Best Action Movies of the 21st Century?

Action was reinvented in the 21st Century. It had to. After all, we were coming off the ‘90s, which saw the last days of the testosterone-fueled action of Michael Bay, Schwarzenegger, Bruce Willis, Sylvester Stallone, and Jean-Claude Van Damme.

The writers over at Den of Geek have decided to rank the best action movies of the last 15 years, I’m not sure why they didn’t do the entire 21st Century instead. They’ve settled with anything post-2008.

This is timed in correlation with this weekend’s release of “John Wick: Chapter 4,” which many are comparing to ‘Fury Road.’ Don’t take the bait and believe those comparisons, please. It’s all hyperbole. Next thing you know, this summer’s seventh ‘Mission: Impossible’ will also be the next ‘Fury Road.’

“John Wick” tops the Den of Geek list, but it’s not even the best film of that franchise — I far preferred ‘Chapter 2’ and ‘Chapter 4.’

Also, where’s 2009’s “Taken”? There wouldn’t be a ‘John Wick’ if “Taken” hadn’t existed. ‘Wick’ took the Liam Neeson blueprint and ran with it.

Neeson’s assassin, who has a particular set of skills, has turned out to be one of the most influential movie characters of the last few decades. There’s been a ridiculous amount of ‘Taken’ ripoffs since then— “John Wick,” “The Accountant,” “The Gray Man,” “Extraction,” “The Equalizer,” “Nobody,” “3 Days to Kill,” “Peppermint,” “Blood Father,” “The Foreigner,” “Columbiana” …

Den of Geek’s list includes many worthy titles: “Mad Max: Fury Road”, “Looper”, “Snowpiercer,” “Edge of Tomorrow”, “Atomic Blonde”, “Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation”, “Mission: Impossible - Fallout”, “The Raid”, “IP Man”, “Skyfall,” “Dredd,” and “Drive.”

Missing: “The Dark Knight”, “Baby Driver”, “13 Assassins,” “Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol”, “Captain America: The Winter Soldier”, “Haywire”, “Lucy”, “Nobody”, “The Guest”, “Jack Reacher,” “The Accountant,” “Upgrade,” “Salt” …