MFF Data – Which R-Rated Action Film Should the Baseline for All R-Rated Action Films?

Several months ago, I was talking to someone about action movies, and they said something along the lines of “I only like action movies that are as good as Predator and Die Hard.” This led me to believe that they probably only like 14 action movies. This conversation lingered in my memory as I started thinking about the truly elite R-rated action films that have been released since 1968 (when the R-rating was created). How many stone-cold (Stone Cold is a hoot, BTW) classic R-rated action films are there, and should they be the measuring sticks for action movie quality? Comparing a stock R-rated action film to Die Hard is sort of like saying the local gym basketball hero isn’t good because they’re no Michael Jordan. There has to be a better set of action films that can act as the baseline for quality. For instance, have you watched the 1996 Arnold Schwarzenegger vehicle Eraser? It’s a cromulent action film that’s nowhere near Arnie’s best, but it’s a movie that features laser guns, reptile death, and a fun performance from Robert Pastorelli. It’s fine. It did well at the box office ($242 million worldwide haul), had decent critical scores (43%), and is considered to be a good time. Most importantly, it’s not a cult classic, none of the scores are Die Hard-level, and I’m 97.3% certain that 96% of people who watched it couldn’t remember the name of Arnie’s character when they were leaving the theater in 1996.

It’s because of this conversation that I pulled the data on 1,002 R-rated action movies to see how many “elite” films there are and to get a better idea of a baseline R-rated action film that should be the measuring stick of action film success. Of course, I had to draw upon my personal opinions to come up with the baseline R-rated action film, so when I suggest Timecop or Predator 2 should be considered I’m not saying the rest of the world should use those specific movies. I’m just suggesting that everyone finds their own “Timecop” and hopefully all this data will help

Baseline – definition – If it’s better than Timecop,, it’s a solid action film. If it’s worse than Timecop it’s probably not that great.

Here’s a breakdown of the rest of the data piece

1. Share the overall critic/audience scores of 1,002 R-rated action films to let you know the averages
2. Showcase the 20+ or so truly elite R-rated action films – based on their numbers
3. Figure out which movies should be the baseline for quality by using the data and my subjective opinions after spending so much time with these action films.

Things I’ve taken into account

1. Technically speaking, a movie could have a 100% Tomatometer score and only receive “B” grades from every critic. The 100% means that every critic likes it, not that every critic LOVES it
2. IMDb and Letterboxd are fickle beasts that I love. This is why I included scores from multiple websites. I wanted different looks.
3. I tried to pull the Metacritic scores for every R-rated action film on the list. However, it’s missing many scores, and dozens of them only have 6-10 reviews, which isn’t very comprehensive. I like the system; it just doesn’t have all the data yet, which is why I didn’t use it in my ranking system. The scores are still considered and are nice to have.
4. There are many action films that were excluded for various reasons. They didn’t have a Tomatometer score or an MPAA rating. However, for movies like Train to Busan, which is “Not Rated,” I included it in the dataset because the violence and gore warrant an R-rating.
5. When it came to what I considered to be an action film, I was liberal with my definition. I included movies like Platoon, Infernal Affairs, Battle Royale, Dog Soldiers, Unforgiven, Brotherhood of the Wolf, Deep Blue Sea, Blade Runner, and other films that include elements of action and suspense. I wasn’t just looking at movies like Under Siege and Lethal Weapon.
6. I decided only to use R-rated action films because they are a different beast than their PG or PG-13 brethren. The Raid, Kill Bill, The Night Comes for Us, Universal Soldier: Day of Reckoning, John Wick, and Total Recall hit much harder than Fast Five (Perfect), Mission: Impossible: Ghost Protocol (Beautiful), RRR (glorious action) and The Dark Knight (solid comic book mayhem). They are different animals so I’m keeping them separate.

Overall Averages for the 1,002 R-rated action movies

• Tomatometer – 54.9%
• Metacritic – 53.3%
• IMDb – 6.35
• Letterboxd – 3.0

Interesting numbers

• 105 R-rated action movies have a 90% or higher Tomatometer Score – which is more than I expected
• 527 movies have a Letterboxd rating in the range of 3.0 to 3.9
• Only 9 movies have a 90% or higher score on Metacritic
• Seeing these numbers in their final form was fun because they gave me some different looks and an idea of how they are received across multiple platforms.
• I included some charts and graphs below for people who like charts and graphs

Top R-Rated Action Films

I figured out the top-rated films by creating a ranking system (Letterboxd, IMDb, Tomatometer) and assigning each movie a total. Here’s an example of how Mad Max: Fury Road got its score and ranking.

Mad Max: Fury Road

• IMDb Score and Ranking – 8.1 – Tied for 8th place
• Tomatometer Ranking – 97% – Tied for 3rd place
• Letterboxd Ranking – 4.2 – Tied for 4th place
• Total – 15 (3 + 8 + 4 = 15) – The lower the better.

Here are the highest rated movies based on Rotten Tomatoes/IMDb/Letterboxd scores that were ranked. I ranked them because an average of the three isn’t fair when looking at Rotten Tomatoes scores which range from 0-100

Only 12 movies went 4-for-4 on my scale of greatness.

1. 90% or higher Tomatometer score
2. 4 or higher Letterboxd score
3. 8 or higher IMDb score
4. 70% or higher Metacritic score.
5. I scoured IMDb (Top 250), Letterboxd, Rotten Tomatoes and Metacritic for these scores. I feel good about them.

They are The Good and the Bad and the Ugly, Aliens, Ran, Saving Private Ryan, Mad Max: Fury Road, Unforgiven, Terminator 2: Judgment Day, The Departed, No Country for Old Men, Die Hard, For a Few Dollars More and Logan

Based on the all-time scale of “greatness,” only 1.19% of the movies in the dataset can be considered to have elite numbers. There are others like Hard Boiled, The Matrix, The Raid, RoboCop, and Enter the Dragon that are all-timers and are wildly iconic/influential, but they don’t go 4-for-4.

So, instead of comparing or basing the quality of an R-rated action film on unicorn creations, what movies should be the baseline for quality?

Normally, someone would just take the 10 movies that are ranked in the middle of this list and use them (the list will be included below). However, I examined all the movies with a total ranking between 80 and 125 to narrow down the field. I did this because some of the scores are wildly low (Man on Fire has a 39% Tomatometer score) and I felt like I needed to dig deeper.

• The overall average of the ranking system is 82.8 (+/- 3). In that range there are movies like Constantine, Kiss of the Dragon, Shooter, The Book of Eli, Blind Fury, Bloodsport, 30 Days of Night, Man on Fire, Fulltime Killer, and Deep Blue Sea. I consider these all to be solid action films that feature some iconic moments, excellent cinematography, cool fights, and an epic overhead shot of vampires destroying a town. I don’t consider any of them to be baseline action movies despite their scores being directly in the middle.
• Deep Rising has a 32% Tomatometer score – This kind of hurts my soul because it’s devilishly fun and features a jet ski action scene.
• Cliffhanger only has a 3.2 Letterboxd score – What?
• Deep Blue Sea has a 5.9 IMDb score. It should be 10 (it’s my favorite movie and I dedicated an entire podcast to it – Deep Blue Sea – The Podcast)
• All three Punisher movies have a 28-29% Tomatometer score and Letterboxd scores under 3. They all feature memorable moments that make them fun to watch. I’d never consider them to be baseline movies based on their personalities.
• Den of Thieves has a 41% Tomatometer score and a 7.0 IMDb score. Equilibrium has a 40% Tomatometer score and a 7.3 IMDb score. Elite Squad has a 51% Tomatometer score and a 8.0 IMDb score. Law Abiding Citizen has a 26% Tomatometer Score and a 7.4 IMDb score. They have Rotten Tomatometer scores, but I wouldn’t consider these three to be a baseline action film because of their excellent IMDb scores.
• There are a lot of these – which is why I took all three scores into account when putting together a list of movies to pick from.
• Based on the rankings, Universal Soldier sits at #711. It’s a beautifully weird action film that features an Oscar worthy performance from Dolph Lundgren.

I avoided cult classics (Cobra, Action Jackson, 30 Days of Night, Mindhunters) and movies that have low ratings – but have big personalities (Invasion U.S.A., Dark Angel, Cyborg, Gymkata, Gamer, Passenger 57) because a baseline action movie shouldn’t have a cult following or a big personality. I also decided that none of the films should have fresh scores or have scores more than 6.5 or 3 on IMDb and Letterboxd.

I narrowed it down to these films.

Which movie should be the baseline for all R-rated action films?’

Timecop (1994) – The reasons I’m going with Timecop are below.

1. It’s a totally fine action film that somehow takes JCVD AND time travel and comes up with something that isn’t absurd – or wildly memorable beyond being entitled Timecop.
2. It doesn’t have the cult status of Bloodsport or Kickboxer, and is nowhere as good as Universal Soldier, The Expendables 2, Hard Target, Universal Soldier: Day of Reckoning, Kickboxer: Retaliation, or Sudden Death (beautiful kitchen fight). It’s better than Universal Soldier 2, Maximum Risk, Legionnaire, Double Team, and Desert Heat. It’s a mid-tier JCVD film.
3. There is WAY too much plot. JCVD movies work best when things are kept simple. Try explaining Timecop succinctly to a friend, it gets unnecessarily complicated.
4. The antagonist isn’t iconic. In fact, he seemingly spends most of the film munching loudly on peanuts.
5. The JCVD doing splits scenes are great, but they are only there to showcase that JCVD can do splits.
6. Once again, there is way too much plot.
7. JCVD travels in time. It’s a great idea.
8. Ebert’s 2-star review makes perfect sense. He likes it, but doesn’t love it.
9. I considered Eraser and London Has Fallen but their IMDb scores are solid which means they have an appreciative audience.

Here’s every movie in the dataset

To read the list – The Good, The Bad and the Ugly is #1, Aliens is #2. Work your way down the 10 columns (Top 100 in first column). After crossing the 1,000 mark I felt like I had a pretty good data set and had most of the classics covered. If I missed anything that’s wildly glaring let me know.

Sorry about the small text and multiple pages (act like it’s all one page)