The 8 Best Action Movies of 2015

There needs to be a Best Action Movie Oscar. Especially when 2015 made a crazy-strong case for it, with help from Tom Cruise, Iron Man and Mad Max. As everyone else worries about awards bait, we're ranking the year's best action flicks. 

'Run All Night'

This modern-day upgrade/Xerox of "Road to Perdition" trades tommy guns for glocs as the incomparable Liam Neesons struggles to save his son from his gangster boss' hit squad. It's not the worst, or best, action movie ever made, but it delivered some gritty gunplay and fisticuffs. 

'San Andreas'

The only thing that could make this guilty pleasure better would be if Dwayne Johnson literally punched an earthquake. This cheesy summer blockbuster pits super rescue chopper pilot The Rock against tidal waves and aftershocks as he struggles to save his family from the Richter Scale's worst nightmare. If you don't love that finale, involving a motor boat rescue through the flooded streets of San Fran, you're some kind of wrong person. 

'Spy'

Yes, it's a comedy with action - try not to faint. Really inventive action scenes, by the way, minus some shoddy green screen work toward the end. Melissa McCarthy and director Paul Feig subvert the action comedy genre here, delivering one of the summer's most underrated (and funny) entertainments. 

"Furious 7'

The seventh installment in the popular franchise relies too much on CG-enhanced set pieces than previous entries, but the movie more than makes up for it with sports cars parachuting out of planes and The Rock making nice with a mini-gun. 

'Ant-Man'

This uneven base-hit for Marvel sorely lacks original director Edgar Wright's sensibilities, but they are all over the pre-viz'd action scenes that made the final cut. Score bonus for having two really great, inventive action beats involving a fight inside a briefcase and Ant-Man, being chased by bullets, doing an action hero slide across the hood of a miniature car. 

'Avengers: Age of Ultron'

No, it's no where near as perfectly entertaining as the first film. But we still like it. Because Hulkbuster vs. Hulk. Because Ultron vs. The Vision. Because the Avengers vs. a Hydra fortress. We're we're not the only ones who want to re-watch this movie right now, right?

'Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation'

Ethan Hunt's most entertaining and engaging mission yet may be his best, as Tom Cruise's big-budget, "I Do My Own Stunts" showcase delivered some of the most tension-filled set pieces of this or any year. From hanging off the side of a flying plane, to an underwater heist where our hero literally dies for a few minutes, "Rogue Nation" instantly achieves "gets better every time you watch it" status. 

'Mad Max: Fury Road'

"Fury Road" changed things. It appealed to more than just fanboys, it achieved more than just visceral, emotional genre entertainment. It became iconic the instant it blazed onto the screen, forever earning its spot in the Action Movie Hall of Fame.