Worst action movies of the 1980's and 1990's that are still a guilty pleasure

Street Fighter (1994) is mine. absolute mess of a movie but Raul Julia carried it like it was Shakespeare. the one liners are so bad they loop back to being iconic.

For some reason people love shitting on Demolition Man, but I still love it. I was just the right age when it came out, so in my eyes it can do no wrong. Be well, John Spartan.

Ok folks, y’all claiming Big Trouble in Little China or Last Boy Scout are bad movies need your head examined. I’d say the American Ninja series. They are awful, but great for a laugh and fun to watch

Beastmaster! Nonsense script, terrible acting, but Tonya Roberts in the lake....

Over the Top

People just naming some of the best action films to come out of those decades lol.

Lionheart

My wife loves Masters of the Universe and I think that’s hilarious. When we first met she had a cat named Cringer and she told me she loved He-Man.

Hard Target just for Van Dam''s hair alone. I also love when he pushes his duster to the side for his leg like it's a gun.

dude mortal kombat annihilation is such a trainwreck but i still throw it on sometimes too. that whole "too bad, you will die" delivery is peak 90s cheese and i'm here for it. for me it's gotta be demolition man. stallone and snipes chewing scenery like their lives depend on it, plus all that three seashells nonsense. the whole thing is ridiculous but i've probably seen it like 20 times. also maximum overdrive - stephen king directing trucks that come alive and kill people? it's terrible but teh soundtrack by ac/dc slaps and sometimes you just need to watch a soda machine murder someone. these movies hit different as background noise while i'm working on cars in the garage. perfect brain-off entertainment.

I Come In Peace is always a good time. Just a schlocky 80s action flick, with bad one liners, but Dolph is pretty good.

Flash Gordon. As a kid I knew it was bad. Adult me proved that younger me actually did know something. I’ll never forget it though. Before streaming when we would channel surf more, I always stopped and watched it if I came across it.

Surf Ninjas

Krull. Such a cheesy movie, but damned if I didn’t see it every time it came on hbo when I was a kid. Back when action hero’s looked like psychology 101 professors.

Hudson Hawk.

Howard the duck.

Time Cop

Tango & Cash

Commando.

Judge Dredd

Street fighter. Raul Julia humming it up for his kids,Kylie at peak hotness and JVD as Guile What's not to love

Harley Davison and The Marlboro Man. Staring Don Johnson and Mickey Rourke in a movie that came out in '91, yet takes place in '96.... It's not sci-fi or dystopian in any way

Roadhouse (1989). So cheesy but damn it’s so entertaining

The Last Boy Scout.

Gymkata

Double Impact

Robot Jox

Salute of the Jugger! With Rutger Hauer, Joan Chen and a young Vincent D'Onofrio. Filmed in outback Australia. Still love watching that movie. Same with Running Man.

American Ninja, starring Michael Dudikoff.

RoboCop 2 wasn’t as good as RoboCop but it’s way better than people give it credit for

Brother.... go see Miami Connection. Great by yourself, better with a friend, best with a friend with no self awareness that has to make their disdain for stupid shit known every time something incredibly dumb happens in a movie. I rate it eleventy-million out of ten, best way to kill braincells since whippets

Super Mario Bros 1993. Superficial relationship to the games, crazy bad tropes and acting, but Koopa holding a gun to the screen and ordering a pizza special with no worms still cracks me up after all these years. Trust the fungus.

I will always love Con Air

The Guyver 1 & 2 Virtuosity Any Steven Seagal movie especially Under Siege

Gonna have to pull you up on your claim that the acting in Masters of the Universe is "unbelievably bad".  Frank Langella brought an intensity and gravitas to the role of Skeletor that is *utterly absent* from just about any other superhero film you care to mention. E.g. all 37 of the Marvel cinematic universe movies that have been released to date. The only performance that comes close in this genre ballpark, is Raul Julia as M. Bison in 'Streetfighter'.

Best of the Best (1989)

Robin Hood Prince of Thieves

Delta force “Colonel, it’s the major!” Goosebumps everytime!!

Stone Cold... the Boz, his leopard thiong, lizard, Lance Henriksen and biker gangs. Pure cheese

Always bet on black! Passenger 57. A Snipes classic

You can't have this conversation without including They Live.

Street Fighter

Hard Target. JVD punches a rattlesnake, rocks an AMAZING mullet, Lance Hendrikson as the villain, and Wilford Brimley with that perfect Cajun accent. How can you go wrong.

How about Navy Seals with Charlie Sheen and Michael Beine. It felt a lot like watching a video game.

Stone Cold (1991) with The Boz infiltrating that biker gang. The movie is so bad that it's incredible. Trailer: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YffmNPdoR\_4](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YffmNPdoR_4) There's a sequel that I've never been able to track down. It's one of my holy grail movies if I can ever find it.

So many Commando Rambo 2 Any of those chuck Norris movies like missing in action Raw deal American ninja

Big Trouble in Little China is the best action movie ever. Also kind of a guilty pleasure.

Face/off

Lone Wolf McQuade (1983) After helping the local police with some horse thieves, a Texas Ranger aims at a drug lord with arms trade as well. They're interested in the same woman and they're both into martial arts. (Chuck Norris' best movie) Uncommon Valor (1983) Ten years after his son went M.I.A. in Vietnam, U.S. Marine retired Colonel Jason Rhodes assembles a private rescue team to find Americans held in P.O.W. camps in Laos. (Actually a good movie, but criminally underrated) Remo Williams: The Adventure Begins (1985) An officially "dead" cop is trained to become an extraordinary unique assassin in service of the US President. (Featuring Joel Grey as an ancient Korean martial arts master) Aces: Iron Eagle III (1992) Chappy discovers a drug-smuggling scheme at his own air base. It turns out that the lives of some village people in Peru are at stake, and he decides to fly there with ancient airplanes and friends to free them. (Gloriously bad sequel to a Top Gun rip-off where Lou Gossett Jr teams up with a female bodybuilder to fly WWII fighter planes and fight drug dealers in South America)

Invasion U.S.A.

Dead Heat

Sudden death

Tango & Cash

Some of these suggestions…Demolition Man, Tango & Cash, Commando, Last Boy Scout? These are legitimately great movies, among the best action flicks and certainly not at all a guilty pleasure. Not everything has to be Goodfellas or Taxi Driver to have proper merit.

Equilibrium

RAD. The bike dancing scene lives rent free in my head for 40 years.

The delta force with chuck Norris.  Blatant propaganda?  Sure.   But it scratches that action itch and that theme song is iconic as far as I’m concerned. 

Most derived action flicks of the eighties and ninties have come full circle and outshines most of the celebrated dogshit released in the last fifteen years.

Remo Williams: The Adventure Begins.

Red Dawn. WOLVERINES!!!!! NO retreat. NO Surrender Adventures in Babysitting...I may have misunderstood the assignment, but Ill stand by it.

Congo, but it’s actually a comedy. Tim Curry’s performance is Oscar worthy.

Ninja 3: The Domination

Batman forever