Great 80's Action Cheese
by j.e.collins | created - 23 Feb 2011 | updated - 27 Feb 2011 | Public- Instant Watch Options
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1. Commando (1985)
R | 90 min | Action, Adventure, Thriller
A retired Special Forces colonel tries to save his daughter, who was abducted by his former subordinate.
Director: Mark L. Lester | Stars: Arnold Schwarzenegger, Rae Dawn Chong, Dan Hedaya, Vernon Wells
Votes: 174,825 | Gross: $35.10M
2. Rambo: First Blood Part II (1985)
R | 96 min | Action, Adventure, Thriller
Rambo returns to the jungles of Vietnam on a mission to infiltrate an enemy base-camp and rescue the American POWs still held captive there.
Director: George P. Cosmatos | Stars: Sylvester Stallone, Richard Crenna, Charles Napier, Steven Berkoff
Votes: 182,428 | Gross: $150.42M
3. Young Guns (1988)
R | 107 min | Action, Drama, Western
A group of young gunmen, led by Billy the Kid, become deputies to avenge the murder of the rancher who became their benefactor. But when Billy takes their authority too far, they become the hunted.
Director: Christopher Cain | Stars: Emilio Estevez, Kiefer Sutherland, Lou Diamond Phillips, Charlie Sheen
Votes: 68,026 | Gross: $45.66M
4. Cobra (1986)
R | 87 min | Action, Crime, Thriller
A tough-on-crime street cop must protect the only surviving witness to a strange murderous cult with far-reaching plans.
Director: George P. Cosmatos | Stars: Sylvester Stallone, Brigitte Nielsen, Reni Santoni, Andrew Robinson
Votes: 79,589 | Gross: $49.04M
5. Death Wish 3 (1985)
R | 90 min | Action, Crime, Drama
Architect/vigilante Paul Kersey arrives back in New York City and is forcibly recruited by a crooked police chief to fight street crime caused by a large gang terrorizing the neighborhoods.
Director: Michael Winner | Stars: Charles Bronson, Deborah Raffin, Ed Lauter, Martin Balsam
Votes: 17,369 | Gross: $16.12M
6. Rocky IV (1985)
PG | 91 min | Drama, Sport
Rocky Balboa proudly holds the world heavyweight boxing championship, but a new challenger has stepped forward: Drago, a six-foot-four, 261-pound fighter who has the backing of the Soviet Union.
Director: Sylvester Stallone | Stars: Sylvester Stallone, Talia Shire, Burt Young, Carl Weathers
Votes: 226,347 | Gross: $127.87M
7. Highlander (1986)
R | 116 min | Action, Adventure, Fantasy
An immortal Scottish swordsman must confront the last of his immortal opponents, a murderously brutal barbarian who lusts for the fabled "Prize".
Director: Russell Mulcahy | Stars: Christopher Lambert, Sean Connery, Clancy Brown, Roxanne Hart
Votes: 147,386 | Gross: $5.90M
8. They Live (1988)
R | 94 min | Action, Horror, Sci-Fi
They influence our decisions without us knowing it. They numb our senses without us feeling it. They control our lives without us realizing it. They live.
Director: John Carpenter | Stars: Roddy Piper, Keith David, Meg Foster, George 'Buck' Flower
Votes: 145,409 | Gross: $13.01M
9. Black Rain (1989)
R | 125 min | Action, Crime, Drama
Two NYC cops arrest a Yakuza member and must escort him when he's extradited to Japan.
Director: Ridley Scott | Stars: Michael Douglas, Andy Garcia, Ken Takakura, Kate Capshaw
Votes: 59,679 | Gross: $46.21M
10. The Running Man (1987)
R | 101 min | Action, Sci-Fi, Thriller
In a dystopian America, a falsely convicted policeman gets his shot at freedom when he must forcibly participate in a TV game show where convicts, runners, must battle killers for their freedom.
Director: Paul Michael Glaser | Stars: Arnold Schwarzenegger, Maria Conchita Alonso, Yaphet Kotto, Jim Brown
Votes: 167,595 | Gross: $38.12M
11. Extreme Prejudice (1987)
R | 105 min | Action, Crime, Drama
A Texas Ranger and a ruthless narcotics kingpin - they were childhood friends, now they are adversaries...
Director: Walter Hill | Stars: Nick Nolte, Powers Boothe, Michael Ironside, Maria Conchita Alonso
Votes: 8,749 | Gross: $11.31M
12. Black Moon Rising (1986)
R | 100 min | Action, Crime, Thriller
A thief, Quint, is hired by the Justice Department to steal incriminating tapes from a corrupt corporation. The tapes vanish when Quint hides them in the back of a hydrodynamic powered racing car that is stolen by a hot car ring.
Director: Harley Cokeliss | Stars: Tommy Lee Jones, Linda Hamilton, Robert Vaughn, Richard Jaeckel
Votes: 6,619 | Gross: $6.64M
13. Tango & Cash (1989)
R | 104 min | Action, Comedy, Crime
Framed by their ruthless arch-nemesis, a pair of mismatched LAPD officers must put their differences aside to get even with the brutal crime baron who sent them to rot in a maximum-security prison.
Directors: Andrey Konchalovskiy, Albert Magnoli | Stars: Sylvester Stallone, Kurt Russell, Teri Hatcher, Jack Palance
Votes: 113,512 | Gross: $63.41M
14. Rambo III (1988)
R | 102 min | Action, Adventure, Thriller
Rambo mounts a one-man mission to rescue his friend Colonel Trautman from the clutches of the formidable invading Soviet forces in Afghanistan.
Director: Peter MacDonald | Stars: Sylvester Stallone, Richard Crenna, Marc de Jonge, Kurtwood Smith
Votes: 140,161 | Gross: $53.72M
15. Lone Wolf McQuade (1983)
PG | 107 min | Action, Crime, Drama
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.
Director: Steve Carver | Stars: Chuck Norris, David Carradine, Barbara Carrera, Leon Isaac Kennedy
Votes: 13,953 | Gross: $12.23M
16. Red Heat (1988)
R | 104 min | Action, Comedy, Crime
A tough Russian policeman is forced to partner up with a cocky Chicago police detective when he is sent to Chicago to apprehend a Georgian drug lord who killed his partner and fled the country.
Director: Walter Hill | Stars: Arnold Schwarzenegger, Jim Belushi, Peter Boyle, Ed O'Ross
Votes: 76,014 | Gross: $34.99M
17. Code of Silence (1985)
R | 100 min | Action, Crime, Drama
A Chicago cop is caught in the middle of a gang war while his own comrades shun him because he wants to take down an irresponsible cop.
Director: Andrew Davis | Stars: Chuck Norris, Henry Silva, Bert Remsen, Mike Genovese
Votes: 9,384 | Gross: $20.35M
18. Avenging Force (1986)
R | 104 min | Action, Drama, Thriller
A senator is targeted by the Pentangle, a right wing paramilitary group. His pal, a former CIA agent and martial artist, tries to help him. The group kidnaps the agent's sister and tries to hunt him down, "The Most Dangerous Game" style.
Director: Sam Firstenberg | Stars: Michael Dudikoff, Steve James, James Booth, William Wallace
Votes: 3,340 | Gross: $4.68M
19. Wanted: Dead or Alive (1986)
R | 106 min | Action, Crime, Drama
Bounty hunter Nick Randall (Rutger Hauer) is offered two hundred fifty thousand dollars by the C.I.A. to get the terrorist behind the bombing of a Los Angeles, California movie theater. Nick quit the C.I.A. because he couldn't trust them. Can they be trusted now, and can he stop the terrorists?
Director: Gary Sherman | Stars: Rutger Hauer, Gene Simmons, Robert Guillaume, Mel Harris
Votes: 5,994 | Gross: $7.56M
20. Above the Law (1988)
R | 99 min | Action, Crime, Drama
A former Special Operations Vietnam vet works as a Chicago cop, and uncovers C.I.A. wrongdoing.
Director: Andrew Davis | Stars: Steven Seagal, Pam Grier, Henry Silva, Ron Dean
Votes: 34,602 | Gross: $18.87M
21. The Punisher (1989)
R | 89 min | Action, Crime, Thriller
When Frank Castle's family is murdered by criminals, he wages war on crime as a vigilante assassin known only as The Punisher.
Director: Mark Goldblatt | Stars: Dolph Lundgren, Louis Gossett Jr., Jeroen Krabbé, Kim Miyori
Votes: 25,788
22. Cyborg (1989)
R | 86 min | Action, Sci-Fi, Thriller
A martial artist hunts a killer in a plague-infested urban dump of the future.
Director: Albert Pyun | Stars: Jean-Claude Van Damme, Deborah Richter, Vincent Klyn, Alex Daniels
Votes: 34,209 | Gross: $10.17M
23. Over the Top (1987)
PG | 93 min | Action, Drama, Sport
Tough trucker Lincoln Hawk is determined to win back his son and triumph at the world arm wrestling championships.
Director: Menahem Golan | Stars: Sylvester Stallone, Robert Loggia, Susan Blakely, Rick Zumwalt
Votes: 59,353 | Gross: $16.06M
24. Lock Up (1989)
R | 109 min | Action, Crime, Drama
With only six months left of his sentence, inmate Frank Leone is transferred from a minimum security prison to a maximum security prison by a vindictive warden.
Director: John Flynn | Stars: Sylvester Stallone, Donald Sutherland, John Amos, Sonny Landham
Votes: 46,421 | Gross: $22.10M
25. Red Dawn (1984)
PG-13 | 114 min | Action, Drama, Thriller
It is the dawn of World War III. In the west mountains of America, a group of teenagers band together to defend their town, and their country, from invading Soviet forces.
Director: John Milius | Stars: Patrick Swayze, C. Thomas Howell, Lea Thompson, Charlie Sheen
Votes: 63,040 | Gross: $38.38M
26. Kickboxer (1989)
R | 97 min | Action, Sport, Thriller
Kurt Sloane must learn the ancient kick boxing art of Muay Thai in order to avenge his brother.
Directors: Mark DiSalle, David Worth | Stars: Jean-Claude Van Damme, Dennis Alexio, Dennis Chan, Michel Qissi
Votes: 60,844 | Gross: $14.70M
27. Bloodsport (1988)
R | 92 min | Action, Biography, Drama
"Bloodsport" follows Frank Dux, an American martial artist serving in the military, who decides to leave the army to compete in a martial arts tournament in Hong Kong where fights to the death can occur.
Director: Newt Arnold | Stars: Jean-Claude Van Damme, Donald Gibb, Leah Ayres, Norman Burton
Votes: 93,963 | Gross: $11.81M
28. The Delta Force (1986)
R | 125 min | Action, Adventure, Drama
After a plane is hijacked by terrorists, The Delta Force is sent in to resolve the crisis.
Director: Menahem Golan | Stars: Chuck Norris, Lee Marvin, Martin Balsam, Joey Bishop
Votes: 21,907 | Gross: $17.77M
29. American Ninja (1985)
R | 95 min | Action, Adventure, Romance
American soldier, obviously very skilled in martial arts, single-handedly takes on mercenaries in the Philippines.
Director: Sam Firstenberg | Stars: Michael Dudikoff, Steve James, Judie Aronson, Guich Koock
Votes: 16,725 | Gross: $10.50M
30. Raw Deal (1986)
R | 106 min | Action, Crime, Thriller
A former FBI agent turned small-town sheriff agrees to help the FBI chief infiltrate the Chicago mafia when the FBI chief's son is killed by them.
Director: John Irvin | Stars: Arnold Schwarzenegger, Kathryn Harrold, Sam Wanamaker, Paul Shenar
Votes: 37,589 | Gross: $16.21M
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