Art of Action

Tom Tykwer’s breathtaking time-loop thriller, with a terrific Franka Potente as the titular runner attempting to save her boyfriend.

Farmers hire a band of samurai to defend them against marauding bandits in Kurosawa’s influential epic, a touchstone for action movies ever since.

A travelling mariachi is mistaken for a murderous criminal, in Robert Rodriguez’s infamous ‘no budget’ exemplar of DIY action cinema.

This rollicking take on Dumas’ swashbuckler, packed with lavish spectacle and high-stakes drama, slayed all Hollywood films at the French box-office.

Jackie Chan's mind-blowing, high-octane extravaganza of death-defying stunts and action comedy.

A bouncer is enlisted to fight off a mob boss, in this barmy, shot-on-video cult actioner from famed Mancunian hardman Cliff Twemlow.

A fixture in the critical canon almost since its premiere, Eisenstein’s film about a 1905 naval mutiny was revolutionary in both form and content.

This wildly violent ‘70s Japanese sexploitation film about a gambler hunting her father’s killers was a key influence on Tarantino’s Kill Bill series.