10 Cheesy Action Movies That Are Still Great

Singer and songwriter Ratinoff, whose music channels a love of vintage ’80s rock ’n’ roll, shares ten cheesy but great action movies. These are the films where outrageous fight scenes, impossible one-liners and heroic mullets are part of the charm.

The list is personal rather than scientific. Some picks are deliberately ridiculous, while others earned their place through martial arts, nostalgia or sheer rewatchability.

1. Samurai Cop

My first pick is Samurai Cop. It was the most recent bad-but-fun movie I had watched when I made this list, which helped push it to number one. Matt Hannon plays the title character, and the movie’s awkward dialogue, over-the-top fights and famously inconsistent hair are all part of the experience. It is awesomely bad in exactly the way a cult action movie should be.

2. I Come in Peace

Matthias Hues makes a wonderfully excessive action villain as an alien with a memorable calling card, while Dolph Lundgren supplies the heroics. The movie is packed with the sort of one-liners and visual choices that immediately identify it as a product of its era. Hues’ long bleached-blond hair alone deserves supporting billing.

3. Bloodsport

Bloodsport stars Jean-Claude Van Damme and remains one of the most recognizable martial-arts movies of its era. Bolo Yeung makes an imposing villain, the tournament structure keeps everything moving, and the fight scenes are the reason to watch. You can see where the story is going, but that does not make getting there any less entertaining.

4. Boyka: Undisputed

Yuri Boyka is the fictional fighter played by Scott Adkins in the Undisputed series. I was introduced to Adkins through Boyka, and what immediately stood out was how completely he inhabited the character. More importantly for an action movie, Adkins is a phenomenal martial artist and makes the fights worth watching.

5. Big Trouble in Little China

John Carpenter’s Big Trouble in Little China mixes action, fantasy, martial arts and comedy, with Kurt Russell, Kim Cattrall, Dennis Dun and James Hong. Russell’s Jack Burton charges through the movie with supreme confidence whether or not the situation warrants it. The exaggerated effects and absurd action are not flaws here; they are a major part of why the movie is so much fun.

6. Showdown in Little Tokyo

This one is tied directly to childhood nostalgia for me. I remember seeing the poster with Dolph Lundgren and Brandon Lee, begging my parents to take me and eventually seeing it with a friend. As a kid, I thought it was incredible. Watching it years later made its excesses much clearer, but that only added another layer of entertainment. Lundgren playing an LAPD cop steeped in Japanese culture while kicking his way through Los Angeles is peak early-’90s action-movie logic.

7. American Ninja

When I first saw American Ninja as a kid, I remember thinking Michael Dudikoff must actually be a ninja. Dudikoff plays Joe Armstrong, an Army private with martial-arts skills who becomes entangled in a conspiracy involving an arms dealer and an army of ninjas. Steve James is a standout as Curtis Jackson. The premise is unapologetically pulpy, which is exactly why it belongs on this list.

8. Best of the Best

Best of the Best is the emotional pick. The story follows an American martial-arts team preparing to compete against South Korea, forcing the fighters to put aside their differences and function as a team. Eric Roberts, James Earl Jones and Chris Penn help give the movie more dramatic weight than you might expect from the setup. It still gets me.

9. Only the Strong

I loved this movie as a kid because it introduced me to capoeira, the Afro-Brazilian martial art at the center of the story. Mark Dacascos plays Louis Stevens, a former Green Beret who returns to his old Miami high school and uses capoeira to reach a group of troubled students. It is not subtle, but the martial arts and fight scenes make it memorable.

10. The Last Dragon

I first watched The Last Dragon on VHS at a friend’s house in elementary school. The 1985 martial-arts comedy follows Bruce “Leroy” Green, played by Taimak, on his quest to reach the final level of martial-arts mastery known as “the Glow.” Add Vanity, Sho’nuff and a gloriously heightened version of New York City, and you have a movie that understands exactly how entertaining larger-than-life characters can be.

What ties these cheesy action movies together is not perfection. It is personality. The rough edges, oversized performances and endlessly memorable moments are exactly why they remain so much fun to revisit.

If you want another movie list after the punches stop flying, try our 10 fall movies for cozy autumn nights.