Action

Santa gets kidnapped and Dwayne Johnson has to get him back before Christmas morning. Big, silly, PG-13, and on Prime because Amazon made it. A blockbuster, not a lullaby.

Two useless cops go undercover in high school and discover they were not cool the first time either. Loud, dumb, and very funny. On Netflix and Paramount+.

They go to college this time, and the movie knows it is a sequel. Same pair, bigger budget, same joke, still works.

A billionaire fakes his death and funds a team of ghosts to take down a dictator. Michael Bay, on Netflix, all motion and very little quiet.

Ripley goes back, this time with Marines who think guns will be enough. James Cameron turns the nightmare into a war film, and both halves still work.

A thief gets a suit that shrinks him, and the heist gets very small. Paul Rudd, light on its feet, on Disney+.

Jennifer Lopez has to trust an AI she hates in order to stop the one she built. A 2024 Netflix science-fiction action film, big and straightforward.

Berlin, 1989, a spy, a bruise, and a staircase fight you will rewind. Charlize Theron, on Prime and Max.

The remaining Avengers try to undo the snap. It is long, it is a reunion, and it is on Disney+.

A getaway driver with tinnitus and a perfect playlist. Edgar Wright cuts the chases to the music. On Paramount+.

Axel Foley takes a Detroit case to Beverly Hills and bothers every rich person in the zip code. Eddie Murphy, 1984, free on Tubi.

A kid, a soft robot, and a city that looks like San Francisco married Tokyo. A superhero movie that is really about grief. On Disney+.

T'Challa comes home to Wakanda and has to decide what a hidden nation owes the world. On Disney+. The action is great. The argument is better.

Several assassins, one train, and a briefcase nobody agrees about. Brad Pitt, stylish, and on Hulu.

A cab driver in Los Angeles picks up a fare who is killing people between stops. Tom Cruise, Jamie Foxx, night photography. On Paramount+.

Apollo's son asks Rocky to train him, and both of them have something to prove. The boxing is real. The feeling is too. On Prime and Paramount+.

Adonis faces a friend from his past, and Michael B. Jordan directs the fight like a personal letter. On Prime and Paramount+.

A mercenary who will not stop talking gets a revenge story and breaks the fourth wall doing it. Rated R, on Disney+.

Paul walks into the desert and comes back as something people will follow. The 2024 film is the war the first one promised. On Max.

Tom Cruise dies, wakes up, and has to fight the same invasion until he gets it right. Emily Blunt is the reason it works. On Paramount+.

Chris Hemsworth's mercenary gets one more impossible rescue, this time from a prison. On Netflix, and it does not slow down.

A background character in a video game notices the game and decides to be the hero. Ryan Reynolds, on Disney+.

Postwar Tokyo, a pilot who already survived one disaster, and Godzilla treated like a real catastrophe. The 2023 film, on Netflix.

The big lizard and the big ape have to share a planet, badly. Spectacle, on Prime and Max. Bring popcorn, not a thesis.

A thief, a green assassin, a raccoon, and a tree steal the wrong orb. The mix-tape Marvel movie, on Disney+.

The Guardians go after the man who made Rocket. It is the sad one, and the jokes are still there. On Disney+.

An assassin and her mother try to protect a kid, with a library that is also an armory. On Netflix, stylized and bloody.

Elastigirl gets the mission and Bob stays home with the baby, which is its own disaster. On Disney+.

They kill his dog. He used to be a legend, and then he remembers how. Keanu Reeves, on Prime. The first one is still the cleanest.

Wick against the High Table, in Paris, with a staircase that does not end. The long one, on Prime, and the action is the plot.

Generations after Caesar, a young ape goes looking for his clan and finds humans who were supposed to be gone. On Max.

Assassins in the present kill targets sent from the future, until one of them is sent himself. Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Bruce Willis, on Netflix.

Ethan Hunt's first impossible assignment, hanging from a ceiling over a computer. Tom Cruise, 1996, on Paramount+.

A plutonium mistake, a helicopter, and Cruise doing the stunts himself. The 2018 one is the peak. On Paramount+.

The same couple, now private detectives, and a kidnapping at a wedding. The sequel, also on Netflix.

A quiet dad misses his old life of violence, and then a home invasion gives him an excuse. Bob Odenkirk, on Peacock. Funny and brutal.

A man who cannot feel pain gets pulled into a bank robbery. Jack Quaid, on Prime and Paramount+, an action comedy that uses the gimmick well.

A Predator story pointed at a new world, rated PG-13, and on Hulu in 2025. The hunt is the point. The landscape is the trap.

On the Great Plains in 1719, a Comanche hunter figures out she is not the only one tracking. The best Predator film in years, and it is on Hulu.

A pill gives you five minutes of a superpower, and it might also kill you. Jamie Foxx and Joseph Gordon-Levitt, on Netflix.

In a rotting future, the escape is a virtual world, and a dead inventor hid the keys inside it. Spielberg, on Max, all reference and chase.

A man comes to a small town to post bail and the police take his money. Jeremy Saulnier's 2024 film is a thriller that becomes a fight. On Netflix.

An FBI profiler, the world's most wanted art thief, and a third person who is lying. Dwayne Johnson, Ryan Reynolds, Gal Gadot, on Netflix.

Jake Gyllenhaal takes a job calming a rowdy roadhouse in the Florida Keys and finds a richer problem. The 2024 remake, on Prime and Hulu.

A club fighter in Philadelphia gets a shot at the champion and decides to go the distance. 1976, on Prime and Paramount+. The training montage is the national anthem of effort.

A crew that will not make the crawl steals the Death Star plans. The war film of the saga, on Disney+.

A foster kid says a magic word and becomes a superhero who still thinks like a teenager. Zachary Levi, on Max, and it is a comedy first.

An FBI agent joins a task force at the border and realizes she is not there to do police work. Emily Blunt, Benicio del Toro, on Max. Tight and grim.

Miles Morales learns there are other Spider-People, and the movie looks like a comic that learned to move. On Netflix.

Peter's identity is public, and a spell to fix it cracks the multiverse open. Tom Holland, on Disney+.

A farm kid, a princess, and a space station that can kill a planet. The 1977 film, on Disney+. You can start here.

A scavenger on a desert planet finds a droid with a map, and the war starts again. The 2015 sequel, on Disney+.

A machine is sent to protect the boy who will matter later, and his mother already knows how this ends. Arnold, Linda Hamilton, on Prime and Paramount+.

A pilot from the future crash-lands in his own childhood and has to team up with the kid he used to be. Ryan Reynolds, on Netflix.

The reformed animal criminals get pulled into one more job. The 2025 animated sequel, on Netflix, built for a loud living room.

A younger Bruce Wayne treats Gotham like a case file. Robert Pattinson, rain, and a riddle. On Max. It is a detective story that happens to wear a cape.

In a war against artificial intelligence, a former soldier is sent to find a weapon that turns out to be a child. Gareth Edwards, on Hulu.

A quiet man in a hardware store helps a girl and then takes apart the people who own her. Denzel Washington, on Netflix.

Robert McCall tries to retire in a small Italian town, and the town has a mafia. The third one, on Hulu and Max.

The 23rd century needs five elements to survive, and one of them is a woman who just fell out of the sky. Bruce Willis, Milla Jovovich, orange and outrageous. On Tubi.

A girl volunteers for a televised fight so her sister does not have to. Jennifer Lawrence, on Hulu. The action matters. The politics matter more.

A family of retired supers gets dragged back in, and the baby is the most dangerous one. Brad Bird, on Disney+.

A Viking prince spends his life trying to kill the uncle who took his father's throne. Beautiful, brutal, and on Netflix.

Immortal mercenaries discover someone is hunting the thing that keeps them alive. Charlize Theron, on Netflix.

Two desk cops get a real case and are completely unprepared. Will Ferrell and Mark Wahlberg, on Netflix.

Glen Powell runs for his life on a televised manhunt. Edgar Wright's 2025 film, on Prime and Paramount+. A chase with a studio audience.

A machine comes back from a war that has not happened yet to kill the woman who will matter. Arnold, 1984, on Prime. Leaner than the sequel.

The Agojie, Dahomey's women warriors, train for a war their king may not deserve. Viola Davis, on Hulu.

Thor loses his hammer, gains a gladiator arena, and has to stop his sister from ending Asgard. The funny one, on Disney+.

A team of people nobody fully trusts gets pointed at a problem. The 2025 Marvel film, on Disney+.

Fighter school, ego, and volleyball. Tom Cruise, 1986, on Paramount+. The sequels are better. This one invented the sunglasses.

Maverick is still flying, and he has to teach a generation that thinks he is a relic. The 2022 film, on Netflix and Paramount+. The flights are the reason.

A father and daughter board a train just as the country starts to turn. Fast, sad, and the best zombie film a lot of us will admit to crying at. On Peacock.

The grid comes back in 2025, on Disney+. Neon, programs, and a world that was never only a game.

A war movie shoot goes wrong and the actors think the explosions are still special effects. Robert Downey Jr., Ben Stiller, on Paramount+. Rated R and aware of it.

Storm chasers in tornado country, with Daisy Edgar-Jones and Glen Powell. A 2024 disaster film on Hulu that wants the wind to be the star.

Santa is real, he used to be a warrior, and a heist team picked the wrong house on Christmas Eve. On Netflix. Not for the kids' pile.

A 2025 war film on Max, built from the memory of a single fight. It does not dress the noise up.

Two brothers in a mixed-martial-arts tournament, and a father who does not deserve either of them. Tom Hardy, Joel Edgerton, on Tubi.

The children of captured superheroes have to save them, and they are better at it than the adults expected. A Netflix family action film.

Rules, Twinkies, and a road trip through the end of the world. Woody Harrelson and Jesse Eisenberg, on Max. A comedy that happens to have zombies.

The same survivors, a new kind of zombie, and the jokes still running. The sequel, also on Max.

John McClane just wants to get to his wife's office party, and then the building gets taken. Rated R, full of things exploding, and a Christmas movie if your house says it is. On Hulu and Prime. Not the one for little kids.