The 10 Most Fun Martial Arts Movies of All Time, Ranked
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So long as you're watching a martial arts movie that’s at least a little better than average, you're likely to be in for something generally fun. Hell, there are even some pretty ordinary martial arts movies that have entertainment value just because they're silly, or action-packed, or over-the-top, and those things can be enough even if the writing’s not great, the acting’s lousy, and the fight scenes are especially well-choreographed.
Martial arts movies are just fun, unless you're unlucky enough to be watching one of the rare genuinely bad ones. But if you want the most fun martial arts movies of all time, and you haven’t seen some of the following, then they're certainly worth seeking out, mostly thanks to them having very high-quality action and, for the most part, a good quantity of action packed into each one.
10 'Kung Fu Hustle' (2004)
Since it’s a broad comedy as well as a martial arts movie, Kung Fu Hustle can’t help but feel like a ton of fun. Oh, and it’s also pretty much a live-action cartoon, in that it runs on cartoon logic throughout, and the characters prove able to do some really over-the-top things, even compared to other spectacle-heavy and/or fantastical martial arts films.
It’s not just intended to make fun of martial arts films, and then even though the action scenes can be silly, there’s clearly a lot of effort put into choreographing, filming, and then editing them.
Tonally, it’s something of a parody of classic martial arts movies, in terms of throwing in plenty of expected conventions and poking some fun at them, but then in other ways, Kung Fu Hustle is fairly sincere. It’s not just intended to make fun of martial arts films, and then even though the action scenes can be silly, there’s clearly a lot of effort put into choreographing, filming, and then editing them. There’s a lot here, and pretty much all of it proves to be a blast to watch.
9 'Last Hurrah for Chivalry' (1979)
Last Hurrah for Chivalry is fairly downbeat narratively, because it’s a melodrama that has a convoluted series of events involving betrayals, sacrifices, and a whole lot of death… in other words, the kind of things you find in later John Woo movies, especially the likes of The Killer and Bullet in the Head. But before those heroic bloodshed films, he did this one, and it’s kind of like a heroic bloodshed movie in some way, but with hand-to-hand fights instead of shootouts.
So, how’s it fun? Well, once you get past the story (kind of necessary, owing to how convoluted and difficult to follow it can be), what you're left with is a ton of absolutely relentless action sequences. So much of Last Hurrah for Chivalry is well-executed fight scenes, one battle after another, so to speak, and it’s a blast to watch because of all that excitement and overall non-stop feeling.
8 'John Wick: Chapter 4' (2023)
Speaking of movies with shootouts (you know, many of the action films of John Woo that aren’t Last Hurrah for Chivalry), here’s John Wick: Chapter 4, which has a real mix of action, showcasing shootouts and other modern action sequences alongside some pretty great old-fashioned fights. It’s certainly not the only great martial arts movie that’s more than “just” a martial arts movie, as a few other soon-to-be-mentioned movies will also show.
Anyway, the plot here is pretty unimportant, because it’s the fourth movie in a series that’s about the titular character getting revenge, at least in the first movie, but then progressively making more and more enemies as the films go on. So, he’s particularly outgunned and outmatched throughout John Wick: Chapter 4, and the movie gets to feel especially grand and over-the-top as a result (see the genuinely epic runtime, for example, which isn't too far off three hours all up).
7 'The Super Inframan' (1975)
Like a monster movie and a martial arts movie all at once, The Super Inframan feels like the kind of thing a kid might've written, but then that kid was given a proper budget to bring to life their vision. So, instead of seeing some action figures getting slammed together, you get to see some genuine action scenes, but the fighters are pretty much always dressed up in ridiculous costumes, so they almost might as well be action figures.
Yeah, sure, the choreography might be limited, and even by martial arts standards, the plot here is ridiculously simple (boils down to “Give this guy superpowers so he can battle monsters and stop them from taking over the planet”), but that’s okay. The Super Inframan’s heart is in the right place, and it’s so pure and wonderfully goofy, easily ranking among the most broadly enjoyable B-grade sci-fi and/or martial arts movies ever made.
6 'Everything Everywhere All at Once' (2022)
Speaking of fun sci-fi movies that also happen to feature martial arts action, here’s Everything Everywhere All at Once. There are some other genres this one belongs to, with the premise being a family drama as well, at its core, and then it’s also about a battle for the fate of the multiverse, with the characters initially introduced all having alternate selves that they have to rely on to fight that battle throughout different universes.
It begins pretty quirky, and then gets all-out weird to increasingly drastic extents as things go on, but the chaos is never overwhelming to the point that Everything Everywhere All at Once loses itself completely. The controlled madness here is seriously impressive, and just because so much is thrown at you so constantly for over two hours, it succeeds in never coming even slightly close to feeling boring.
5 'Enter the Dragon' (1973)
The last film completed during Bruce Lee’s lifetime, though it was a posthumous release, Enter the Dragon is also the best film Lee ever starred in (though his other martial arts flicks are also worth checking out if you like the genre, of course). Enter the Dragon was an English-language martial arts movie, albeit an international co-production, and then it’s also something of a sports and spy movie at the same time.
It’s kind of wild, honestly, taking place on an island where a shady individual is hosting a martial arts tournament, with Bruce Lee’s character assigned to spy on said individual, posing undercover as a participant in the tournament. Enter the Dragon ends up being very fun and fast-paced for a film of its age, and of all the martial arts movies that are now over half a century old, it’s probably the easiest to recommend.
4 'The Matrix' (1999)
The Matrix is another English-language martial arts movie, and easily one of the best, not to mention being an adventurous movie in terms of genres, since this is a great sci-fi film on top of being an amazing martial arts flick. Also, it would be wrong to talk about The Matrix without mentioning that it has some iconic shootouts alongside the hand-to-hand fighting, with plenty of the action scenes memorably featuring both kinds of combat.
Also, The Matrix kicked off an interesting series, but it’s the original film from 1999 that continues to feel the most groundbreaking as well as the closest to perfect of the bunch, quite comfortably, honestly. It’s difficult to find much to fault here, and it’s ultimately excellent as a gateway film into the martial arts genre (or a great love letter to Hong Kong action cinema that you can appreciate better if you're also a fan of such films the way the Wachowskis clearly are).
3 'The Raid 2' (2014)
While The Raid 2 is tense, it’s also a great deal of fun, or if fun’s the wrong word, then maybe it’s okay to suggest it’s super entertaining instead? It moves at a ferocious pace, and also, compared to The Raid (2011), it’s got a good deal more variety with its fight scenes and the locations they're able to happen at, since this sequel’s not a bottle movie like the first one, which confined the characters to a single apartment complex.
There was more of a distinctive feel to the first film, perhaps, and maybe it was also purer in the sense that it was so bare-bones, but there’s more to be entertained by in The Raid 2, so it’s going here. Both are among the most phenomenal martial arts movies of the century so far, though, so it’s absolutely worth watching the pair of them, so long as you're not too squeamish.
2 'Kill Bill: The Whole Bloody Affair' (2003–2004)
As was the case with the Wachowskis making The Matrix, you can definitely tell Quentin Tarantino loves martial arts movies with Kill Bill, because the movies taken together (as The Whole Bloody Affair) are packed with references to martial arts cinema, both generally and regarding specific titles. Also, the second half of the revenge epic is pretty heavily indebted to spaghetti Westerns, while the first half goes beyond just martial arts stuff with plenty of samurai-related action and some yakuza stuff genre-wise, too.
Calling it maximalist would be an understatement, because Kill Bill is a lot to take in all at once, but in a good way. It does some interesting things with its very simple premise in the slightly slower-paced and more character-focused second half, after having a good deal of its action in the first half. Whichever half or volume you're talking about, it’s seriously impressive stuff either way.
1 'Police Story' (1985)
Sorry for only mentioning one Jackie Chan movie here, but if there can be only one, like Highlander, it might as well be Police Story. Oh, well, he was technically in Enter the Dragon too, sort of, but uncredited, and as an unnamed fighter in one of the film’s fight scenes. So, there we go. Two Jackie Chan films. Kind of. Police Story is the proper Jackie Chan movie, though.
Like, he starred in this one, appearing constantly throughout the movie, and then he was also the director of Police Story, and a co-writer, and credited as part of the stunt team (of course), and then his other credit is “songs by,” as a co-writer there, too. So, it’s all-out Jackie Chan, filled with some of his very best action scenes, and all the while a rather perfect showcase for his appeal as an actor, filmmaker, and martial arts movie legend.
Police Story
- Release Date
- December 14, 1985
- Runtime
- 99 minutes
- Director
- Jackie Chan
- Writers
- Edward Tang
-
Jackie Chan
Sergeant 'Kevin' Chan Ka-Kui
-
Brigitte Lin Ching-Hsia
Salina Fong
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