The rule of action movies: whoever breaks the most stuff wins. Sure, there might be this "writer" who throws in a "plot," but everyone knows that action movies are really about seeing people get kicked, shot, punched, thrown through glass, thrown off buildings, or otherwise creatively disemboweled. On this front, our choice of the top 5 action movies to rent will not disappoint. They all involve fights, guns, more fights, bigger guns, and if you're lucky, a gunfight.

But before you go on to read our reviews, we have to add a disclaimer. Action movies, by definition, cut across all genres of movie films. Blade Runner, The Matrix, and the Terminator flicks could all arguably be called sci-fi flicks. But we think that they're more about the action than the sci-fi, so we'll call them action movies. You don't like it? Then start your own website!

So sit back, relax, and enjoy our top recommendations for testosterone-filled entertainment. Be sure to have plenty of beer handy... it makes the brain-deadening process all the more pleasurable.

1. BLADE RUNNER (1982)

Most of us assume that everything from the eighties - and the early eighties in particular - is a hokey mess. Absurd hair, ridiculous rock groups, and a bottomless pit of cheesy teen flicks. True, many of us who lived in the eighties are pretty embarrassed about the whole episode. But it could have been worse. First, it could have been the seventies. Second, it could have come and gone without Blade Runner. This movie redeems much of the eighties, wiping off the phony feel-good vibe of the whole decade. Ridley Scott presents his vision of the future - and he's not a half-full kind of guy. Tapping into the lineage of profound pessimism (and with a little help from Philip K. Dick, whose novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? provides the basis for the film), Scott joins Hobbes and Macchiavelli as another brilliant amigo who's taken a gander into humanity's crystal ball and seen nothing but filth. And now we can enjoy that depressing feeling perpetually by watching this movie again and again.

While other directors were conceiving of the future as an updated version of the fifties a la Back to the Future, Ridley used his brain. Things are not going to get better, they're going to get a lot worse. He sets Blade Runner in 2020 L.A., replete with impenetrable smog, massive skyscrapers ringed by third-world shantytowns, and gargantuan billboards everywhere. A lot like L.A. today but with fewer cell phones and, if you can believe it, even more smog. Harrison Ford is the Blade Runner - a former cop whose job it is to hunt down androids (or as they're known in this flick, replicants). A handful of replicants have mutinied on an outer planet and have returned to Earth to exact a little revenge on their maker. Harrison proposes an intervention. Look for cameos by questions of humanity and creation.

We're not going to lie to you and tell you that this movie will make you feel warm and fuzzy. Hell, you may not even like the characters very much. But you'll quickly learn why this movie was nominated for Oscars in Best Art Direction and Best Effects. Before Blade Runner, the American cinematic vision of the future was a cross between Pleasantville and The Jetsons; Ridley's bad day changed all that forever.

Notes:

  • Nominated for 2 Academy Awards in technical categories

  • Got squished at the box office because it premiered the same day as E.T.

2. DIE HARD (1988)

What? How the hell did a Bruce Willis movie get on this list? Two answers: 1) he bribed us with equity in Planet Hollywood (a lot of good that did us), and 2) this is one of the best "terrorists hold hostages" movies you'll see.

It all starts out innocently enough: NYC cop Bruce goes to see his wife, a hot-shot businesswoman, at her office Christmas party (being held on the 32nd floor of the Nakatomi Tower in Los Angeles). He shows up and they squabble a bit, when a group of terrorists siege the building and hold the entire office hostage. It's up to Brucie to stop terrorist leader Hans (Alan Rickman) and save the lives of the hostages. Oh, and there are lots of guns, explosions, and images of breaking glass. And that about sums it all up.

What separates Die Hard from the other action movies are two things: the pacing of the film (it never drags), and more importantly, the dynamic between hero Willis and villain Rickman. Rickman's Hans is not a mere terrorist, but well-educated and Eurotrashy, creating the ultimate contrast to Willis' down-in-the-dirt tough-tawkin' cop.

Sure, it's big, loud, and brainless. But on the other hand, it's big, loud, and brainless. The quintessential summer movie: loads of action, a fun storyline, a kick-ass villain, and tons of those one-liners (yipee-a-yo-kayay...).

Notes:

  • Bruce Willis' first hit (besides his TV show Moonlighting)

  • Nominated for 4 Academy Awards (all technical categories)

  • Reginald Van Johnson was subsequently relegated to TV hell by becoming a mainstay on the TV show Family Matters

  • Followed by two sequels: Die Hard 2 and Die Hard: With a Vengeance

3. THE MATRIX (1999)

The key to a truly phenomenal futuristic action flick is a total command of special effects married to a fresh vision of the future. If you can throw in a bad-ass plot, you're golden. The Matrix is pure platinum. Together with T2, this film represents the pinnacle of its genre. The effects - which are being copied on a daily basis (even for Gap commercials) - are unbelievable. The vision of the future is philosophically profound and intellectually challenging. The plot is butt-kicking. We've got a keeper here.

The Wachowski brothers are like the Puff Daddies of cinema: they've pulled in all the coolest bits of stuff that's gone before. So in The Matrix, we have the cool "what is the future" enigma sampled from Total Recall and Strange Days, we have the long-overdue martial arts sequences from Jackie Chan's best work, and the blazing guns of Heat and Arnold's Predator. It's a powerful brew, and you're likely to be thrilled by the fact that Keanu and the brothers will be back for Matrix 2 in another year or so.

For many, this film was the first DVD they bought, and for good reason. On DVD, you can isolate the action sequences - who are we kidding, it's all action - and revel in riveting ultra-slow-mo cinematography set to autobahn-driving music. Oh, and lest you think that the visual effects are confined to computer generated images, remember that Keanu and Carrie-Anne Moss are the leads . . . and they're almost believable. Now that's good filmmaking.

Notes:

  • Nominated for 4 Academy Awards, including Best Visual Effects and Editing

  • Made over $150 million

4. RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK (1981)

We've all heard of those cheesy cliffhanger movies of the 1940s, where a Hero (with a capital H) is just about to get crushed, shot, or maimed in some creative fashion by a Villain, when an announcer calls out, "Will he survive?! Find out next week!" Of course the hero will make it! Otherwise there would be no movie. But it's still thrilling to watch the hero escape impossible situations, get the girl, and save the day.

Now multiply this by one thousand, and you get Raiders of the Lost Ark. Inspired by cliffhangers and treasure-hunters, Steven Spielberg's film is aimed purely at the 8-year-old matinee movie audience. It's so blatant about its heroes and villains (who are Nazis or people with sleazy French accents), you never have to think once in this film. It is the absolute archetype of quality escapist cinema.

The first scene of the film is already a classic (and has been parodied countless times): 1930s archeologist/adventurer Indiana Jones (Harrison Ford) enters a booby-trapped temple in the South American jungle, contending with spiders, poisoned darts, crumbling walls, and a huge boulder that comes rolling out of nowhere. Beats a desk job, don't it? We then find out that Indiana's next task is to find the legendary Ark of the Covenant and get it into American hands before the Nazis get it first. Along the way, Indiana encounters an old flame (Karen Allen) and encounters many near-death experiences, including guns, swords, poisoned prunes, dynamite, face meltings, and death-by-snake. We will not lie to you: while all of the violence is cartoonish, this is nonetheless a horrifically violent film. But hey, you wanted action, and it more than provides.

The thing that sets Raiders of the Lost Ark apart from so many other films (in fact, it was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Picture) is its narrative quality: the storytelling is amazingly strong, keeping the action moving forward while still allowing us to identify with Indy. It also has a wry sense of humor. In one scene, a man in black robes stands before our intrepid hero, swirling a sword over his head and around his body in nun-chuck fashion, just about to attack. Indy watches the display, takes out a gun, and casually shoots the guy. Gun beats sword.

Raiders was followed by two sequels: Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, and Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. Don't bother with the first sequel; it has action, but it just lacks the spark of the first one. But if you like Raiders, then you should definitely check out Last Crusade. It recaptures the originals lighthearted tone while still putting some amazing action sequences in the foreground.

Notes:

  • Nominated for 9 Academy Awards including Best Picture and Best Director (Steven Spielberg)

  • Won 5 Academy Awards: Best Art/Set Direction, Visual Effects, Editing, Sound, Sound-Effect Editing

  • Tom Selleck was supposed to originally portray Indy, but he was locked into Magnum P.I.

  • Placed #60 on the American Film Institute's "100 Greatest Movies" List

5. TERMINATOR & TERMINATOR 2 (1984/1991)

You may find this hard to believe - hell, you may not even want to believe it - but the same man who brought us Titanic brought us the Terminators: James Cameron. Well, he directed them, but who are we kidding, the guy who brought us these movies was Ahnuld and Ahnuld alone. In the first film, Schwarzenegger broke into the mainstream after his cult Conan flicks and it was here that he redefined the role of the Bad Guy. Before this, bad guys were chumps, fodder for the pimp in the white hat. Here, you've got the most unbelievable specimen of humanity personifying Evil, and Arnold delivered. He makes his entrance in the buff and more or less immediately puts his fist through someone's torso. After that, it's 108 minutes of action and ass-kicking.

But beyond the ass-kicking, killing, and maiming, The Terminator has a complex plot that's far more sophisticated than the typical Hollywood action flick. Involving the nuclear threat, prescient visions of future technology, and intricate space-time wrinkles, the film is way ahead of its time. In fact, the police station decimation is also cutting edge; before it, no film had ever depicted such a high body count. More importantly, though, this film was the first place we heard Arnold utter the gospel: "I'll be back."

That's for sure. Following up on the tremendous success of The Terminator, Cameron, Schwarzenegger, and Linda Hamilton teamed up for the sequel, T2. Again, the film broke ground, featuring huge advances in computer graphics and motion picture f/x. The film also broke all sorts of financial records: indeed, in true James Cameron tradition, it was the first action film to cost over $100 million. Arnold was back as the same mean cyborg, but he's facing the prospect of being made obsolete by technological advances in the future; namely, the metal morphing, ice-cold T-1000.

These two movies are major landmarks in the history of action cinema and you must see them to be culturally literate in our society. More importantly, you need to see them so that you can follow the forthcoming T3. That's right, he'll be back.

Notes:

  • The Terminator won a Saturn Award for Best Science Fiction Film

  • Terminator 2: Judgment Day was nominated for 6 Academy Awards

  • Terminator 2: Judgment Day won 4 Academy Awards (for Best Visual Effects, Makeup, Sound Effects Editing, and Sound)

  • Terminator 2: Judgment Day also won numerous MTV, BAFTA, and People's Choice awards.