Credit: Netflix

It was the year 2020, and Netflix had discovered just how much audiences loved a good action flick when Chris Hemsworth’s Extraction lured 99 million households in its first four weeks, while Mark Wahlberg’s Spenser Confidential pulled in another 85 million.

Mind you, Netflix counted anyone who watched two minutes back then, so don’t mistake those numbers for finished viewings. Yes, two minutes is a rather generous definition of watching a film, but the appetite for action back then was enormous.

And it’s a shame the genre gets dismissed as brainless entertainment, because making a decent fight sequence takes more skill than blasting things around.

So allow us to take you back to some of the action favourites on Netflix from the past decade, when car chases and fistfights were all the entertainment you needed.

The five best movies to watch on Netflix this weekend

Extraction (Sam Hargrave, 2020)

Chris Hemsworth went from swinging Thor’s hammer to beating the bejesus out of people in Extraction, and the man wasn’t taking any prisoners! Extraction was a massive hit for Netflix in 2020, and can we talk about that insane twelve-minute action sequence for a minute because director Hargrave, who initially used to coordinate stunts for Marvel, went and strapped himself to a moving car to film part of it? The things these people do for a decent action scene!

Anyway, Hemsworth plays Tyler Rake, a mercenary who’s sent to Dhaka, Bangladesh, to rescue Ovi, the kidnapped teenage son of an Indian drug lord who’s serving time in prison.

Sounds like a straightforward rescue job at first, but you’re not here for some lame punch-throwing. Soon enough, a rival crime boss sends his armed goons after them, and before you know it, Rake’s fighting half the bloody city to get this poor kid out alive. But the heartbreaking part comes when you realise Rake’s lost his own son, and saving Ovi becomes something very personal. Guess it’s time for a revisit then.

Spenser Confidential (Peter Berg, 2020)

Mark Wahlberg grew up watching Spenser: For Hire on TV, so you can imagine how chuffed he must’ve been to play the famous Boston detective himself. Except his version of Spenser has made an absolute mess of his life! He is a former cop who’s just got out of prison for punching his captain, and all he wants now is to leave Boston and drive lorries for a living.

But then his old captain gets murdered, and then another cop ends up dead, and Spenser starts suspecting the police are covering something up. And Peter Berg, who’s working with Wahlberg for the fifth time, decides to give him a partner in the form of Hawk, an aspiring MMA fighter who gets dragged into the whole investigation.

These two are kind of like Holmes and Watson, as you’ve got Spenser sticking his nose where it doesn’t belong while Hawk helps him deal with the mess, and as if this wasn’t enough, his foul-mouthed ex Cissy shows up too to give him another earful. As fun as it is, just remember you’re in for a lot of action too.

The Fate of the Furious (F. Gary Gray, 2017)

Seven bloody films of Dominic Toretto banging on and on and on about family, and what does he do in The Fate of the Furious? Betrays his own family! Vin Diesel’s Dom is off enjoying his honeymoon in Cuba with Letty, having a lovely time when along comes Cipher, a cyberterrorist who’s got something on him that could destroy his life. Soon enough, Dom’s working for her and turning against the very people he’d move heaven and earth to protect.

And just when you think things couldn’t get more ridiculous, Luke Hobbs has to team up with Deckard Shaw to bring Dom back. Director F. Gary Gray has cars getting hacked and causing an absolute bloodbath through New York, and then, because smashing up half a city isn’t enough for this franchise, out comes a nuclear submarine. The height of ridicule: a submarine chasing cars! Yet, the film made over $1.2 billion worldwide, so all that expensive destruction must’ve been worth the trouble.

Lost Bullet (Guillaume Pierret, 2020)

Forget the fancy supercars now, because Lost Bullet has got an old Renault, causing one hell of a headache. Alban Lenoir plays Lino, a talented mechanic who ends up in prison after a botched jewellery-store robbery. But then police commander Charas gives him a second chance, hiring him to modify cars for a drug squad. Just when you think he’s going to get his life together, Charas gets murdered by corrupt coppers, and guess who takes the blame? Lino, of course.

Now, the real killer, Areski, has his fellow officers covering for him, while Lino’s only hope is a bullet lodged in Charas’s missing car. Director Guillaume Pierret puts those motors through absolute hell, and watching Lino use his mechanical skills to outsmart the bent coppers is some of the best action you’ll see on Netflix.

White House Down (Roland Emmerich, 2013)

Gosh, Hollywood is totally obsessed with terrorists attacking the White House, and who else but Roland Emmerich, the man who’d spent 2012 destroying half the planet, fancied having a go at America’s most famous building? In White House Down, Channing Tatum plays John Cale, a Capitol Police officer who’s just been rejected by the Secret Service, and so he takes his daughter Emily on a tour of the White House to cheer her up, thinking they’ll have a lovely father-daughter day out.

The day turns disastrous when a bunch of armed lunatics storm the place, and his little girl gets caught in the middle of it. And guess who’s got to save President James Sawyer: the man they wouldn’t hire. You see, the irony is delicious!

The same guy who was told he’s not good enough to protect the president, and the next, he’s risking his life to keep the man alive while trying to rescue his daughter. Does he get the job afterwards? Guess you’ll have to watch to find out.