3 best Netflix action movies you (probably) haven't seen
From "Havoc" to "Bullet Train Explosion" to "Exterritorial", Netflix is chock-full of high-octane action movies to get your pulse pumping and your energy up.
However, the sheer breadth of options available on that top-rate streaming service — especially when it comes to the streamer's original content — can make it easier said than done when narrowing that selection down to one quality action-packed flick. So we've made things a bit easier for you by spotlighting a trio of action movies that you might've missed the first time around.
These underrated Netflix titles range from a French action thriller about a skilled female soldier who seeks out revenge for crimes against her family, to a gory and guns-blazing South Korean film about a bodyguard-turned-assassin. If it's fast-paced chase sequences, bloody fight scenes, expert stunt work and fiery explosions you're after, here are three Netflix action movies you (probably) haven't seen yet but definitely should.
When it comes to action movies, nothing tastes quite as sweet as revenge — and Jang Ok-ju (played by "The Call" star Jeon Jong-seo), a former bodyguard for elite VIP clients, is out for just that after her best friend Choi Min-hee (Park Yu-rim) commits suicide and leaves behind a final wish of getting vengeance against Choi Pro (Kim Ji-hoon), the sex trafficker who abused and extorted her. Ok-ju tracks down Choi's address and sets off to brutally do her dearly departed friend's bidding.
Written and directed by Lee Chung-hyun, "Ballerina" (not to be confused with the recent "John Wick" spinoff) has a 91% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes and pulled in 14.7 million views and 23.1 million hours of viewing when it debuted on Netflix in October 2023, earning it the number one spot in Netflix's top 10 list of most-watched non-English films.
Rohan Naahar of The Indian Express wrote of the "bone-crushing" thriller: "Neon visuals and a thumping soundtrack elevate Netflix's slickly packaged Korean revenge thriller that substitutes plot in favour of pure vibes."
Watch "Ballerina" on Netflix now
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Written and directed by Nic Mathieur, this 2016 sci-fi action flick is set in a civil war-ridden Moldova, where US forces have been engaging insurgents of the former regime—that is, until a new threat emerges: an invisible and unknown entity that kills almost instantaneously any living being caught in its path.
Leading the special-ops team dispatched to fight the supernatural beings is James Badge Dale as DARPA scientist Mark Clyne; Emily Mortimer also stars as CIA officer Fran Madison, with Max Martini, Bruce Greenwood and Clayne Crawford in supporting roles.
Over on Pajiba, Jodi Smith writes of the film: "Instead of going for huge stars, awkward and unneeded backstories, and bloat, 'Spectral' manages to pack in just what a viewer needs to enjoy the plot and journey placed before them."
Watch "Spectral" on Netflix now
Dubbed "John Wick on the Riviera" by Vulture critic Bilge Ebiri, the Julien Leclercq-directed "Sentinelle" centers on Klara (Olga Kurylenko), a highly-trained French soldier who has returned home to Nice from serving in the Middle East traumatized by the harrowing experience.
But unfortunately, the hits keep coming for Klara. After her sister Tania (Marilyn Lima) is horrifically raped and left in a coma, Klara users her lethal military skills to hunt down the men who hurt her sibling.
Though some critics have pointed out that the lean-and-mean script (co-written by Leclercq and Matthieu Serveau) suffers from some cliches, Decider reviewer Johnny Loftus praises the action movie for balancing "its beats of emotional trauma against the darker forces of vigilantism," adding that the film "doesn't forgive its main character's drastic actions, but it illustrates pretty well how she got there."
Watch "Sentinelle" on Netflix now
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