25 Best Action Movies: The Highest-Rated of Each Year Since 1998

We’re celebrating 25 years of Rotten Tomatoes with a look back at the most celebrated movie of each year since 1998, concluding the series by saying, “Action!” It’s a genre that has much overlap with previous articles, especially for science-fiction and superheroes. But we sent the likes of Avatar, The Matrix, and even The Hunger Games into sci-fi consideration, and all the elevated tumblin’ and brawlin’ of Marvel, DC, and Archie Comics under the purview of the superhero genre.

What remains is a toned, finessed list of the best action movie of each year, chosen by applying our recommendation formula. It’s a calculation based on the Tomatometer and Audience Score that prioritizes titles that stood out among critics and fans, combined with a pinch of curatorial love from our editors.

And, naturally, the list begins with a possibly controversial pick: 1998’s Saving Private Ryan. Obviously, it’s a war movie, though the argument can be made that’s a subset of the action genre. Plus, Steven Spielberg’s re-creation of the D-Day Allied invasion contains more concentrated action filmmaking than some entire franchises.

1999’s Three Kings is an even more offbeat war movie choice, combining a satirical story with more conventional cool. And then we doubt there’ll be much objection to the 2001 selection, Ridley Scott’s relentless Black Hawk Down.

The highest-recommended action movie for 2000 was Ang Lee’s Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, and in its wake we see the rise in taste for pan-Asian action movies brought over to America. See: Jet Li’s Hero (2002), Tony Jaa’s Ong-Bak: The Thai Warrior, Stephen Chow’s Kung Fu Hustle (2004), John Woo’s Red Cliff (2008), and Takashi Miike’s 13 Assassins.

David Cronenberg makes an unlikely appearance with the graphic A History of Violence in 2005. And in 2006 and 2007, we get the best of Bond and Bourne: 007 reboot Casino Royale, and from the franchise that made James get serious, The Bourne Ultimatum. (Skyfall, the other major Bond highlight from the Daniel Craig era, tops 2012.)

Then get blasted by the ’70s and ’80s with 2009’s blaxploitation tribute Black Dynamite and synthwave-pioneering Drive. After that, we see Mark Wahlberg launch his true-story movie triumvirate with director Peter Berg in 2013’s Lone Survivor. (They later made Deepwater Horizon and Patriots Day.)

Starting in 2014, the action game changed with Keanu Reeves and Tom Cruise. The two have been going back and forth as the world’s top action star with the John Wick movies for Reeves and the Mission: Impossible and Top Gun movies driving Cruise. With us for the ride are Shane Black’s The Nice Guys (2016), Edgar Wright’s Baby Driver (2017), Mads Mikkelsen’s Riders of Justice (2020), and Bob Odenkirk’s Nobody (2021).