Forgotten Action Movie Failures That Deserve A Second Chance

There are so many great action movies and so many terrible action movies that it's easy to forget that, in the massive gulf between the two ends of the spectrum, there is a wealth of action movies that were neither amazing nor awful — they were, perhaps, a bit forgettable. Where there's Ridley Scott's fantastic historical epic "Gladiator" on one hand and the bland and plodding "Alexander" on the other, in the middle lies the less-than-stellar but totally acceptable "Troy." Of course, the paradigm holds up outside the swords-and-sandals genre; it's pretty much universally applicable to say that fair to decent movies exist in all action subgenres that can be forgotten or outshined by the best of the best and the memorably bad.

Some of these movies, however, are worth remembering. Some of them did just enough right to merit a rewatch and further consideration. Some of these forgotten action movies deserve a second chance. Maybe it's a memorable premise. Maybe it's a pithy line of dialogue or two. Maybe it's the sheer chutzpah it took to will something so bombastic and ridiculous into existence. Yes, ridiculous movies can be worthy of praise when they're the right kind of earnest, well-intended ridiculous. Sit down, "Batman & Robin," obviously we aren't talking about you!

After due consideration, the following films are perfect examples of what we're talking about when it comes to "less-than-stellar but totally acceptable" flicks to satisfy your action cravings. Here are the forgotten action movie failures that deserve a second chance.

For decades, "Jaws" was the alpha predator in the ocean of shark horror-action movies and all others were simply guppies waiting to be devoured. It's entirely fair to say that 1999's "Deep Blue Sea" — with a middling 59% critics score on Rotten Tomatoes — didn't change that one bit, but it took the model and played with it enough to become a significant entry in the genre. The premise of the film is that researcher Dr. Susan McCallister (Saffron Burrows) is using a biological compound found in the brains of mako sharks to reactivate dead neurons in human brain tissue, the end goal of which is to potentially treat and prevent Alzheimer's disease. So she does what every hubristic scientist bent on finding a solution to a problem that's affected them personally does in these kinds of movies; with the help of fellow scientist Dr. Jim Whitlock (Stellan Skarsgård), she genetically modifies the sharks at her underwater, open ocean research facility to have larger brains. Bigger brains means more brain juice to harvest, how could giving a bigger brain to a shark with a name derived from the term "man eater" ever go badly?

Naturally, of course, things go very badly indeed. The sharks begin to outwit the scientists and try to break containment, causing havoc at the lab and creating a deadly scenario for shark wrangler Carter (Thomas Jane), engineer Tom (Michael Rappaport), radio operator Brenda (Aida Turturro), marine biologist Jan (Jacqueline McKenzie), corporate exec. Russell (Samuel L. Jackson), and chef Preacher (L.L. Cool J) to deal with.

If any movie on this list is going to cause massive confusion, our money is on "The Boondock Saints," because plenty of people love this movie. They may be surprised to learn, then, that critics absolutely savaged the beloved cult film. Some fans may not be shocked if they analyze it with a critical eye, but then it's at least a guilty pleasure. The Rotten Tomatoes entry for "The Boondock Saints" reveals the massive disparity between how critics viewed the film as opposed to general audiences. The 1999 action thriller sports a lowly 28% critics score and an impressive 91% audience score, so clearly it did something right.

"The Boondock Saints" follows two brothers — Connor (Sean Patrick Flanery) and Murphy (Norman Reedus) MacManus — who love carousing at the local pub in Boston but end up getting mixed up with some hardcore lowlifes in the local Russian organized crime scene. Faced with a death-defying scenario, the MacManus brothers come out on top and set about cleaning up the city's underbelly one scumbag at a time, all while trying to stay ahead of the inept Boston police department and a sharp-eyed FBI agent named Paul Smecker (Willem Dafoe). Their hard work taking out bad guys puts them on the radar of local mafia don Papa Joe Yakavetta (Carlo Rota), but don't worry, he's actually in their sights. Just as soon as they shake the shadowy hitman known as the Duke (Billy Connolly) that Papa Joe's sicced on them.

With a name like "The Losers," who could have thought this movie would end up being a bust? Self-fulfilling prophecy or not, this Vertigo comics adaptation from 2010 only managed to gross $29.8 million at the global box office, barely recouping its $25 million budget (via The Numbers). More than one critic compared the film to the classic action TV series "The A-Team," a film adaptation of which came out just a couple of months after "The Losers" was released. It's something of a fair comparison, though the characters comprising this movie's titular group have a much harder edge than the lovable soldiers-for-hire playing good Samaritan in the L.A. underground.

Similarities notwithstanding, "The Losers" tells of an elite unit of special-ops soldiers' path to revenge after being burned and set up to take the fall for busted mission to take out a South American drug lord that resulted in the deaths of children. They had, in fact, gone off mission and evacuated the children from harm's way but were double crossed by their shadowy handler, Max (Jason Patric), who blew up the helicopter transporting the children to safety, thinking the Losers were onboard. Clay (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) leads the group, with the fiery explosives expert Roque (Idris Elba) serving as his de facto second in command, as they lay low in Bolivia until the mysterious Aisha (Zoe Saldana) shows up with intel and a way back into the United States to potentially clear their names and get revenge on Max. As with any good mysterious stranger who comes bearing gifts, there's more to Aisha than anyone at first realizes.

Throughout his career, action movie legend Jean-Claude Van Damme had plenty of hits, but some notable misses as well, keeping in mind the lower expectations typically reserved for his milieu. Van Damme's 1996 film, "The Quest," is considered among the actor's misses. The period movie is set in the 1920s, with Van Damme starring as Chris Dubois, a theatrical pickpocket who looks after a troupe of orphaned street children, all of whom steal in order to survive. One particular job ends with him needing to escape by stowing away on a boat, where he's later found out by its crew. After an overly complicated first act, Dubois ends up as a slave training in Muay Thai on an island near Thailand. Having mastered the art, a familiar face in the form of Lord Edgar Dobbs (Roger Moore) — who originally sold him into slavery — secures his freedom in order to enter Dubois into a fighting tournament set to take place in the fabled Lost City, which is somewhere in Tibet. The only problem is, he doesn't have an invitation — but American heavyweight boxing champion Maxie Devine (James Remar) sure does.

When it comes to "The Quest," critics were not impressed, and the film has a bleak 14% critics score on Rotten Tomatoes. For martial arts fans, hearing Muay Thai pronounced "moo tie" is enough reason to give this movie another chance, but for those who need more convincing, Van Damme's passion for this movie, which was his directorial debut, is so evident throughout the film, from the nuanced characters and incredible settings. It's convoluted with some unnecessary subplots but the movie has such an earnestness that's it's easy to forgive the sometimes-fumbling storytelling.

"Bulletproof Monk" — with an unimpressive 23% critics score on Rotten Tomatoes — was among Seann William Scott's earlier major, non-"American Pie" roles and he got to share the spotlight with the likes of Chow Yun-fat. Chow appears as the title character, a monk who's been chosen by fate to safeguard a scroll containing ancient, forbidden knowledge. His duty imparts on him eternal youth and seeming invulnerability, both of which are useful assets when your destiny also includes a near-constant flight from Strucker (Karel Roden), the Nazi officer whose relentless pursuit of the scroll has lasted nearly 60 years. Near the end of his journey, while on the run from Strucker's men, he encounters good-natured thief Kar (Scott), who himself is on the run from the police. Both stop their flights to save a young girl from being hit by a runaway car. 

Kar does what comes naturally and picks the monks pocket, though he thinks the loot he's just taken is junk. Eventually, the monk becomes convinced Kar may be the next person to safeguard the scrolls from the rest of the world, owing to a rather liberal interpretation of some fairly specific prophesies. With the help of a fellow street thief named Jade (Jaime King), who's actually a rich girl masquerading for kicks, they uncover that the Nazis have been taking part in a masquerade of their own under the front of the Human Rights Organisation, led by Strucker's granddaughter, Nina (Victoria Smurfit).

File "Bulletproof Monk" under "dumb fun." Chow provides plenty of action and Scott manages to imbue his character with enough charm to make the movie endearing in its failures.

Owen Wilson as an action star? Yes, you can say it: wow! For an actor best known for comedic buffoonery with pal Ben Stiller, Wilson actually had a credible performance in "Behind Enemy Lines," playing downed U.S. Navy fighter pilot Chris Burnett, whose jet was shot out of the sky on what was supposed to be a routine recon mission over Bosnia during the Bosnian War in the 1990s. Local forces, however, were in the midst of covering up mass graves, evidence of their genocide against the Bosnian people, when the jet veered off course and flew overhead, resulting in them shooting it down. After Burnett sees his co-pilot Jeremy Stackhouse (Gabriel Macht) executed rather than being taken captive, he decides to take off on foot, rather than meet the same fate. With intermittent radio contact with his aircraft carrier and his commanding officer, Admiral Leslie Reigart (Gene Hackman), Burnett is forces to survive in hostile conditions until it's safe for friendly forces to extract him — assuming he lives that long. After all, since the United States did not officially participate in the Bosnian War, he was there under NATO command, which has more complex bureaucratic processes than the United States military.

"Behind Enemy Lines" sports a lowly 37% critics score on Rotten Tomatoes, but the film benefits greatly from emotive performances from its cast, notably Hackman. Wilson injects just enough levity to lift this action war film above standard fare and merit another chance.