30 Years of Action: Celebrating 10 Films from 1993
Since I’m still riding the high of our August Actionversary here at Bulletproof Action, why not start off our fall content with a look at many of the action films that celebrate their 30th Anniversary in the year 2023!
1993 was a banner year for the action genre and many of our favorite action stars. This won’t be an all-encompassing list of everything action-centric from ’93, but what it will have is my top ten picks of films that deserve a celebration for hitting the big 3-0 and still being as entertaining as they were on my Day One viewing. These ten films are all what I’d consider required viewing for anyone looking for an action fix. From assassinations in the jungle to capoeira on the mean streets of Miami, this is a list of films guaranteed to get your heart pumping fast!
Sniper (Released on January 29.1993)
1993 wasn’t wasting any time when it came to action, and the first month of the year brought us a film that ended up spawning a franchise that is still going strong 30 years later! When Master Gunnery Sergeant Thomas Beckett (Tom Berenger) and his new protege Richard Miller (Billy Zane) are deployed to take out an ex-CIA agent who has become the leader of a guerrilla faction, they must not only deal with their target and his army, but the distrust and tension between each other. Sniper did well at the box office, debuting at #2 and raking in $19 million dollar in ticket sales, but it wasn’t until nearly 10 years later that a sequel was commissioned. Both Berenger and Zane would reprise their roles at various points in the franchise, but the main focus has moved onto the character of Beckett’s son Brandon (Chad Michael Collins) who has followed in his father’s footsteps as a Master Sergeant.
Best of the Best II (Released on March 5, 1993)
It’s hard to believe it’s been three decades since Eric Roberts, Phillip Rhee, and Chris Penn reprised their roles from Best of the Best and took the series into a more action-driven direction. In Best of the Best II, the trio have parlayed their fame as members of the US team into opening a karate studio, only for Travis (Penn) to continue fighting in Las Vegas’ underground circuit. When he’s killed by the brutish Brakus, it’s up to Alex (Roberts) and Tommy (Rhee) to avenge their friend and shut “The Coliseum” down once and for all. Best of the Best II took the series down a different path (and laid the groundwork for it to get as far away from the original film as possible with the third and fourth films in the series), but it was fun to see these legitimate, world renowned athletes turn into karate vigilantes and kick ass. Not to mention watching Las Vegas stalwart Wayne Newton as the slimy gangster that’s responsible for the fights, playing it part Mafioso, part Vince McMahon. I recently did a Best of the Best II fight scene for Scene of the Week, but unfortunately it looks like that particular video ended up yanked off Youtube. That’s ok, though, because if you haven’t seen it in a while (or at all), I recommend you track the whole film down ASAP!
Ring of Fire II: Blood and Steel (Released on March 17, 1993)
The Best of the Best series wasn’t the only one that took things in an entirely different direction in 1993. Whereas the first Ring of Fire was a martial arts interpretation of West Side Story, this one foregoes any attempt to be anything but a balls out VHS era action epic! Who can resist Don “The Dragon” Wilson journeying through the LA underground, fighting against a variety of costumed gangs in order to save his lady love? You can hear our thoughts on this one at greater length on the Ring of Fire II episode of the Bulletproof Podcast, but I’ll repeat here what I said their: this is a better Double Dragon movie than the actual Double Dragon movie that was released a year later.
Excessive Force (Released on May 14, 1993)
Another film that we covered at length on the Bulletproof Podcast turned thirty this year, and it’s one that stars a man who only recently became well-known to a whole new audience. Thomas Ian Griffith is most famous for being the eccentric and sinister Terry Silver, who brainwashed Daniel LaRusso in The Karate Kid Part III and reprised the character in Cobra Kai. In Excessive Force, TIG plays Terry McCain, a detective with a habit of playing by his own rules. That doesn’t earn him any favors with the local mob or even some of his fellow officers, so McCain has to fight against both in an effort to bring down the people framing him for murder. TIG is much more subdued here than he is when he sinks his teeth into the role of Terry Silver, but Excessive Force is a film that feels forgotten by the mainstream, but is celebrated by action fans who enjoyed Griffith’s badass appeal.
To Be the Best (Released on August 3, 1993)
Celebrating its 30th Anniversary during our Actionversary month is another film that features representatives of US martial arts finding more trouble than they bargained for in Sin City. Friend of the site Michael Worth stars as Eric Kulhane, a world-class kickboxer living in the shadow of his father (Martin Kove), who just so happens to be coaching the US Kickboxing Team that Eric and his troubled brother Sam (Phillip Troy) fight on. The trip to Vegas seems the team end up in their fair share of non-tournament brawls with their Thai rivals, which are often more exciting than the tournament fight scenes. We’ve also got Eric’s relationship troubles, a traitorous teammate, a gambler who wants to rig the tournament, car chases, and exploding helicopters! To Be The Best is one of the early entries on PM Entertainment’s filmography, but it’s one of my favorites that I still watch at least once a year.
TC 2000 (Released on August 18, 1993)
Speaking of all-star casts, how about the one that Shapiro-Glickenhaus Entertainment put together for this movie? We’ve got Billy Blanks, Matthias Hues, Jalal Merhi, and the legendary badass Bolo Yeung (playing a good guy!) all together for a futuristic fight fest! Well, futuristic for the time, since the future that TC 2000 was talking about in 1993 was the year 2020, and things weren’t any better for these folks than they were for us in that year. Most people have been forced underground, but when Jason Storm’s (Blanks) partner is killed, he finds himself on the wrong end of a plot to create cyborg assassins AND unleash biological warfare upon what’s left of the world! Just when things start getting heavy for our hero, he links up with master Sumai (Yeung), and the combined forces of these two titans just might be enough to bring the corrupt system down for good. TC 2000 (also called Tiger Claws 2000 in some circles, playing off of Merhi and Yeung’s 1991 film) had a little bit of everything for action fans all mixed together, and the end result was a film that I re-watched so many times over the years I’m surprised my VHS tape still has life left in it (although that problem was solved when Vinegar Syndrome released the film on Blu-ray a few years back…an immediate purchase for yours truly!).
Only the Strong (Released on August 27, 1993)
Speaking of Double Dragon, which starred Mark Dacascos, here we have the film that launched Dacascos into the public eye and has made him one of the more prominent action film stars of the past several decades. Using a standard 90’s film trope of having troubled kids reigned in by unorthodox measures, Only The Strong features Dacascos as a Green Beret who returns home to find out that his old high school is being overrun by drugs and delinquents. His old teacher suggests capoeira, a martial art that Louis (Dacascos) learned while he was stationed in Brazil, as a means to rehabilitate some of the problem students at the school. The class is met with resistance first from the students, then from the local drug lord Silverio, who will stop at nothing to maintain his stranglehold on the community. This is the film that made me a huge fan of Dacascos to this day, and it’s also become a favorite of my young son.
Airborne (Released on September 17, 1993)
Sure, it might not be action in the traditional sense, but there’s no denying that the roller-blading skills showcased in this movie are just as intense as any kick-punch brawl! When Mitchell (Shane McDermott) is forced to live with his aunt, uncle, and cousin in Ohio, his surfer boy charm doesn’t win over the locals. Things change once Mitchell gets his pair of roller blades delivered to him, and from there his skills on the skates endear him to his fellow students and help him win the heart of Nikki, his rival’s sister! If Rad can (deservingly) get a resurgence in popularity 35 years after its release, then here’s hoping that the nostalgia for this street-skating epic isn’t far behind! This is also the second film featuring Brittney Powell on this list, because not only was she Mitchell’s high school love interest here, she was Michael Worth’s leading lady in To Be The Best!
Showdown (Released on September 17, 1993)
Billy Blanks is back on the list with one of my all-time favorite movies, one that came out on the same day as Airborne and just a month after TC 2000! Ol’ Billy was putting in work in the 90’s, though this film is lighter on the action than most of the other films mentioned here. A lot of people will tell you that Showdown isn’t worth your time because it’s nothing more than a Karate Kid ripoff, and I’m here to tell you that that’s exactly WHY it’s worth your time! What’s not to love about Billy Blanks as a cop who quit the force after accidentally killing someone finding a new lease on life as the Mr. Miyagi-esque master to a bullied kid? Anyone who knows me knows I’m a sucker for teen shows and martial arts films, and this is the best of both worlds! As a 13 year old kid I wanted to see this film so bad that I wasn’t waiting for a ride to the video store or for it to hit HBO or Cinemax…I ordered this one on pay per view, and 30 years later I’m glad I did, because it became one of those films that’s entertained me over and over again for three decades strong.
Judgment Night (Released on October 15, 1993)
When a group of friends get together to go see a boxing match, a wrong turn off of the freeway proves to be a deadly mistake. There are a lot of movies about regular people being stuck in the wrong part of town, but over the years Judgment Night has remained the standout. The cast, led by Emilio Estevez, featured several people who were on the rise, such as Cuba Gooding Jr., Jeremy Piven, and comedian Denis Leary dropping his sense of humor to portray cold-blooded killer Fallon. There are plenty of moments of tension, Leary is an excellent villain, and the soundtrack (which featured some of the hottest hip hop acts joining forces with notable rock bands of the era) kicks ass. The film didn’t seem to wow anyone at theaters when it came out in late 1993, but it easily made myself and many others into fans when it became a cable staple in the mid-90’s. If you’d like, you can read the deeper thoughts I have about the film right here on this site in a No Surrender Cinema entry from several years ago!
There you go, ten films that have caused adrenaline rushes for three decades! All of these films are quite easy to find across all of your favorite streaming apps and on physical media, so take some time to pay homage to a few of the great films that found their way into my heart and have stayed there since 1993.
