Underrated Action Movies Of The 2010s, Ranked

The premise of Dredd is simple. Two futuristic cops are on the bottom floor of an apartment complex closed to the outside world. On the top floor is a bad guy they need to capture or take out. Between them are 100 bad guys hell-bent on stopping the cops. Go.

To make it even better, most of the bad guys are hooked on a substance called slo-mo that - you guessed it - gives time the appearance of crawling by. Naturally, the bad guys seem to smoke the stuff right when Judge Dredd busts in the room, creating an unbelievable gory (and kind of beautiful?) action sequence.

Edge of Tomorrow is essentially Groundhog Day if Bill Murray was replaced by Tom Cruise and given a massive mech suit used to blow apart aliens. The action sequences are kinetic and fast-paced, but the real stars of the film are the mind-bending plot and the excellent humor.

The rewinding day storyline provides ample opportunity for hilarious gags while also showcasing a story with surprising depth and heart. Tom Cruise is great, Emily Blunt is great, the aliens are a super cool design, and watching everything blow up over and over is a highly rewatchable blast. 

There's a reason this movie has become a cult classic, and there are attempts to make a sequel despite the relatively disappointing box-office haul of the first film.

The Man from U.N.C.L.E. is based on a spy show from the '60s, so the film keeps the series' post-WWII setting and retains some of the goofy charm. 

The Man from U.N.C.L.E. might not blow you away with its action sequences, but each scene seems perfectly crafted for engaging fun.

Virtually every movie written by Shane Black is an action-filled blast, but even in Black's repertoire, The Nice Guys stands out. It is ostensibly a buddy cop film, but the pairing of a wildly emotive Ryan Gosling with a subdued, aggressive Russell Crowe is truly inspired.

The action sequences are predictably great, but the film's crowning achievement is its humor. It's hard not to get sucked in by Gosling's frequent high-pitched screams or his sweet relationship with his daughter. One of the film's greatest moments comes during a conversation between Gosling's character (Holland March) and his daughter (Holly March): 

Holly March: "Dad, there’s, like, wh*res here and stuff."
Holland March: "Sweetheart, how many times have I told you? Don’t say 'and stuff,' just say, 'Dad, there are wh*res here.'"

When The Raid: Redemption was released in 2011, it felt like a new bar was raised for action movies. The film introduced many audiences to the pencak silat fighting style, while the film set itself apart with its tight pacing and inventive action sequences.

Well, that was all upended just a few years later when The Raid 2: Berandal was released and blew the original out of the water. The fighting is crisper, the choreography is more inventive, the plot is legitimately compelling, and the body count is impossibly high. In short, The Raid 2 is one of the best action films not just of the past decade, but of all time.

When considering whether or not to watch Upgrade, it's important to note that the film's director Leigh Whannell is primarily a horror director best known for writing and starring in the first Saw film. Upgrade boasts incredible action, but it often results in some shocking gore. 

After the main character is left paralyzed, he agrees to have a computer chip implanted in his body that gives the ability to walk again - as well as intense fighting skills. As he searches for an answer, he brutally takes out everybody in his way. 

Again, it's definitely worth a watch, but it's absolutely not for the squeamish.