The 20 Best Action Movies of 2022 (So Far) (2023)

The Gray Man

Netflix put a boatload of cash into The Gray Man—a Russo brothers-directed spy/action thriller starring Ryan Gosling vs. Chris Evans—and it seems to have paid off. Their standoff sends them all over the world and Gosling's Fast & Furious-esque heroics put him as close to a superhero role as the actor has seen in his career yet.

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Jurassic World: Dominion (In Theaters)

Prey

A prequel of sorts to the original Predator from the late 80s, Prey also serves as a reboot for the franchise and a reestablishing of the Predator and what he wants. Amber Midthunder stars as a Comanche warrior out to prove to her community that she can hunt with the best of men, and a dangerous alien on a killing spree is the perfect test.

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Bullet Train (In Theaters)

Lightyear

Disney gave Toy Story fans another animated romp for the whole family with Lightyear, a story that delves into Buzz Lightyear's backstory as an outer space explorer. This Buzz Lightyear has no idea that he's being sold in the outside world as a collectible action figure, however, since Lightyear focuses on the fictional movie in the Toy Story universe that would go on to make Buzz such a popular figurine.

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Beast (In Theaters)

Secret Headquarters

A teenage boy and his friends discover that his father has a secret superhero lair under their house in Secret Headquarters, an original action-comedy film for Paramount+. Owen Wilson stars as an Iron Man-like hero hunted by criminals trying to steal his technology, while also protecting four teenagers who know his secret from danger.

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Sonic the Hedgehog 2

It took a second movie to get there, but Sonic the Hedgehog's friends Tails and Knuckles are finally along for the ride. Sonic is no longer the only non-human being on Earth, but it's bad timing because the evil Dr. Robotnik conspires to defeat Sonic by finding the dangerously powerful Chaos Emerald.

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The Man from Toronto

The Man from Toronto, played by Woody Harrelson, is an international assassin hired by criminal organizations to extract information in brutal interrogations. When a case of mistaken identity leaves everyone to believe that a Virginia fitness instructor (Kevin Hart) is the Man from Toronto, the scared comedian must help Harrelson finish his latest dangerous mission.

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Blacklight

Liam Neeson plays an off-the-books FBI "fixer" in Blacklight, an action thriller about the guy who cleans up the U.S. government's messes that it doesn't want to you know about. When he finds out that the FBI is secretly assassinating whistleblowers and left-wing politicians, however, he turns his sights back toward taking down his own organization.

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Day Shift

Jamie Foxx stars in this Los Angeles vampire hunting flick for Netflix, mixing Blade with humor and Snoop Dogg cameos. Dave Franco also stars as Foxx's trainee and buddy bounty hunter.

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The Adam Project

Free Guy director Shawn Levy teamed up with Ryan Reynolds once again for The Adam Project on Netflix, a sci-fi/action film about a pilot who goes back in time to meet his younger self and stop time travel from ever being invented.

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The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent

Nicolas Cage, playing himself, receives an offer to attend a billionaire playboy Javi Gutierrez's birthday party for one million dollars. He's thinking about retiring, but Javi is a major fan of his work. However, the U.S. government informs Cage that Javi is one of the most ruthless criminals on the planet, and they want his help to take him down.

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RRR

RRR is an epic action drama from India about two real-life revolutionaries and their fight against British rule. Made on a budget of around $72 million, RRR is the most expensive Indian film to date, featuring tiger fights, insane motorcycle stunts, and heavily dramatized history.

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Everything Everywhere All at Once

A zany action comedy and indie favorite from this year's SXSW Film Festival, Everything Everywhere All at Once features the legendary Michelle Yeoh in one of her greatest starring roles yet. A multiverse adventure that's simultaneously a layered family drama, Everything Everywhere is quite literally all things at once—action-packed, humorous, bizarre, and heartwarming.

Read our full review.

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The Batman

The DC hero is back and grittier than ever in Matt Reeves' dark, punishing The Batman, featuring Robert Pattinson as a young, emo Bruce Wayne just beginning to navigate the deadly streets of Gotham. Over the film's nearly three-hour runtime, Batman revs his Batmobile, cozies up with Zoe Kravitz's Catwoman, and beats down baddies like Colin Farrell's Penguin and Paul Dano's Riddler.

Read our full review.

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Ambulance

Starring Jake Gyllenhaal and Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, Ambulance sees director Michael Bay in peak action movie mindset. The Armageddon and Transformers franchise filmmaker returns for a nonstop ride about two bank robbers who hijack an ambulance as a means of escape.

Read our cover story with Jake Gyllenhaal.

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The Lost City

While on a book tour with her Fabio-parody cover model (Channing Tatum), a romance novelist (Sandra Bullock) is kidnapped when a deranged billionaire (Daniel Radcliffe) believes her titular "Lost City" is not only real but full of gold. Brad Pitt also makes a hilarious cameo as a CIA operative tasked with rescuing them from a remote volcanic island.

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The Northman

A brooding and violent Viking tale, Robert Eggers' The Northman is a brutal tale of revenge and folk savagery. The film stars an absolutely raging Alexander Skarsgård alongside Nicole Kidman, Ethan Hawke, Anya Taylor-Joy, Willem Dafoe, and Icelandic singing sensation Björk as the Seeress.

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Uncharted

Based on the popular PlayStation video game franchise, Uncharted partners Mark Wahlberg with Tom Holland as a seasoned fortune hunter and his young protege. Like National Treasure, but with more falling out of planes and less historical puzzle solving, the two adventurers embark on a perilous journey to uncover a hidden fortune that would make Indiana Jones's head spin.

Read our full review.

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