100 Best Action DVDs list", I could not believe that both "Jaws" and "Raiders of the Lost Ark" were not among your selections. Stephen Spielberg illustrated the quintessential ways of grabbing the audience's attention: "Jaws" with its lurking menace building to the climax and "Raiders" which pops out of the chute from the first scene and never lets up. Along with "Star Wars", they set the standard by which modern action movies are measured. Thanks for listening.
Lance Boggs
Corona Del Mar, CA
I READ " PREMIERE " MAGAZINE ALOT . NORMALLY YOU ARE RIGHT ON WITH YOUR ARTICLES . BUT WHOEVER WROTE THE ARTICLE " 100 BEST ACTION MOVIES " MUST BE BRAIN DEAD . I CAN'T BELIEVE THAT HE DIDN'T INCLUDE , " RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK " . HAVING OTHER HARRISON FORD MOVIES ON THE LIST WITHOUT INCLUDING " RAIDERS " IS AN OUT RIGHT CRIME . AFTER READING THIS LETTER , IF THERE IS AN OPENING FOR HIS JOB I WOULD BE VERY HAPPY TO APPLY.
BOB WOLOZANSKI
MERRILLVILLE, IN.
I really enjoyed your list of 100 Best Action DVD's, and was pleasantly surprised to see Three Kings and Ronin on it, two movies that were unfortunately overlooked in the theatres. On the other hand, including Die Hard 2 on the list may have nullified it entirely. While Aliens and Terminator 2 ingeniously built on the original stories, while going off in a new direction, Die Hard 2 showed why it's never a good idea to simply try to remake the original. Plus, it was directed by Renny Harlin, which should have disqualified it from your list anyway. Also, I couldn't find The Professional on the list. I assume it was a typo.
Timothy Wearing
Vancouver B.C.
Loved your "100 Best Action Movies on DVD." I have seen 91% of them, own 71%, and 4% - to my surprise I never heard of. It was great to see included, under appreciated movies like Ronin and Saboteur, less obvious but right on choices like Diva, and my great childhood loves - Harryhausen's Jason, and Sinbad. A few whines: Battleship Potemkin and Wages of Fear are great classics with action scenes, but are not truly action movies (Wages is suspense). Where was Errol Flynn in The Sea Hawk, Robin Hood, or Captain Blood? Unbelievably missing in action from the list were Raiders of the Lost Ark, Return of the Jedi, and the Master of non-stop action himself - Jackie Chan - in Supercop, First Strike, or Who Am I?
John M. King
Mill Valley, CA
While I enjoyed your 100 Best Action Movies on DVD, I wonder how you could have left out Jackie Chan's Police Story? Or any Jackie Chan movie out on DVD for that matter?
George Roush
North Hollywood, CA
Thoroughly enjoyed reading the latest issue of PREMIERE (Feb 2003) and the 100 BEST ACTION MOVIES ON DVD backflip section. But where was the DVD of ATTACK OF THE CLONES on the list? I know that it's not all that popular with your high brow reviewers (ABOUT SCHMIDT and FRIDA it ain't- and it will never win any OSCARS - it doesn't have the schmaltz factor you need to qualify!!), but to miss it out- guys, that breathless last forty five minutes of clone wars, lightsaber duels and decapitation is superb. It makes the over rated SPIDERMAN movie's action look like the Mickey Mouse club. C'mon folks, when you update that list, make sure CLONES is on there!!!
SCOTT WELLER
London, England
Looking through your list of "The 100 Best Action Movies on DVD" (February 2003 issue), I am very impressed by your choices. You've got some no-brainers in there, like "Lethal Weapon" and "Terminator 2", but you also did your homework with picks like "Hard Boiled" and "Ronin". Kudos! However, one choice baffles me: "The Bourne Identity". You must have seen some other movie starring Matt Damon and Franka Potente, because the one I saw was forgettable, lightweight, mainstream fluff. Watching the ad on TV for the upcoming DVD release, I still couldn't recall any scene that was memorable or spectacular. Any of the following action movies would have been worthy replacements for "The Bourne Identity":
"The Rock"
"Mission: Impossible 2"
"Face/Off"
"The Professional"
"Enemy of the State"
Still, 99 out of 100 ain't bad!
Ken Hwang
Montreal, Canada
After reading your recent listings for the top 100 action DVD's of all time, I have to ask who did the rankings for your magazine???? How do you leave off Pulp Fiction,The Usual Suspects,Face-Off,& Con-Air. At the same time how in the world do you put LA Confidential on there? The last thing that movie was was good, let alone an action movie. You also put Starship Troopers on there??? All in all, a good listing, but some of those should have been given a second look.
Gary Magnus
Lindenhurst, NY
Thanks for making "100 Best Action Movies on DVD" a truly representational list. I have been disenchanted often, because many contemporary lists ignore anything that has been 'out' longer than fifteen minutes. I love our movie heritage, and I am hopeful that DVD's will bring even more of that into our homes. Betty Grable, Rita Hayworth, Alice Faye, Abbot & Costello, and The Three Stooges.....ALL provide delicious entertainment.
Richard Alan Dodge
Just got your February issue and thought your list of the 100 Best was pretty complete. BUT - I have to ask you your definition of "action movie" if you include 'Training Day' (a fairly typical cop flick if it weren't for Denzel Washington) and you totally omit Ron Howard's absolutely terrific 'Backdraft'! I am only sorry that the DVD of this movie has no commentary, either by Mr. Howard himself or by Scott Glenn, Kurt Russell and William Baldwin! As far as action sequences go, this 'hot' movie cannot be beat! So can we make it '101 Best Movies'?
The other MAJOR omission from the issue - whether in talking about the Oscar race or anything else, for that matter - is Kevin Kline and the wonderful 'The Emperor's Club'. Golden Globes at least gave him a nomination last year for 'Life as a House'(Oscar sadly did not)...This year he's being 'dissed' again. What does he have to do to get the recognition he so richly deserves??? New York may appreciate this really fine actor but it is obvious that Hollywood does not.
Thank you!
Jill Hadden
Norcross, GA
Once again an entertainment magazine has come out with a best DVD list. Premiere magazine should have simply called it, "the best action movies," with the choices it made. The only thing the article told me was that the people who made it, don't own or even watch DVD's. If they had they would have compiled a list that true DVD fans could appreciate. This would account for special features such as commentary, deleted scenes, making of features and so on. John Carpenters, THE THING, which is loaded with special features would have been a better choice than ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK which has none. Why wasn't the double DVD of DESPERADO/EL MARIACHI chosen instead of the just plain DESPERADO? Other mistakes that were made was choosing SAVING PRIVATE RYAN, PREDATOR, and THE GETAWAY, among others. Are they great action movies? Absolutely. Are they great DVD's? Absolutely not.
There were a few good choices. CROUCHING TIGER, HIDDEN DRAGON, GLADIATOR, RUN LOLA RUN and LORD OF THE RINGS. These were the exception of the list. Better choices to add would have been FIGHT CLUB, HIGHLANDER, SERIES 7 and IN THE LINE OF FIRE.
Those fans that collect DVD's do so under the condition that it contains features that accentuate the movie even more. I for one do not even buy a DVD that does not have a commentary track. Unfortunately these are usually action movies made by such directors as Steven Spielberg, James Cameron and Michael Bay, even though he releases a special edition DVD, it is usually a year or two after the initial release of the first DVD of the film that has no special features. So a person that bought the first one will have to go back and purchase it again, which by the way does not include me.
The next time Premiere magazine decides to do a list such as this, consult with people that actually know what they are referring to.
Glenn Townsend
Tucson, AZ.
Your list of the 100 Best Action Movies on DVD included Paul Verhoeven's less-than-faithful bastardization of Heinlein's Starship Troopers but somehow managed to miss Norman Jewison's incredibly exciting and disturbing Rollerball from 1975 and skipped over David Fincher's Fight Club. While I enjoyed your list in general, these gaffes put me off my lunch.
Steve Honeywell
DeKalb, IL
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