Five Action Movies to Stream Now
‘The Abyss’
Set in a small Swedish town slowly sinking into the Earth, “The Abyss,” directed by Richard Holm, is a big dumb disaster movie that combines elements of “Dante’s Peak” and “Volcano.”
Frigga (Tuva Novotny), a security manager working in the unstable Kiirunavaara mine, is under pressure. Though her new beau, Dabir (Kardo Razzazi), is in town and ready to propose, her estranged husband, Tage (Peter Franzen), wants to keep their marriage intact. Her romantic life takes a back seat when catastrophe strikes. Sinkholes are opening and teenagers, including her son, Simon, are going missing. Frigga dispatches her daughter, Mica (Felicia Maxime), to find him, while the adults try to evacuate the city.
Pulse pounding scenes — like when hundreds of people stampede after an earthquake, or Frigga and Tage crawl through the rubble of a caved-in mine tunnel, or a rescue mission hangs over a bottomless pit — make “The Abyss” pure escapist entertainment.
Based on the manga of the same title, “City Hunter,” by the Japanese director Yuichi Sato, is a stylish action-noir that follows the high-flying private detective Ryo Saeba (Ryohei Suzuki), a kooky protagonist who loves to gawk. The film is aware of his shortcomings, even making fun of his leering gaze toward women. Ryo is left distraught, however, when his best friend, Hideyuki Makimura (Masanobu Ando), is slain by an unhinged, drugged-up killer. Ryo teams with Hideyuki’s sister, Kaori (Misato Morita), to bust the Union, a gang manufacturing a new narcotic (used by Hideyuki’s murderer) that endows its user with superhuman strength.
Up-tempo horns soundtracking slow-motion fight sequences are notable highlights, including when Ryo crashes through a window and shards of glass seemingly freeze around him, as his foot makes contact with a goon’s face. Ryo and Kaori’s comedic relationship is another wonderful feature; they’re an odd couple who never take each other seriously. Those components make “City Hunter” a crowd-pleaser tailor-made for more installments.
‘Citizen of a Kind’
A house fire has left a single mother, Kim Duk-hee (Ra Mi-ran), and her two young children without a home. When a servicer calls her offering immediate approval for a loan, she hastily accepts — only to discover she’s been scammed. The law isn’t helpful: The police refuse to investigate and child services takes custody of her children. Thankfully for Kim, a young, regretful man who works for this gang of scammers offers to be her informant. With his information and the help of her friends, she ventures from Korea to China to retrieve her money.
The director Park Young-ju’s “Citizen of a Kind” is a fun romp. The first half is a quirky spy flick, with Kim and her friends engaging in stakeouts and undercover work, while the second half is a bloody melee culminating in a rival gang’s raid on the call center. When Kim finally tastes sweet revenge, it’s a triumphant moment that gives this action flick a heartwarming core.
‘Life After Fighting’
A slow-burn romance sets the stage for rock ’em-sock ’em violence in the writer and director Bren Foster’s martial arts movie “Life After Fighting.” Foster stars as Alex Faulkner, a retired champion taekwondo fighter who operates a school teaching self-defense. Love finds Alex when Samantha (Cassie Howarth) brings her young son, Terry (Anthony Nassif), to take his classes. Samantha and Alex’s spark is dashed, however, by Samantha’s jealous ex-husband, Victor (Luke Ford), who tries to intimidate Alex by first sending in thugs to beat him up and then by kidnapping his receptionist’s two children for a trafficking ring.
The film’s knowingly overwhelming premise matches the intensity of its final 30 minutes, which features Alex defending his school, Samantha and the children he liberates against a continuous stream of villains. The martial arts prowess Alex uses to take down each fighter is a singular mix of captivating choreography and muscular viciousness that wholly enraptures the viewer.
“One More Shot,” a sequel to “One Shot,” both directed by James Nunn, mostly takes place in a Washington airport where a terrorist cell has planted a bomb. Jake Harris (Scott Adkins), a Navy SEAL, arrives with Amin (Waleed Elgadi), a prisoner from that cell, in the hopes that Amin’s pregnant wife, Niesha (Meena Rayann), will pressure him to reveal the location of the bomb. But when a group of mercenaries led by Robert Jackson (Michael Jai White) arrives to kidnap Amin and steal the bomb, Harris works to protect Amin, Niesha and the nation.
“One More Shot” relies on sly cuts to craft the appearance of long, extended shots. The hand-held camera is never far away from the action, tracking Harris through several skirmishes in the airport and around the piles of bodies he leaves in his wake. The result is an arresting piece of staging that locks you in and never lets go.
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