The 18 best action movies on Paramount+

Beverly Hills Cop (1984)

The fourth film in this franchise, Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F, is upon us, making now an excellent time to revisit Eddie Murphy's first classic turn as Axel Foley. Unbelievably, this was only his third film (after the aforementioned 48 Hrs. and 1983's Trading Places), and it cemented Murphy as a bona fide movie star. His performance as a fish-out-of-water detective defies both his youth and his near-novice Hollywood status: "Whether Murphy's hilariously playing the race card at the front desk of a posh hotel or trying to shake the pair of dim detectives assigned to shadow him, he's always in control," says EW's critic. —Gwen Ihnat

Where to watch Beverly Hills Cop: Paramount+

EW grade: B (read the review)

Director: Martin Brest

Cast: Eddie Murphy, Judge Reinhold, John Ashton, Lisa Eilbacher, Ronny Cox, Steven Berkoff

Bumblebee (2018)

Michael Bay's Transformers movies are known for being loud smash-em-ups: action-packed, but not much in the way of plot or character development. But Travis Knight's Bumblebee broke that mold. In the film, Bumblebee must take refuge from the Decepticons on Earth in 1987, where he meets Hailee Steinfeld's mechanically-inclined Charlie and forms a kind of live-action Iron Giant relationship.

Steinfeld's winning portrayal underlines why she was such a standout child actor, and the film uses her bond with Bumblebee to springboard onto larger life lessons, like when she tells him, "People can be terrible about things they don't understand." Don't worry, there are still lots of heavy metal transformations and explosion-filled battles, but the highlight of this movie is Bumblebee cranking '80s tunes from his abdomen. —G.I.

Where to watch Bumblebee: Paramount+

EW grade: B+ (read the review)

Director: Travis Knight

Cast: Hailee Steinfeld, John Cena, Jorge Lendeborg Jr., John Ortiz, Jason Drucker, Pamela Adlon

Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves (2023)

This adaptation of the popular RPG could have been a cynical cash grab, but writer-directors Jonathan Goldstein and John Francis Daley chose the right approach by crafting a loving tribute to what makes the game so addictive without taking it too seriously. Set in the Forgotten Realms, the film follows Edgin (Chris Pine) and Holga (Michelle Rodriguez), a pair of thieves who band together with a budding sorcerer (Justice Smith) and a druid (Sophia Lillis) to find a magic relic to help clear Edgin's name and reunite him with his daughter.

As EW's critic writes in their review, "The goal is to capture an experience rather than a specific story — and Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves delightfully nails the fun of role-playing as fantasy characters with your friends. It doesn't require any prior playing experience, either." —Kevin Jacobsen

Where to watch Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves: Paramount+

EW grade: B+ (read the review)

Directors: Jonathan Goldstein and John Francis Daley

Cast: Chris Pine, Michelle Rodriguez, Regé-Jean Page, Justice Smith, Sophia Lillis, Hugh Grant

Face/Off (1997)

Face/Off is a freaky action thriller with a plot that makes little sense: In an attempt to foil a terrorist plot, FBI agent Sean Archer swaps faces with crime kingpin Casper Troy. (Yes, we see the face-switch operation, but that doesn't explain the swapped haircuts, body shapes, and vocal cords.) Fortunately, the movie stars John Travolta and Nicolas Cage as the arch-enemies and is directed by John Woo, who transforms extreme violence into a brutal cinematic ballet.

It helps that both Travolta and Cage do some of their best-ever work, especially when they're imitating each other's character in their own bodies. Cage's Casper Troy is imbued with so many idiosyncrasies at the beginning of the film that Travolta clearly has a ball adapting them, while Cage does an admirable job depicting the defeated Archer trapped behind Casper's face. Then, the alternate personas start seeping into both men's psyches, and the performances get even more interesting. As long as you don't think about it too much, Face/Off is an extremely enjoyable wild ride. —G.I.

Where to watch Face/Off: Paramount+

EW grade: A (read the review)

Director: John Woo

Cast: John Travolta, Nicolas Cage, Joan Allen, Gina Gershon, Alessandro Nivola, Colm Feore

Gladiator (2000)

Ridley Scott resurrected the once-popular sword-and-sandal genre of the 1960s with this turn-of-the-century epic in which Roman general Maximus Decimus Meridius (Russell Crowe) refuses to swear fealty to the corrupt new emperor, Commodus (Joaquin Phoenix), who subsequently has Maximus' family killed. Maximus seeks revenge by competing in the gladiator games in the hope of eventually taking down Commodus. The film delivers on old-fashioned thrills while taking advantage of newer technology of which the great directors of the '50s and '60s could only dream.

Earning more than $500 million at the box office and winning five Oscars including Best Picture, Gladiator indeed kept its audience entertained, and holds up on repeat viewings ahead of the highly anticipated sequel, set for release in November 2024. —K.J.

Where to watch Gladiator: Paramount+

EW grade: A– (read the review)

Director: Ridley Scott

Cast: Russell Crowe, Joaquin Phoenix, Connie Nielsen, Oliver Reed, Derek Jacobi, Djimon Hounsou, Richard Harris

The Lost City (2022)

While on a book tour promoting her latest romance novel, writer Loretta Sage (Sandra Bullock) gets kidnapped and taken to a remote, lush location with the goal of looking for the mysterious titular city. And when her own devoted, Fabio-like book cover model (Channing Tatum) goes after her, romantic hijinks quickly ensue as Loretta starts living an adventure not unlike the ones she pens. What follows is a delightfully breezy action flick that may even carry twinges of genre nostalgia.

As an EW critic notes, "There used to be a lot more of a certain kind of sunny, modestly ambitious movie that might have been called a romp: blithe action comedies in which two pretty people fight and blunder and fall for each other, and maybe romance a few stones along the way. Almost everything about The Lost City feels familiar in that sense, and comforting, too." —G.I.

Where to watch The Lost City: Paramount+

EW grade: B (read the review)

Director: Aaron and Adam Nee

Cast: Sandra Bullock, Channing Tatum, Daniel Radcliffe, Da'Vine Joy Randolph, Brad Pitt

Minority Report (2002)

This 2002 action thriller is one of Steven Spielberg's most thought-provoking films — in every sense of the phrase. The film transports us to a futuristic world in which an innovative policing program called "Precrime" seeks to stop murders before they happen, using the collective psychic powers of three clairvoyants. Tom Cruise is Precrime's chief commanding officer, but the program is turned back around on him when he's flagged as a future murderer himself. This turns him into a fugitive, desperately trying to evade capture while learning the truth behind why he was targeted and how Precrime isn't as infallible as it claims to be.

Tackling themes of free will, the slippery slope of police surveillance, and more, the film raises potent questions on our technological future while also delivering as a pulse-pounding thriller. As EW's critic writes, "What's exciting about Minority Report (and abrasive, too, in the way of a good scrubbing) is the movie's relentless demonstration of technological convenience inextricably entangled with a profound invasion of privacy." —K.J.

Where to watch Minority Report: Paramount+

EW grade: N/A (read the review)

Director: Steven Spielberg

Cast: Tom Cruise, Colin Farrell, Samantha Morton, Max von Sydow

Mission: Impossible — Ghost Protocol

"Everything is breaking down in Ghost Protocol," writes EW on why this fourth installment is the best of the Mission: Impossible movies. "Messages don't self-destruct. The mask machine is on the fritz. The Kremlin gets blown up, sending the franchise back into the Cold War and the edge of nuclear oblivion." This is part of the appeal of Mission: Impossible — Ghost Protocol, allowing viewers to see Tom Cruise, Action Hero, trying to figure it out without the same old resources at his disposal.

After Cruise's Ethan Hunt is falsely accused of planting a bomb that nearly obliterates the Kremlin, he is secretly tasked with exposing the real culprit, teaming with fellow agents Jane (Paula Patton) and Benji (Simon Pegg) and an intelligence analyst (Jeremy Renner) on a covert mission. Director Brad Bird breathed new life into the Mission: Impossible films with this one, bringing a kinetic energy and a sense of grandeur (that skyscraper scene!) that brought the franchise to new heights. —K.J.

Where to watch Mission: Impossible — Ghost Protocol: Paramount+

Director: Brad Bird

Cast: Tom Cruise, Jeremy Renner, Simon Pegg, Paula Patton

Saving Private Ryan (1998)

Steven Spielberg's World War II drama remains one of the most affecting war movies ever made. Saving Private Ryan features a group of soldiers on a perilous mission. Following the deaths of three brothers, a general commands the soldiers to find the fourth brother, the titular Private Ryan (Matt Damon), and bring him home safely to spare his grieving family more heartache. From the stunning Normandy invasion that opens the film to the emotional conclusion,

Spielberg's saga of brotherhood and bravery is an overwhelming achievement, with EW's critic calling it "a movie of staggering virtuosity and raw lyric power, a masterpiece of terror, chaos, blood, and courage." —K.J.

Where to watch Saving Private Ryan: Paramount+

EW grade: A (read the review)

Director: Steven Spielberg

Cast: Tom Hanks, Edward Burns, Tom Sizemore, Jeremy Davies, Vin Diesel, Adam Goldberg, Barry Pepper, Giovanni Ribisi, Matt Damon

Star Trek (2009)

J.J. Abrams' Star Trek rebooted the franchise for a new generation without sacrificing the core tenets of what has made it last (As EW's critic writes, "Abrams as a director is very good at taking stuff that was great and making it feel great again.") Serving as a prequel to the original series and set in an alternate timeline, Star Trek follows a young James T. Kirk (Chris Pine) and Spock (Zachary Quinto) in their early days aboard the U.S.S. Enterprise as they attempt to stop a time-traveling villain (Eric Bana). Both Pine and Quinto slip into the well-worn Starfleet uniforms of Kirk and Spock with ease, and the film takes care to invest the audience in both of their emotional journeys. —K.J.

Where to watch Star Trek: Paramount+

Director: J.J. Abrams

Cast: Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto, Karl Urban, Zoe Saldaña, Simon Pegg, John Cho, Anton Yelchin, Eric Bana, Bruce Greenwood, Ben Cross, Winona Ryder, Leonard Nimoy

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem (2023)

Paramount+ is the home for numerous iterations of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, from the original series to the live-action films, but Mutant Mayhem is easily the most well-received entry in the franchise's history, with both critics and audiences. The animated action-adventure flick finds the four anthropomorphic turtles wanting to explore life outside the sewers, and soon become unlikely heroes attempting to take down a gang of criminals — who also happen to be mutants. With quippy humor that amuses kids and adults alike, plus visually striking action set pieces inspired by the comic-book feel of Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, Mutant Mayhem is a fast-paced good time for all audiences. —K.J.

Where to watch Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem: Paramount+

Director: Jeff Rowe

Cast: Micah Abbey, Shamon Brown Jr., Nicolas Cantu, Brady Noon, Ayo Edebiri, Maya Rudolph, John Cena, Seth Rogen, Ice Cube, Jackie Chan

Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991)

Frequently hailed as one of the best sequels of all time, T2 takes the potential of the original Terminator and adds in higher-budget action sequences and an emotionally resonant story. The film follows time-traveling cyborg T-800's (Arnold Schwarzenegger) attempts to protect future resistance leader John Connor (Edward Furlong) and his mother Sarah (Linda Hamilton) from the malevolent T-1000 (Robert Patrick), who is sent to kill them.

Even all these years later, the film holds up surprisingly well, largely due to the chemistry of John and the T-800 and Sarah Connor's badass sensibility, but its visual effects remain impressive, "in part because there's real magic to them, a sense of technological wonder," says EW's critic. "By the end of the movie, we feel that this shape-shifting terminator, this sinister mass of chameleonic metal, has an identity all its own." —K.J.

Where to watch Terminator 2: Judgment Day: Paramount+

EW grade: B+ (read the review)

Director: James Cameron

Cast: Arnold Schwarzenegger, Linda Hamilton, Edward Furlong, Robert Patrick

Top Gun (1986)

Top Gun: Maverick grabbed a lot of headlines (and box office victories) in 2022, but let's not forget where all this military flight bombast began. As EW's critic said in his look back at the now-heralded classic: "Watching Top Gun now…you can see why Cruise, then a baby-faced 23, became the biggest star of the era. His thousand-watt smile is the film's best special effect. He's confident and charismatic, a daredevil riding right into the danger zone."

Today, the sequel's success continues to present an excellent opportunity to revisit Maverick's friendship with Goose (Anthony Edwards), his rivalry with Iceman (Val Kilmer), and the iconic volleyball match that foreshadowed Maverick's football game. But the main takeaway from rewatching the 1986 film is just how those stunning flight scenes are even decades later. (And the soundtrack doesn't hurt, either.) —G.I.

Where to watch Top Gun: Paramount+

EW grade: B (read the review)

Director: Tony Scott

Cast: Tom Cruise, Kelly McGillis, Val Kilmer, Anthony Edwards, Tom Skerritt

Top Gun: Maverick (2022)

Follow up your Top Gun rewatch with its highly acclaimed "legacyquel," released 36 years after the original. Cruise reprises his role as Maverick — whose rebellious streak has remained, even decades later — and is now tasked with training Top Gun graduates, including his old partner Goose's son, Rooster (Miles Teller), who bears a striking resemblance to his father. As Maverick trains his students for a precarious flight mission, he also attempts to overcome the trauma of the past.

With eye-popping aerial sequences and an earnestly emotional core, Top Gun: Maverick earned widespread acclaim not only from audiences but critics, many of whom claimed it as better than the first Top Gun. The film went on to receive six Oscar nominations including Best Picture, taking home the win for Best Sound. —K.J.

Where to watch Top Gun: Maverick: Paramount+

EW grade: B+ (read the review)

Director: Joseph Kosinski

Cast: Tom Cruise, Miles Teller, Jennifer Connelly, Jon Hamm, Glen Powell, Ed Harris, Val Kilmer

Transformers (2007)

The Transformers franchise has had many ups and downs, but few would argue that the 2007 original is its best entry (besides, of course, the previously listed prequel Bumblebee). The film centers on a centuries-old war between alien robots — the Autobots and the Decepticons — who seek control of an artifact to be used for, respectively, good and evil. Shia LaBeouf plays Sam Witwicky, a teenager who proves to be the key to finding the artifact and must prevent it from falling into the wrong hands. EW's critic calls the original Transformers, "a spectacular clash of the heavy metal titans, and a primal reminder of why boys love their toys." —K.J.

Where to watch Transformers: Paramount+

EW grade: N/A (read the review)

Director: Michael Bay

Cast: Shia LaBeouf, Tyrese Gibson, Josh Duhamel, Anthony Anderson, Megan Fox, Rachael Taylor, John Turturro, Jon Voight

Tropic Thunder (2008)

Hollywood skewering Hollywood doesn't always play as intended, but this action comedy is audacious in portraying the pretensions of show business. Ben Stiller (who also directed and co-wrote the film), Jack Black, and Robert Downey Jr. star as actors making a faux-prestigious war movie, with each of them proving demanding for their director. But things go from bad to worse after the director opts for a hidden camera style of filmmaking, and the pampered actors are faced with real-life dangers in the jungle, with no script to guide them.

Tropic Thunder lampoons the absurdity of Hollywood and its inherent shallowness, from self-indulgent method actors to ego-driven producers. "With every character, and with every believably outrageous turn of the plot," writes EW's critic, "Stiller brings real insider knowledge of — and compassion for — the big business of Hollywood make-believe." —K.J.

Where to watch Tropic Thunder: Paramount+

EW grade: A (read the review)

Director: Ben Stiller

Cast: Ben Stiller, Jack Black, Robert Downey Jr., Steve Coogan, Jay Baruchel, Danny McBride, Brandon T. Jackson, Bill Hader, Nick Nolte

War of the Worlds (2005)

Steven Spielberg directed this riveting action thriller update of the classic H.G. Wells story of extraterrestrial invasion. Tom Cruise plays Ray, a divorced father of two who tries to survive amid the invasion as the aliens do battle with humanity via war machines. Of course, with Spielberg at the helm, War of the Worlds isn't just empty spectacle — the film is infused with very real anxieties over the end of the world. "What's unsettling about War of the Worlds, in its roller-coaster nightmare way, isn't so much the aliens' methods of destruction," EW's critic writes, "as it is the film's visceral vision of world annihilation as something uncanny yet imminent, happening right before your eyes." —K.J.

Where to watch War of the Worlds: Paramount+

EW grade: N/A (read the review)

Director: Steven Spielberg

Cast: Tom Cruise, Dakota Fanning, Miranda Otto, Tim Robbins, Morgan Freeman

World War Z (2013)

Brad Pitt leads this globetrotting action drama about a zombie outbreak that quickly turns into an apocalypse. UN investigator Gerry Lane (Pitt) is tasked with finding the source of the outbreak to help develop a vaccine, but, with zombies multiplying by the minute, the clock is ticking. Based on the best-selling novel of the same name by Max Brooks, this adaptation goes in a decidedly more action-oriented direction, delivering massive entertainment even if it's not as deep as its source material. "World War Z is epically scaled, but it's not a messy, noisy, CGI-bogus, throw-everything-at-the-audience sort of blockbuster," writes EW's critic. "It's thrillingly controlled, and it builds in impact." —K.J.

Where to watch World War Z: Paramount+

EW grade: A– (read the review)

Director: Marc Forster

Cast: Brad Pitt, Mireille Enos, James Badge Dale