The best films for a group don't flatten the experience - they create one. You want something that generates opinions, debates, a reason to stay up later than planned.
The 2000s produced a remarkable run of intelligent, ambitious cinema - a decade that took genre seriously and rewarded patient audiences.
The best action films use movement to reveal character. What a person does under pressure tells you everything about them.
A CIA operation to purchase classified Russian documents is blown by a rival agent, who then shows up in the sleepy seaside village where Bourne and Marie have been living. The pair run for their lives and Bourne, who promised retaliation should anyone from his former life attempt contact, is forced to once again take up his life as a trained assassin to survive.
In Los Angeles, an ex-con takes the underground fighting world by storm in his quest to fulfill a promise to a dead friend.
After being bitten by a genetically altered spider at Oscorp, nerdy but endearing high school student Peter Parker is endowed with amazing powers to become the superhero known as Spider-Man.
Chosen by prophecy but doubted by all, Po is an unlikely choice for the mystical title of the Dragon Warrior-a clumsy panda thrust into the world of kung fu as a deadly enemy threatens the Valley of Peace. Under reluctant guidance by Master Shifu and the Furious Five, Po must embrace who he is to unlock the power that no scroll can teach.
Zen, an autistic teenage girl with powerful martial arts skills, gets money to pay for her sick mother Zin's treatment by seeking out all the people who owe Zin money and making them pay.
The action films that hold up aren't the ones with the biggest explosions. They're the ones where you understood what was at stake before anything started moving.
Jacques Mesrine, a loyal son and dedicated soldier, is back home and living with his parents after serving in the Algerian War. Soon he is seduced by the neon glamour of sixties Paris and the easy money it presents. Mentored by Guido, Mesrine turns his back on middle class law-abiding and soon moves swiftly up the criminal ladder.
Peter Parker is going through a major identity crisis. Burned out from being Spider-Man, he decides to shelve his superhero alter ego, which leaves the city suffering in the wake of carnage left by the evil Doc Ock. In the meantime, Parker still can't act on his feelings for Mary Jane Watson, a girl he's loved since childhood. A certain anger begins to brew in his best friend Harry Osborn as well...
A young wizard accidentally conjures a spell that puts her family in jeopardy.
Naruto is thrilled when he is sent on a mission to protect his favorite actress, Yukie Fujikaze, on the set of her new movie, The Adventures of Princess Gale. But when the crew ventures out to film in the icy, foreboding Land of Snow, Yukie mysteriously flees! Naruto and his squad set off to find her... unaware that three Snow Ninja lie in wait, with a sinister purpose that will force Yukie to face her hidden past!
After nearly two decades of legendary criminal feats, making him France's most notorious criminal while simultaneously feeding his desire for media attention and public adoration, Mesrine becomes increasingly paranoid and isolated, leading to a dramatic confrontation with the law that ultimately seals his fate as the nation's most infamous public enemy.
An ending is everything. It's the last thing you carry with you. These films understand that - and they make it count.
Great action cinema earns its place on any list not through noise, but through the clarity and consequence of everything that moves within it.