Who are your top 10 martial arts action superstars?

And please place them in order going down from 5 to 1.

10. Chuck Norris.

When he came out in Expendables 2, he got the biggest pop (or applause), which shows what he meant to fans. Many people view him as a true legend in the industry. Always seemed like a nice guy. That's why I liked him. Tales of his roundhouse kick is legendary and his Chuck Norris facts are as well. The boogeyman checks his closet for Chuck Norris after all you know

9. Steven Seagal

One of the most fascinating martial arts action stars, but he never gets hit, and that...isn't...very....interesting.

8. Dolph Lundgren

The Russian Ivan Drago baby. He also plays the hilarious Gunner in Expendables, and one of my favorite roles He-Man in Masters of the Universe. And even though he hated that movie, and considered it his worst film, I happen to love it.

7. Jean Claude Van-Damme

Had a 360 degree kick, and beautiful kicks, but lacks the acting skill, and complicated choreography to really be number 1. Never seemed truly dangerous. Just seemed to have pretty kicks (though they were great) More of a 1, 2, stop combo kind of guy. Has a great physique, and is a handsome guy as well.

Great films by Van Damme- JCVD, Sudden Death, Kickboxer, Bloodsport, Hard Target,and Knock off, which had great action sequences.

6. Jason Statham

Professional diver turned action star. Transporters are classics. But can expand off and play humorous as well in Expendables, and Spy. Is going to play the main character in Meg, about a megladon shark.

5. Tony Jaa

Watch Ong Bak and you'll see his muay thai skills at work. Elbows and knees brother. Elbows and knees. Lacks the presence of a Jean Claude or a Bruce Lee, but is much more talented in choreography.

4. Bruce Lee

Seems indestructible in his films. It's like this guy is lethal. Who can beat him? His speed alone is worth watching. Was in great shape. Died tragically. His fight scene in the Roman coliseum with Chuck Norris is probably one of the greatest fight scenes ever put on film. Didn't get to see him do enough films to really make him #1. He only made 5 after all.

Return of the Dragon is his best film

3. Jet Li
The first film I saw him in the theater was The One. Cool film. Good concept, and that's where I was first introduced to Jason Statham, who in my opinion is one of the greatest martial arts action stars of all time. Was misused in the Expendables however. Always wondered what kind of physique he has, but have never seen it.

The One was great, and so was Unleashed, which displayed a more softer Jet Li.

2. Jackie Chan
Jackie Chan. He's the highest grossing martial arts film star of all time. Great because he adds humor, and uses surrounding objects, which makes him different from the others. He made what could quite possibly be the greatest martial arts film of all time with The Legend of Drunken Master. Check it out if you haven't seen it.

1. Scott Adkins

Now, this guy is amazing! Watch him as Boyka in Undisputed II and III. He was beyond good. Displayed an intensity, and anger that made you truly afraid of him. Good actor, and one of the best martial artists in the world. Just comes across like a jacked up lethal weapon. Watch his demonstrations on youtube. You won't be disappointed. The guy knows like 10 different martial arts for gosh sakes! And can't wait for Hard Target 2 to come!

I dunno if I'd ever have Adkins in a top 10, let alone 1. The rest of your list is pretty cool, I'd probably have Li at 1, Chan at 2 and Lee at 3.

Is Lundgren a martial artist?

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You have to see Undisputed II and III. Adkins is utterly amazing. And Lundgren was a European champion in martial arts. I think he was a heavyweight champion as well.

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Ooh, that's really tough. Like...really really tough. I don't think I could give them to you in a set order. Jackie Chan, Chuck Norris, Steven Seagal, JCVD, Donnie Yen. Hm...if I had to put them in order?
1. Steven Seagal - I've just gotten the most entertainment out of watching him and his movies, and off screen he seems like an interesting person.
2. Jackie Chan - This guy's just a legend, and I've always had so much fun watching his films, going back to his Hong Kong days. The fact that he does his own stunts is really incredible.
3. Donnie Yen - I was thinking of putting Chuck or Jean in this spot, but ultimately I think of those two as action stars who do kung fu, and not kung fu stars. Really loved the Ip Man franchise, even if it became progressively more absurd. The first movie will always be special.
4. JCVD - His movies were a little more flashy and fun than Chuck's. I really enjoyed Bloodsport, The Quest, and Street Fighter. Universal Soldier was also really good.
5. Chuck Norris - Many good afternoons spent with my neighbor drinking, smoking, and watching Chuck kick the asses of Texas criminals in Walker. Code of Silence was also really good.

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Well, back in the day... waaaay back when before he took crazy and completely unself aware absurdity to heart, before he bloated out, became a parody of himself, continued to do ill advised interviews or really anytime he speaks into a camera outside of film, before he became a musician of sorts and released albums, before he was hanging out with Vladimir Putin, before he made five straight to video releases per year and did his fighting sitting down in a chair, before he was fodder for some hilarious MAD tv, before 50 thousand sexual harassment allegations emerged, before he became the poster child for cultural appropriation and changed his ethnicity from Italian to Japanese to American Indian to Russian to whatever it is this year I kind of... just kind of mind you... liked Steven Seagal.

When I was 10 I saw Under Siege in the movie theater and yeah that was cool, at the time. I actually watched it again about two years ago and surprisingly there were some decent aspects to an otherwise pale attempt at Die Hard set on a ship.

I did enjoy a couple of the IP Man films before they got out of hand with increasingly absurd and stupid sequels. Donnie Yen is charismatic enough and has enough charisma to carry a film like those.

One of the best of the crop of these types of films was with Jean Claude Van Damme of all people with his sci-fi Peter Hyams thing Time Cop featuring a genuinely solid performance in Ron Silver (very underrated) as the time traveling baddie politician. If that's his "best" film then Hard Target the John Woo thing is definitely his most entertaining and the JCVD is an interesting experiment and bold for what it tries to do and I can genuinely appreciate the man trying to make something that has artistic merit while satirizing himself as well as providing a somber look at his own career as well as others in this sub-genre of film who will never really be taken seriously as actors in the traditional sense.

Of course Jackie Chan is great and funny and some of his stuff... The Drunken Master films, Police Story, and Rumble in the Bronx are good fun. I appreciate how he genuinely tried to distance himself from his contemporary Bruce Lee in the 1970s and did his Buster Keaton physical stunt humor brand of martial arts.

Bruce Lee obviously is the most acclaimed, not only in performance of martial arts, but also in quality of film. While Enter the Dragon may not make any Sight and Sound top 10 lists, it is a genuinely legitimate high quality film with elements of blaxploitation and 1960s and 70s kung-fu films in it. It's a bonifide classic.

Chuck Norris might be the most "fun" of all of them as he's the only one who truly rises above all the nonsense and has avoided being the butt of mean-spirited cultural jokes by completely embracing the hyperbolic nature of the type of films he stared in and the Chuck Norris facts which were all the rage in the mid 2000s to early 2010s. The fact that he truly is on-board with the jokes and has added to the auro with his own self-parody is wonderful. The complete opposite of the embarrassingly self-serious and out of touch Steven Seagal. Of course Norris is a true martial artist and won many tournaments and was the real legit deal when it came to fighting. I think JCVD did some stuff early on, but not the acclaim and level that Norris did. Of all these guys I imagine Chuck Norris would fare the best in a real MMA fight during his prime or in an organization like UFC.

There's been a bunch of other good stuff too from martial artists, that I didn't quite get into as much because by the time I found some of these films and actors, my tastes in movies had changed from when I was 10, 11, and 12 and loved me a good Van Damme flick.

Hero was OK... I think that was Jet Li right? He was always kind of meh to me, but did have some good moments in the throwaway Lethal Weapon 4.

I know the wire-fu stuff was all the wage in the late 1990s and early to mid 2000s right around the time and just after the Matrix. While I never did care for the Oscar darling Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, I did think The House of Flying Daggers was spectacular and the bamboo trees thing was great. Also I'm trying to remember from almost 20 years ago too.

I did see The Raid on streaming which has martial arts elements and was really something different and special, though by the end it was becoming a bit numbing. Also of course The John Wick films incorporate great gun play with martial arts mixed in.

Speaking of gun stuff... Beat Takeshi has some really cool stuff and art-house action gun-fu movies. Even the John Woo films like The Killer and Hard Boiled have some great matrial arts gun-fu stuff going on too.

So off the top of my head without re-watching anything and having not seen some of this stuff for years here are films, not stars of the martial arts genre.

1. Hard Boiled
2. Enter the Dragon
3. Hana-bi
4. John Wick
5. House of Flying Daggers
6. Time Cop
7. The Raid
8. Police Story
9. IP Man
10. Under Siege

"Dude I don't even want one copy of Time Cop!"



https://www.forbes.com/sites/enterta...l-arts-movies/

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Of course I absolutely have to mention before I completely neglect to bring up the REAL number one martial artists action movie star of all time.

Clearly the correct answer is Spencer Tracy in the first use of martial arts in an American film with Bad Day at Black Rock when he karate chops, knees, and embarrasses an unsuspecting Ernest Borgnine:



Behold, the silver screen's greatest martial artist of all time!

Bruce
Jackie
Chuck
Jean Claude
Steven
Sammo
Bolo
Donnie
Jet
Yeoh

I like Jackie Chan and Bruce Lee a lot for their martial artistry. Jet Li is pretty good too. I guess I have boring answers.

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I don’t watch a lot of martial arts movies, but my personal favorite is Keanu Reeves for the John Wick movies.

Mark