Top 40 Badass Movies of the Last Ten Years
30. Heist (2001)
Gene Hackman makes every movie seem better than it is. So I couldn’t leave him off this list. Teamed up with a David Mamet script, a man never shy about a few f-bombs, Heist is the story of clever criminals who must worry not only about the authorities but about the treachery of other clever criminals. There’s not a ton of violence, but there’s some ultra cool about a man who can con a con man while working though some on Mamet’s trademark badass dialogue.
29. The Limey (1999)
An extremely volatile and dangerous Englishman about an ex-con seeking revenge on the man that caused his daughter’s death. Stamp plays the Englishman Wilson, a man that just will never let up. Anyone unfortunate enough to get in his way is pretty much toast as well.
28. The Way of the Gun (2000)
Ryan Phillippe and Benicio Del Toro team up as two petty criminals who decided to kidnap a surrogate mother for cash. Though as the movie states, the longest distance between two points is a kidnapper and his money. As you might imagine, things do not go as planned. The two modern day antiheroes are forced to engage in violence, and that violence is often fearsome, difficult, and wholly unpleasant.
27. Domino (2005)
Keira Knightley and Mickey Rourke play bounty hunters in this Tony Scott flick full of raunchy strong language and gun violence. In fact, Knightley’s character is based on a real life model turned bounty hunter. There’s something pretty sexy about a girl who can kick some ass. If you can get past the choppy, dizzying editing you can see Knightley play a cocky badass.
26. Versus (2000)
A film which relies solely on its style and its visual slickness, it pits zombies vesus the yakuza among other face offs. Don’t be worried hwoever, there are plenty of swords slicing, bullets blazing, or good old fashioned martial arts. The movie is totally campy, very bloody and gory, and in the end remains fairly memorable.
25. Taken (2008)
Taken is admirably in-your-face, satisfyingly blunt and a blur of fighting, fear, chasing and excitement at serious pace. Liam Neeson has set the bar high for ass-kicking fathers with his “very particular set of skills”.
24. The Boondock Saints (1999)
The Boondock Saints is the ultimate triumph of style over substance. But it still was a bad ass movie if you’re willing to make a suspension of belief here and there. It’s about two Irish lads who realize what they were put on earth to do, to punish the evil people of the world. In nomine Patri. Et Fili. Spiritus Sancti.
23. Layer Cake (2004)
Before he was Bond, Daniel Craig was the man with no name in Layer Cake, a unique and remarkable experience that weaves a complex web of multiple stories. Craig is the cocaine dealer who’s simply a business man dragged into a mess with crazy Serbians, a double crossing cockney gangster boss, and some of the seedier individuals of the criminal underworld.
22. The Transporter (2002)
Jason Statham pretty much lives on this type of movie, and the Transporter is him at his action-packed best. You get car chases, roundhouse kicks, and generally absurd action while Statham drips attitude as the jack-of-all-trades Transporter.
21. Shooter (2007)
You don’t understand how serious this is. They killed my dog. Never mess with someone who can drop you with his gun from miles away. Mark Wahlberg is Bob Lee Swagger, a one man wrecking crew and special forces operative who is an expert with his sniper rifle. Directed by Antoine Fuqua, watch Wahlberg single handedly kill dozens of people, including a few head shots along the way.
