Having recently watched the french action film "The Nest", I was left surprised, inspired, and wanting.


So post any good action films that you know of (preferrably ones that are foreign).

Do american movies count as foreign for me? :p

Preferrably ones that aren't mainstream hollywood although you can list them too. I just want to see what other relatively unknown action films are out there.

Predator....¬_¬

No. The only movies that can be classified as foreign are those not made by Hollywood.

If you want good non-mainstream Hollywood action movies (not crap like Equilibrium), I highly recommend Steven Seagal's later "independent" works.

Léon / The Professional Well, it's half-foreign. Plus it has NAT... when she's 12.
Zatoichi was a good samurai film. It has Takeshi Kitano, thus it has to be good. It even got a cinema release here.

More Obscure:
Battle Royale. Lord of the Flies + The Running Man. Really good.
Kamikaze Taxi: Starts out a bit strange, but towards the second half it turns into a reverse Collateral of sorts. Sublime.
Pacte de Loups / Brotherhood of the Wolf Sleepy Hollow + Period drama + Kung-fu movie + naked Monica Bellucci. Sounds good, right? Not an especially good movie, it really shouldn't work, but somehow it does. Has its moments. Superficially entertaining if you remember to check in your brain.
Infernal Affairs Hong Kong cop movie. Gangster pretends to be a cop, Undercover Cop pretends to be a gangster. Cue gunbattle like in Heat.
Le Bossu . The 1997 version. Not strictly an action film either. But it has its moments when it gets very swash and very buckle. Plot is a bit contrived.

I'll try to remember some others. There's also a Korean Band of Brothers type miniseries that's supposedly quite good. I would also like to see this film eventually.

Although this movie is mainstream, it wasn't very popular, which, after seeing it, suprises me. I'm talking about Cronicles of Riddick. Vin Diesel really does a good job as Riddick. No one else could play this character. I was suprised to see that he was a producer for the movie, and he did voice work for the anime and game. All of this gives me a new found respect for Diesel.

I also respect the movie for its sets. After watching the movie, you might think that the sets were CG, but they actually physically built as much as they could. Lucas could learn from these people.

I'm not sure if it's what you'd consider "mainstream", but Brotherhood of the Wolf was an excellent movie.

Chungking Express
Boondock Saints
Im Juli
Lola Rennt

1.) Equilibrium was hardly mainstream

2.) Are you ****ing joking? There's a reason those movies were never in the theater.

Avenger: It's kind of hard to understand, but he never implied that Equilibrium was mainstream. He's just a Matrix fanboy

Anyways, I'd highly recommend Equilibrium. It's an acquired taste, but give it a shot. Boondock Saints is on my list right now.

- Casshern (http://imdb.com/title/tt0405821/)
Awesome CG and plot... really cool fighting.

- Mibu Gishiden (http://imdb.com/title/tt0359692/)
Beautifully done... wonderful story... katanas

- Appleseed (http://imdb.com/title/tt0401233/)
CG Anime cross-breed... beautiful. Especially good soundtrack (Paul Oakenfold, Boom Boom Satellites, Basement Jaxx, etc)
Anime-Source.com Editorial by one of the admins who lives in Japan... (btw, i'm an admin there... in case ya didn't know ;))

lessee... i could recommend some good action anime flicks... but you probably don't want those...
i did really enjoy Le Pacte de Loups (Brotherhood of the Wolf)
do NOT watch it dubbed...
in fact, never watch ANYTHING dubbed into english. always watch movies with subtitles. (=

Yeah, it's a much better experience subtitled. And 'Boondock Saints' is a definite must-see. And 'Bruce Campbell vs. Army of Darkness'. And though they're more comedies, I'd also recomend 'Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels' and 'Snatch'.

I would like to second Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, Snatch, and Equilibrium. I would recommend: Hero and the most recent Count of Monte Cristo (Not a LOT of action, but excellent none the less)

Terminator 1 or 2. Mainstream, but still good.

I can read. Leave me alone.

It's not quite a hollywood movie, and it's fairly foreign. You may have heard of it, but many haven't. It's a movie about a great journey, with hundreds of dead people, that spans over more than 3 hours. It has lots of sequences with breathtaking action. It's a movie that could be categorized as action and adventure. For those who don't know what I"m talking about, it's a little set of three movies made in the South Pacific known at the lord of hte rings. You may have heard of them, it's a very good trilogy, and I would definately reccomend it.

Hard Boiled and The Killer are great if you're after some full-on Hong Kong action. Extreme body counts and lotsa cool gun-play.

I saw "Bloodsport," a martial arts one a few days ago, it was entertaining for a movie staring Jean Claude van Dam.

I also nominate Boondock Saints, as well as Pulp Fiction, Reservoir Dogs, or anything by Tarantino.

Also look into Heat, and Taxi Driver.

Battle Royale

ahh not foreign....but i loved these ones

man on fire
the hunted

Battle Royale was pretty neat. Don't watch Battle Royale 2, though, it was one of the dumbest things I've seen in a while. Maybe it makes sense to Japanese people, but it sure didn't to me.

If you like old Japanese films, Seven Samurai is really good.

Besides Seven Samurai, there's also Yojimbo and Sanjuro (though Sanjuro may have a bit more dialogue than action)

Also, does Jackie Chan's old Hong Kong stuff count as foreign? I highly recommend Who Am I? and Supercop (I think that's what they were called)

Finally, pretty much any old Kung Fu movie with really fast movement and quick shots is gold in my book.

Last week or so I saw Tai Chi (could have another name in America) with Jet Li. That movie was great.

This film is good. Very good.

Yeah, the Professional is pretty good. If you want to see a good Jackie-Chan action flick, look up Legend of the Drunken Master.

I haven't read any of the other posts, but if anyone said the Boondock Saints don't see it; it's terrible.

Last Action Hero
<.<
>.>
*puts on kevlar and runs through the gauntlet*

Yeah, if you're looking for good action film that's not mainstream, I would of course recommend Kill Bill Vols. I and II. A great fix if you need a great movie. I don't know if this would be considered mainstream, but the Bourne Identity was an awesome flick, and has a great flavor to it.

Are you serious? How could you not like Boondock Saints?

Boondock Saints was awesome. Don't **** with the Irish.

Rambo...

That movie was fun to laugh at. It didn't take itself seriously at all.

It was a terrible movie, I didn't even think the shootouts were any good. I guess you could call Lock Stock action, dunno if it's been mentioned here yet. Lock Stock rocks.

All of those movies were ****ing awesome. Especially Monte Cristo.