16 Underrated Modern Action Movies That Pack A Punch

Written by John Wick creator Derek Kolstad, 2021's Nobody features Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul star Bob Odenkirk in his most action-packed and unexpected role yet. Odenkirk disarms the audience as the gentle family man Hutch Mansell who looks nothing like an action star. However, Hutch hides a secret: He used to be an assassin for the government. After he takes down a thug, he draws the ire of a powerful Russian mobster. Expectedly, fisticuffs and gunfights ensue.

Stuff's Alex Behan singled out Odenkirk for praise, especially for the actor putting in the work to become an action star. Behan wrote: "He’s a warmer, more human presence than Wick’s character, and while this movie pulls no punches, it’s a lot of fun and funny too." That's a largely accurate assessment of Nobody.

Compelling lead? Check. WWII? Check. Punching Nazis? Double check. In 2022's Sisu, Jorma Tommila plays gold prospector Aatami Korpi, who encounters a group of Germans who try to take his gold during WWII. Aatami, though, isn't about to roll over and give them what they want, and he engages in all-out war against them.

In many ways, Sisu is Rambo in a WWII setting. The Observer's Wendy Ide wrote: “Sometimes all you want is a grizzled Finnish gold prospector relentlessly slaughtering cartoon evil Nazis in a variety of inventive and messy ways.”

The zombie subgenre of horror plateaued after the success of The Walking Dead; after all, people can run away from the undead who crave BRRRRAAAAAAIIIINNNNNS only so many times. However, director Yeon Sang-ho found a way to reinvigorate it with a slice of originality in the 2016 South Korean action-survival horror Train to Busan. In the film, a group of people board the KTX traveling from Seoul to Busan like any other ordinary day. It all goes wonky when an infected woman boards the train and spreads the zombie disease to others. All of a sudden, the people are trapped and need to survive the outbreak on board.

Train to Busan intensifies the fear by using a claustrophobic setting. Bloody Disgusting's Joe Lipsett explained how the director's commitment to action is also what sets the movie apart from the others in the genre: “Sang-ho has a series of creative solutions to keep the momentum going, including several adrenaline-spiking set pieces that are destined to keep audiences on the edge of their seats and cheering.”

Sometimes, an action movie doesn't need to be too deep or original. All it needs is a bunch of soldiers shooting up a bunch of invisible aliens to kingdom come. Nic Mathieu's 2016 sci-fi-actioner Spectral didn't reinvent the genre, but by golly, it's an underrated gem of pure popcorn entertainment.

The Verge's Tasha Robinson highlighted Spectral's video game elements and said, "[W]hen the action clicks and the stakes are raised, feels like watching someone play a shooter." And who wouldn't want to do that?

Jennifer Lawrence took a risky role when she signed up for Francis Lawrence's 2018 film Red Sparrow. As a straight-up spy thriller, it sees Lawrence portray former ballerina Dominika Egorova, who becomes a Russian Intelligence officer. It also features twists and turns along the way to keep the audience on the edge of their seat in between the pulsating action sequences and foreboding sense of dread.

Red Sparrow isn't a game-changing spy film, but it doesn't need to be. Instead, it embraces darker, mature themes to deliver a more thought-provoking film than most may have imagined.

Look, Michael Bay isn't going to convince anyone he's the Messiah of Movies. The filmmaker possesses a specific visual flair and he commits to slo-mo explosions more than anyone else on the planet. The 2019 film 6 Underground is Bayhem turned up to 11, following a team of people who fake their deaths to form a vigilante team and, uh, blow up things. It also features Ryan Reynolds teaming up with Deadpool writers Paul Wernick and Rhett Reese once again.

While 6 Underground didn't convince the critics and Netflix labeled it as somewhat of a disappointment in the end, it has continued to be a popular film to revisit whenever someone needs escapism. Is it the greatest film of all time? Nah. Is it a fun, mindless time? For sure.