![]() ![]() In 2017, “Baby Driver” was an endangered species that deserves protecting - a director-driven original action film, that (correctly) assumes summer audiences are more interested in thrills than a VFX arms race where franchises try to out-spectacle last year’s model. The result is edge-of-your-seat action from a director whose films are a celebration of all the different ways movies can be cool and fun. The musical car chases were shot practically, as Wright mirrors the mathematical precision of Walter Hill’s “Driver,” so that the viewer completely understands how each of Baby’s virtuoso driving moves causes crashes, spin-outs and the destruction of anyone trying to catch him. The car chase scenes are conceived, written, visually designed, choreographed, shot and edited to perfectly chosen tracks. “Baby Driver” (2017)Įdgar Wright’s love for creating scenes set to foot-stomping tunes has always been satisfying, but with “Baby Driver’s” story of a young getaway driver (Ansel Elgort), he takes it to a whole other level. While you could make a strong case for listing “Shaun of the Dead” as one of the century’s best comedies, best horror movies, and best rom-coms, a certain sequence featuring Queen’s “Don’t Stop Me Now” secured its place in the pantheon of great action movies as well. The film pays tribute to the Romero zombie flicks that Wright clearly adores, but the film’s real brilliance lies in the decision to focus on the love story between Simon Pegg’s Shaun and his girlfriend Liz (Kate Ashfield). Everything you want from an Edgar Wright film - the killer soundtrack, the dense visual gags, Simon Pegg and Nick Frost - is already here. The first entry in Edgar Wright’s Cornetto Trilogy gave the film world its first real look at the talented British hyphenate, but Wright’s aesthetic practically emerged from the womb fully formed. ![]() “Shaun of the Dead” (2004) “Shaun of the Dead” Rogue Pictures/Everett Collection The story plays out in cleverly staged action scenes where the hero keeps having to overcome some increasingly ridiculous disadvantages - from fighting off assailants while in the middle of having sex to trying to fire a gun with broken fingers. In Davis’s rocket-paced riff on Woo, Clive Owen plays a roving stranger who saves a newborn from a cold-blooded killer (Paul Giamatti), and then, with the help of a sex worker (Monica Bellucci), tries to get to the bottom of a strange and far-reaching criminal and political conspiracy. Writer-director Michael Davis has said his “Shoot ‘Em Up” was inspired by the flashy gunplay in John Woo’s 1990s Hong Kong crime movies - and in particular the famous sequence in “Hard Boiled” where a cop protects the babies in a maternity ward. Many of this century’s best action movies have been made by connoisseurs for connoisseurs, paying homage to the classics while also reassembling their best elements into something new. “Shoot ‘Em Up” (2007) “Shoot ‘Em Up” ©New Line Cinema/Courtesy Everett Collection Here are the 55 Best Action Movies of the 21st Century, from “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon” to “ Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse.”Ĭhris O’Falt, Ryan Lattanzio, Christian Blauvelt, Noel Murray, Samantha Bergeson, Graham Winfrey, Proma Khosla, and Wilson Chapman also contributed to this list.ĥ4. Art that quickens the pulse is sometimes dismissed as lowbrow or inferior, but it doesn’t have to be that way. These are movies that have tried to show audiences something new. They’re called “motion pictures” after all, and these movies move - and couldn’t exist in any other medium. ![]() The movies below are some of the finest examples of pure cinema that this still-young century has to offer. Others opt to use action to tell more serious, human stories that just happen to feature thrilling fight sequences. Some gleefully take their action to self-consciously ridiculous extremes, from Jason Statham needing to keep his heart rate at hyper-adrenalized levels in “Crank: High Voltage” to Clive Owen and Monica Bellucci having sex while blowing away baddies in “Shoot ’Em Up,” to the endless platitudes about “family” in the “Fast” saga. That principle is what separates so many of the movies on IndieWire’s list from their weaker counterparts. John Woo: ‘So Many Terrible Things Happened’ During ‘Windtalkers’ Production, but I ‘Still Love’ the Film ![]()
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