We’re going to spoil the winner of The New Day’s “The Greatest Action Movie of All Time” tournament. Honestly, that shouldn’t be a detriment to you checking out the two episodes of their Feel The Power podcast dedicated to it, because the real fun is in listening to Kofi Kingston, Xavier Woods, Big E, and producer Dan Ryckert dither over, bicker about, and rib each other for their picks.
Just as they did with their “Greatest TV Show All Time” tourney, Ryckert developed the bracket. E, Woods, and Kof voted on each match-up. Whichever flick got a majority of the vote advanced.
Here’s where things stood coming out of the first round, which the entire Aug. 31 edition of the pod was dedicated to:
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There was lots of controversy along the way, starting with the fact the trio had never seen a startling number of the movies in the field. WWE played up the "controversy" angle in the clip of the Sept. 7 show embedded above.
But unlike with the TV show edition, while the vote in the final isn’t unanimous*, everybody is on board with winner.
Remember... SPOILER!
Feel The Power names The Raid: Redemption the Greatest Action Movie Of All-Time.
It’s not the most populist pick, but going somewhat “Comic Book Guy” seems on-brand for our cosplaying, con-going hosts. I consider myself an action movie buff, so I don’t have any issues with this pick. Granted, given how open the criteria are here, I could make a case for any of the final four (Bloodsport, Terminator 2: Judgement Day, Mission Impossible: Fallout**) - and plenty of films that were eliminated earlier, too.
But Gareth Evans’ Indonesian masterpiece, starring and with fight choreography by Iko Uwais, is one of a kind. New Day & Ryckert do a great job explaining why it’s a masterpiece: non-stop action that never fails to amaze despite how much of the movie’s 100 minute runtime is dedicated to it, and a simple but novel plot that leaves enough room to make you care about the lead character & give the fights stakes.
And OMG those fights. Every movie and television fight scene since The Raid dropped has been influenced by it. They’re kinetic and brutal and explosive and tense...
Yeah, anyway, I’m calling The Raid: Redemption a good choice.
Give the whole tournament a listen here and here, and let us know what you think.
* There are great arguments for Bloodsport, but Big E voted for it because he’s only seen “like eight minutes” of The Raid. The issue of the trio not having seen the flicks they’re tasked with voting on is pervasive, I’m telling ya.
** Fallout is the tournament’s Cinderella, and is largely here because E repped it so hard and so well. It’s an opinion I agree with him on, and I’ll second his recommendation that Kofi and everyone who loves action movies but hasn’t seen it fix that pronto.