Final Round
Here we are. The final round of the top ten martial arts movies of the last decade. If you haven’t, be sure to go back and check out part one and part two of this series. This time around we’re counting down the top three spots on the list. Let’s get into the very best of the decade.
Top 10 (Final Round)
3. Scott Adkins – Ninja 2: Shadow of a Tear (2013)
Scott Adkins returns to the role of Casey Bowman. Having survived the events of the first film, Casey now runs his father-in-law’s Ninjutsu school in Japan with his pregnant wife Namiko. When Namiko is murdered with a mysterious weapon, Casey begins the search for those responsible. And he will take out whoever gets in his way.
Ninja 2: Shadow of a Tear is nonstop action from start to finish. The first Ninja film is a rather tame action film, but Adkins was let loose for the sequel. Adkins with the help of choreographer Tim Man put together an hour and a half of perfect fight scenes. Throw in excellent martial artists like Kane Kosugi and Jawed El Berni and you’ve got a stunning throwback to action films of the 80s and early 90s.
Scott Adkins is the face of modern indie action. He proved that last decade with two Undisputed films, giving his Boyka character a fitting end, the excellent Avengement, Accident Man, and a whole lot of other movies that probably deserve a list of their own. I only hope that Adkins gets a bigger shot in Hollywood before he hangs it all up.
2. Indonesia – The Raid: Redemption & The Raid 2 (2012 & 2014)
The first movie is as simple as this; twenty cops take on a fifteen floor tenement of criminals. Their goal: get to the top and arrest the villainous Tama. The Raid 2 picks up right after the first film. Protagonist Rama survived the events of the first film. He must now put his family under protection and go undercover. Tama was just an underling, the bottom of a very high totem pole.
The first film is an hour and a half of beautiful, Pencak Silat brutality. I know that sounds like a paradox but trust me on this. When action and martial arts fans saw The Raid: Redemption, they knew that they had seen something special. The way Iko Uwais tore through hordes of enemies felt fresh. Yayan Ruhian playing the part of the near unstoppable muscle was exhilarating. Thankfully we didn’t have to wait very long for the sequel. Take the quality of the action in the first film, dial it up to eleven and throw in one of the greatest car chases ever put to film. Then mix in a plot full of characters and twists to rival a Coppola or Scorsese classic. The Raid 2 is a landmark event in cinema and, like it says on the poster, “one of the greatest action movies ever made”.
The team of director Gareth Evans with stars Iko Uwais and Yayan Ruhian released their first film Merantau in 2009. But it was mostly seen by martial arts fans. The Raid: Redemption launched the names of all three men. Gareth Evans is a top name for directors. Iko Uwais has joined the upper echelon on international action stars, even landing major roles in Hollywood blockbusters. Yayan Ruhian has found himself starring in films in various different countries. He even found himself fighting Keanu Reeves in one of our number one picks.
1. Hollywood – John Wick (2014), John Wick: Chapter 2 (2017), John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum (2019)
Everyone knows the plot to John Wick, so we’ll give you the cliff notes version. A retired assassin is left grieving from the death of his terminally ill wife. All he has left is his car and the final gift from his late wife, a puppy. One night, after failing to purchase Wick’s car from him, the son of a mafia boss and his men break into his house. They proceed to kill the puppy, the final symbol of Wick’s free life, and steal his car. Just like that, Wick takes action and returns to the world of crime and assassins. The sequels only get crazier as they build the ultra-interesting world and the action intensifies.
Just like many of the movies discussed in this series, John Wick was helmed by stunt men. David Leitch and Chad Stahelski’s stunt careers span nearly thirty years, including films like Fight Club, 300, The Expendables, and The Matrix series in which Stahelski doubled for Reeves. Their action expertise combined with Reeves’ dedication to training and stunt work resulted in the most creative and visually stunning fight scenes ever seen in a Hollywood production. But the biggest surprise from this series wasn’t the action. It was the incredible lore and world building. The secret society of gangsters and assassins hiding in plain sight along with their laws and customs is completely fascinating.
Hollywood has had a difficult time with martial arts in film, as I discussed in my review of Mile 22. Countless films had hand to hand fight scenes, but the editing was so fast and choppy that it took several cuts to show a single punch. But it took two stunt men to show Hollywood how it’s done. Since the first John Wick, David Leitch has been put in charge of Deadpool 2, Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs and Shaw, and Atomic Blonde. Throw in Stahelski directing two more John Wick films with increasingly greater budgets and you’ve got two men changing Hollywood for the better.
Agree or Disagree?
That’s the final round. The top ten martial arts movies of the last ten years. Did any of your favorites make the list? Did you see any surprises on our way to the top? Tell us in the comments and when you’re done, check out other articles and reviews here on Martial Journal. You can also check out my Youtube channel where I covered the same topic with one or two changes.
Check out my Youtube channel where I review and discuss martial arts films.
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCUYUbj1Rjnf07S3UbVvKZ0Q?view_as=subscriber
- Five Bad Martial Arts Sequels - November 22, 2021
- The Top Five Essential Films of Jet Li - March 8, 2021
- Essential Film of Jackie Chan - December 4, 2020
It should be the Raid movies in the number one spot then John Wick, the raid movies were revolutionary to martial arts movie, whereas as John Wick 3 is the only real revolutionary movie in that series and it was most likely inspired by the action in the Raid 2
there’s 9 films by my count? where is number 10
The first post is entries 10 through 8. Second is 7 through 4. Third is 3 through 1.