Action movies don’t get the same kind of respect as straight dramas, which are considered to be prestige projects. Actiontends to be dismissed as pure entertainment, but there are plenty of action movies out there that rank among the finest masterpieces in the history of cinema, likeDie Hard,The Killer, andRaiders of the Lost Ark.
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There’s a lot of underrated craft that goes into making a great action movie. Directing exciting action sequences isn’t easy; neither is making fake violence feel real. These are some of the greatest action movie directors of all time, as well as their highest-rated movies on Rotten Tomatoes.
10Richard Donner – Superman: The Movie (94%)
Richard Donner isn’t exclusively an action filmmaker, as he also helmed the adventure comedyThe Gooniesand the supernatural horror thrillerThe Omen, but he’s best known for his work in the action genre. He directed all fourLethal Weaponmovies with Mel Gibson and Danny Glover.
WithSuperman: The Movie,still one of the best superhero movies ever made, Donner first telegraphed to Hollywood studios that comic book movies were a viable source of income.
9James Cameron – The Terminator (100%)
WithAliens,Terminator 2, andTrue Lies, James Cameron has more than proven his ability to direct remarkable action sequences. Not every Cameron movie is a masterpiece, buthe hasn’t made an all-out terrible movie(except for his debut featurePiranha II, which he was fired from, so it doesn’t really count).
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The idea for his most critically acclaimed movie, sci-fi neo-noirThe Terminator,came to Cameron in a fever dream. He saw a metallic skeleton emerging from flames and when he woke up, he conceived the story of a killer cyborg going back in time to terminate the mother ofthe future leader of the resistance against the machines.
8The Wachowskis – Bound (89%)
With a dazzling visual style and a penchant for high-octane thrills, the Wachowskis rank among the most iconic action movie directors in the world.The Matrixtrilogy iseasily their most revered work, questioning the fabric of reality with plenty of car chases, explosions, and gunfights along the way.
The Wachowskis’ top-rated movie on Rotten Tomatoes isBoundat 89%.The Matrixis just one point behind at 88%.Boundis an erotic crime thriller about two women having an affair and scheming to steal millions from the mob.
7Tony Scott – True Romance (93%)
When Tony Scott got a hold ofQuentin Tarantino’s first couple of screenplays, he wanted to directReservoir Dogs. Of course, Tarantinowanted to directReservoir Dogsas his debut movie, so he allowed Scott to directTrue Romanceinstead. WhileTrue Romanceisn’t an all-out action film, it’s unsurprising that its shootouts and fight scenes are so intense.
Scott dedicated most of his career to the action genre, and ended up contributing some of its greatest entries, likeTop Gun,Unstoppable, andEnemy of the State.
6Jackie Chan – Police Story (93%)
In addition to being one of the world’s greatest stars of action movies, Jackie Chan is one of the world’s greatest directors of them, too. This is because he’s a perfectionist who gets take after take of each stunt until it’s just right. And since he’s the star in front of the camera doing these stunts over and over again, it’s fair for him to expect the same from his fellow stunt performers.
Hailing from the school of Keaton and Chaplin, Chan has masterfully used action for the purposes of visual comedy throughout his career. His highest-rated movie isPolice Story, an action classic that spawned a lucrative franchise.
5John McTiernan – Die Hard (94%)
John McTiernan is responsible forthe mother of all action movies,Die Hard, whose single-location hostile takeover storyline and everyman protagonist have been copied so many times that it’s spawned a whole “Die Hardin a…” subgenre.
McTiernan also directed Arnold Schwarzenegger in the blood-soaked, sci-fi-tingedPredator, brought Jack Ryan to the screen inThe Hunt for Red October, and returned to theDie Hardfranchise for its best sequel,Die Hard with a Vengeance.
4Kathryn Bigelow – The Hurt Locker (97%)
Kathryn Bigelow has brought all kinds of action to the big screen, from the absurd popcorn thrills ofPoint Breaktothe visceral true-to-life tensionofZero Dark Thirty.
Her most famous movie – and her highest-rated work on Rotten Tomatoes – isThe Hurt Locker, an Iraq War thriller that beatAvatarto Best Picture.
3Akira Kurosawa – Seven Samurai (100%)
Quite possibly the most influential filmmaker who ever lived, Akira Kurosawa directed a ton of movies that are widely considered to be among the greatest ever made:Ran,Yojimbo,Rashomon,Throne of Blood,The Hidden Fortress– he’s a true master of the form.
While Kurosawa didn’t necessarily consider himself to be an action director, he did originate several tropes of action movies, like opening with the hero in an action sequence that isn’t related to the plot. His masterpieceSeven Samurai, which has a perfect 100% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, set the template forThe Magnificent Sevenand countless other remakes.
George Miller created theHappy Feetfranchise and helmedBabe: Pig in the City, but he’s an action director through and through. He revolutionized low-budget action cinema with his sleeper hitMad Max, later topping himself with a couple of awesome sequels (and one mediocre sequel).
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The most renowned entry in the originalMad Maxtrilogy wasThe Road Warrior, but Miller blew his own work out of the water when he finally got the fourth movie,Fury Road, out of development hell andturned it into a modern action masterpiece.
With slow-motion, glorious bloodshed, and delightfully unrealistic gunplay poetically woven into his action sequences, John Woo has helmed some of the genre’s most mind-blowing masterpieces:Hard Boiled,The Killer,A Better Tomorrow– the list goes on.
Woo’s influence knows no bounds. Filmmakers such as Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez have noted Woo’s inspiration. The director’s top-rated movie on Rotten Tomatoes isBullet in the Head, with a perfect 100% score.
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