There's nothing like settling in to watch a great fight scene for the first time.
Maybe the whole movie has been building towards it, or maybe those fists started flying clear
out of the blue.
Either way, watching that initial blow land can make you flinch as if you were right there
in the scene.
"Mother...oh that was good."
But where do you start when it comes to unearthing fresh fights?
How about right here, with these fight scenes you really ought to watch at least once.
Within the first five minutes of Spenser Confidential, there are two fights, one of which happens
in a prison library.
In his first acting role, rapper Post Malone plays an inmate named Squeeb, who has a message
from the outside for Spenser right before he's released from prison: Get out of town
and don't come back.
"For me?
Well, it can't be from the guys in here.
They like me, right?"
To back up his threat, Squeeb summons his Aryan Nation goons, kicking off a three-against-one
brawl.
The mix of humor and violence in the scene perfectly sets up the rest of the film, which
follows the ex-con, ex-cop Spenser as he tries to solve the murder of two Boston police officers
while figuring out who framed him five years earlier.
Ever wondered what it would be like to step out of your car while driving through an automatic
car wash?
Well, look no further than Point Blank, an action thriller starring Anthony Mackie and
Frank Grillo.
Grillo plays a bad guy named Abe Guevara, who finds himself in the hospital after fleeing
a murder scene.
Meanwhile, Mackie; a mild-mannered nurse Paul Booker, was thrown into the middle of things
when Abe's skittish brother kidnaps his pregnant wife in order to force him to smuggle Abe
out of the ER.
The two form an unlikely alliance, fighting their way through a city full of corrupt cops
and criminals.
The soundtrack to Point Blank is full of surprising choices, to say the least.
At one point Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five's "The Message" plays while a tense Paul
prepares to bust Abe out of the hospital.
One place in particular the eclectic choice in music works is the car wash fight scene,
as a soaking wet Grillo gets pummeled by soap and spinning brushes while beating up a bad
cop to the tune of "The Rain" by Oran "Juice" Jones.
Face it: There's never been a bad time for a little synth-driven R&B.
Bright is a fantastical tale of two LAPD officers set in an alternate reality in which humans
and mythical creatures such as orcs, elves and fairies co-exist.
The urban fantasy action film follows human cop Daryl Ward and the nation's lone orc police
officer Nick Jakoby as they protect a young elf who's in possession of a magical wand.
Everyone wants to get their hands on the wand, even if it means killing for it.
That sends the partners on the run, evading fellow police officers and a gang of elven
extremists, who want the wand to summon the Dark Lord, so he can take over the world.
After numerous car chases and shootouts, Bright culminates in an all-out brawl between the
officers and the evil elves.
Ambushed and out of ammo, the officers use whatever they can to combat the enemy, from
foosball tables to refrigerators.
"Shoot her.
Nick, will you please shoot her?
Shoot!
Shoot her."
While Bright is far from Smith's first foray into action-cop territory, it's always worth
the price of admission to watch him step back into a familiar role - especially when you
throw orcs and elves into the mix.
"Hey!"
"Ohh s--- man, I thought you were dead."
"Ha ha.
Naw man, too many bills to pay."
It's still somewhat of an anomaly for a woman to star in a violent action film and not be
sexualized or play a damsel in distress, which is part of what sets Close apart from other
movies in the genre.
Even more intriguing is the fact that it's loosely based on the life of Jacquie Davis,
one of the world's top female bodyguards.
Close stars Noomi Rapace as Sam, a close protection officer assigned to protect a mining heiress
Zoe who inherits billions of dollars worth of shares when her father dies.
But just days after Zoe learns of the endowment, a group of men attempts to kidnap her, killing
everyone in their path.
Because of Sam's extensive skills, she and Zoe are able to escape - but not for long.
With several high-octane action sequences, including an underwater fight, Close delivers
the goods.
But the scene that will really make you hold your breath is when the kidnappers track down
the pair in a seedy hotel and snatch Zoe.
With both hands tied behind her back, Sam manages to give the kidnappers way more than
they bargained for.
There's no flashy music, and no quippy one-liners - just pure intensity that gives you a building
sense that the tables could turn at any moment, all while perfectly showcasing why Noomi Rapace
has made a well-deserved name for herself as an action heroine.
Immortals walk among us, according to the action film The Old Guard, and Charlize Theron
is leading the charge.
As legendary Andromache of Scythia - or just Andy, for short - Theron and her band of mercenaries
have made it their mission to battle evil in the modern-day world.
But just as their cover is blown and Andy's faith in their operation is waning, a new
immortal emerges.
Newcomer Nile Freeman discovers she can't be killed when her throat is gruesomely slashed
during a mission with her fellow U.S. Marines.
Andy eventually tracks Nile down, but she doesn't go peacefully.
Finding herself on a drug-smuggler's plane with few answers, Nile throws the first punch.
"You really want to do this, kid?"
As the fists fly and the plane rocks back and forth, Andy smiles and she spits out blood
- this girl has potential.
But eventually Andy quickly tires of the cat-and-mouse game, but Nile doesn't stop, so she breaks
Nile's arm and leg to slow her down.
Don't worry, she'll heal - immortals always do.
Chris Hemsworth is a one-man army in the action-thriller Extraction.
His character, Tyler Rake, is hired to rescue the kidnapped son of an imprisoned Indian
gangster.
But as soon as the boy is retrieved, things go awry when one of the gangster's henchmen,
Saju, violently attempts to intercept the extraction to avoid paying Rake.
So after annihilating the kidnappers and the corrupt police officers trying to capture
the boy, Rake faces off against Saju.
Rake encounters Saju in a rundown apartment building in Dhaka.
The two of them soon fall to the grimy pavement below.
As bystanders gawk and vehicles cut through, the two men draw knives and start jabbing.
As soon as Rake disarms his opponent and lands a kick that sends Saju flying, he's forcefully
struck by a car.
Even after that, Rake's mission isn't over yet.
Not only must Rake continue to evade Saju's attempts to swipe the crime boss' son, he
must also shield the boy from a $10 million bounty put on his head by a rival crime boss.
Who knew funnyman Kevin James could throw a punch?
That's the takeaway from True Memoirs of an International Assassin, starring James as
meek accountant-turned-writer Sam Larson.
Larson is mistaken for a ruthless assassin after his bestselling action novel is labeled
as nonfiction.
James dodges bullets, effortlessly takes down bad guys in hand-to-hand combat, and even
gets blown to bits by a rocket-propelled grenade.
But it all happens in Sam's head as he role-plays the elusive Ghost, the character from his
book.
"Ok, RPG's way over the top."
True Memoirs of an International Assassin has multiple scenes when James kicks butt
and takes names, but the first scene is the most memorable - mainly because you just don't
think of James as an action hero.
He's best known for sitcoms and goofy comedies, not for saving the girl and jumping out of
helicopters.
His highly stylized fantasies eventually bleed into the real world, where Sam is kidnapped
by terrorists who want to kill the president of Venezuela and think he's the man to do
it.
Sam bumbles along through the process with the help of a rogue DEA agent.
By the end, he discovers that there may actually be a little piece of Ghost in him.
"So, what is the Ghost gonna do?"
"He's gonna pee.
I gotta pee."
"Around the corner to the right."
Thanks for watching.
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