4 Great 2025 Action Movies You’ve Never Even Heard Of (Including a Hit With Antony Starr)

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2025 has been a strong year for action films, with movies like Heads of State, Nobody 2, Novocaine, Ballerina, Sinners, Superman, One Battle After Another, and both Predator films making an impact with critics or at the box office. While some movies like Love Hurts, Fountain of Youth, and M3GAN 2.0 didn’t quite hit the mark, overall it’s been a good year for the genre. Just this week, we got The Running Man in theaters and Playdate, with Kevin James and Alan Ritchson, released for streaming. They aren’t getting rave reviews, but audiences seem to be enjoying them. This list focuses on the lesser-known, but still really good, action movies that deserve attention.

Films that didn’t quite make the list include Flight Risk, Ice Road: Vengeance, and Shadow Force. These movies either weren’t particularly well-made or, while somewhat popular, didn’t reach a level of quality that would earn them a spot.

4) Red Sonja

MJ Bassett’s Red Sonja, with a strong performance by Matilda Lutz, didn’t attract much of an audience – even less than Jason Momoa’s Conan the Barbarian did in 2011. However, like Conan, it’s a thoroughly enjoyable, classic sword and sorcery adventure.

This movie doesn’t offer much that’s new, and sometimes feels a bit silly, much like the films it’s imitating. However, it’s a significant improvement over the 1985 version. It also confirms that actor Lutz, who was excellent in the 2017 film Revenge, has real star potential.

3) Bad Man

Okay, so I just watched Bad Man, and it’s a pretty fun comedy. It stars Seann William Scott – you might remember him from American Pie, and he actually did a great guest spot on It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia – as an undercover agent who teams up with the local police in a small Tennessee town. They’re trying to bust a meth ring that might be connected to some really nasty white supremacist groups. The problem is, the local cops are… not the sharpest tools in the shed, and they end up causing more problems than they solve for our guy. It’s a bit chaotic, but in a funny way.

Scott consistently demonstrates his talent as a leading man, possessing a charming wit and an appealing personality that often holds a movie together. However, Johnny Simmons, known from Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, truly shines as the cop who unexpectedly uncovers the meth operation – his performance is the highlight of the film.

2) Guns Up

Although some consider Monster House to be Kevin Smith’s best film, he’s recently been more successful with smaller, genre-mixing projects that showcase his versatility better than his comedies produced through Happy Madison. A prime example is his 2020 film Becky, where he played a truly despicable character – a neo-Nazi willing to harm a child just to get a key.

It looks like 2025 will be the year he proves he can successfully blend comedy and action in his roles. While Playdate has some good scenes and a nice dynamic with Alan Ritchson, his new action film – a *John Wickstyle story about a man trying to escape the mob – is the stronger project. He performs the action well and convincingly portrays his character’s family devotion. Though he’s good in the film, Christina Ricci truly shines as his equally tough wife.

1) G20

In 2025, movies featuring the President as the action hero became popular, similar to how 2013 saw a trend of action heroes rescuing the President. Examples from 2025 include Heads of State and G20, while Olympus Has Fallen and White House Down defined the 2013 trend.

Similar to how White House Down faded quickly while Olympus Has Fallen stuck around in people’s minds, G20 appears to have been quickly forgotten compared to Heads of State. That’s unfortunate, because even though it’s not the greatest action movie in the style of Die Hard, Viola Davis delivers a fantastic performance as Danielle Sutton, an Army veteran who becomes President, and Antony Starr is compelling as the villain, Edward Rutledge.

Stream G20 on Prime Video.

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2025-11-16 02:41