Scratch That John Wick Itch
Other sequential action films for your home viewing pleasure
I loved the first John Wick and hated the third one. I’ll probably see the fourth one at some point, regardless. Without a full deconstruction, I felt like the third one was out of sequence—like the fights were out of order. Now, not every movie needs to be structured like all the others in their genre, but it’s a little jarring to see them done differently. Case in point: 7’4” Boban Marjonovich is easily killed early in the film; why would we be worried about Wick’s survival as his enemies get smaller?
The sequential action flick is not new—in storytelling, it goes back literally thousands of years. Joseph Campbell referred to it as a “Road of Trials” in his comparative mythology writing. With the success of Taken, it became a trope for aging male leads to have vehicle pictures. It’s pretty much all Liam Neeson does now. And there’s nothing wrong with it—I love these movies. They’re great home streamers.
For your weekend viewing pleasure, I’ve picked four sequential action films that I think are overlooked/underseen that I would love for you to watch.
Point Blank (1967) Only paid streaming
My favorite Lee Marvin film! I love everything about this one: the way it’s shot, the amazing and perfect casting, and the weird psychedelic influence on the design choices and editing. It’s not streaming for free as far as I can tell, but keep your eyes out for TMC that shows it once a year or so. There was another film made from the same Donald Westlake novel, The Hunter, called Payback, with Mel Gibson.
Lee Marvin is owed a specific sum of money from a crime in his past, and he’s back to collect it. He has to make his way through a series of hoodlums, femme fatales, and weirdos in order to get to the top guy and get exactly what he is owed. Great performances by Angie Dickinson and Carrol O’Connor.
The Raid (2012) Netflix
I consider this one of the best action movies ever, and I think the sequel is even better. But you should start here if you haven’t seen it. It’s an Indonesian film made by a British director that had the best word-of-mouth campaign when it hit DVD. My film nerd friends were texting me after the first fifteen minutes asking if I had seen it.
The whole film takes place in one housing complex with the main bad guy on the top floor. The police have to make their way up to him, floor by floor, facing an increasing amount of danger that coincides with them running out of ammo and weapons. The fight scenes are satisfying and rewatchable, shot in the manner of the old Shaw Brothers martial arts films but with a new vision. On my first time with this one, I kept backing up to rewatch a fight scene.
The last 18 minutes of Game of Death (1978) Paramount Plus
Bruce Lee fans will hate me for listing his worst film, but I have to if just for the last sequence of fights, which ends with my favorite one-on-one martial art fight: Bruce Lee vs. Kareem Abdul Jabbar. Yes, Bruce, the size of an average American eighth grader fighting the greatest LA Laker of all time. Bruce Lee died during filming of this movie, and many years later, the production company shot additional footage and did a horrible job of creating a full-length movie out of this. It’s one of those films that looked much better on a tube TV on a Saturday afternoon when I was in grade school.
I know you know who Bruce Lee is, but chances are, if you’re under 40, you’ve never actually watched his films. In the ‘70s, they were on broadcast TV quite a bit, and then less so in the ‘80s, but they never cracked the regular cable lineups after that when the Dude Movie canon was built. I don’t ever remember watching them accidentally on AMC or TNT like we did with Shawshank Redemption or Goodfellas in the ‘90s. If you want to see one of his films, you will have to search it out overtly. Start with Enter the Dragon or Fist of Fury if you want to see what the hype was about.
In Order of Disappearance (2014) Kanopy
This Norwegian film was remade for the US as Cold Pursuit, starring Liam Neeson. They used the same director, but it didn’t quite make sense set in the US. The original film is so much better.
A small-town snow plow driver’s son dies from a heroin overdose. The police don’t investigate, so it’s up to him to get to the truth, through one criminal gang member at a time, working his way through a fun, snowy underworld. Bonus points for a really cool assassin that shows up and raises the film to a new level. The geography makes it look very different than so many other action films—not many take place in the snow!