Patrick's 20 Favorite Action Movies

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18. Way of the Gun (2000)

Written and directed by Usual Suspects scribe Christopher McQuarrie, Way of the Gun is a love letter to Sam Peckinpah and other classic western directors in a tale of two small time criminals (Bencio Del Torro and Ryan Phillipe) who kidnap a wealthy couple’s pregnant surrogate (Juliette Lewis) for ransom. Things go very badly for the two as they are pursued by two henchmen (Taye Diggs and Nicky Katt) and a veteran criminal (James Caan) and they realize they have stolen the wrong couple’s potential baby. McQuarrie’s script is great with rich dialogue and grounded if archetypal characters and his direction is tremendous for a first time effort. The action is well choreographed and executed relying on hyper-realistic movements, tactics and ballistics thanks to McQuarrie’s Navy Seal brother acting as technical advisor. The movie has an incredibly dark sense of humor that perfectly complements the otherwise gritty sense of realism and kicks off the movie with one of my favorite opening scenes ever as Phillipe’s Parker punches Sarah Silverman in the mouth after uttering one of the most hilariously filthy lines in history. Classic.

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6 Comments


  1. The Professional? I effing HATED that movie SO MUCH!!!! UGH. You know when you think a movie is just so bad that it makes you angry that you watched it? That is how I feel about The Professional.

    I just don’t DIG movies like that as a general rule.


    1. Given that you never saw the Matrix because it ‘didn’t look even remotely good’ I think it is safe to say this whole list is probably not material you would dig.


    1. GJ: As I said above: I tried to keep it to movies that didn’t stray too far into other their own sub-genre where I could, for instance I avoided primarily martial arts movies as they deserve their own list.

      Ninja Assassin definitely goes on the martial arts list which currently doesn’t exist.


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