10 Perfect Action Movies That Are About 90 Minutes Long

The best of these come from filmmakers who aren’t interested in wasting any time. They get in, get the job done and get out. Even being expeditious as they are, they still feel complete and tell satisfying stories too. Some of them are independent efforts, making the absolute most of their limited budgets and runtime, others come from international stars and filmmakers, and some are even animated. They cover the spread of the action spectrum, representing the wide variety the genre has to offer. The only commonality they share is that they are all about 90 minutes long, and they’re all pretty perfect.

11 'Assault on Precinct 13' (1976)

91 min.

John Carpenter is a master of efficiency. All the feature films he’s directed are less than two hours long and most of them use every minute expertly. While he’s not generally associated with the action genre, he’s made a few choice contributions to it, most notably his second feature, the taut and tense Assault on Precinct 13. Inspired by Howard Hawks’ Rio Bravo, Carpenter updated the Western to contemporary Los Angeles and swapped its villainous outlaws for a violent gang. The result is a siege thriller with gritty action that doesn’t let up once it gets going.

The film follows a small group of cops and civilians in a precinct set to be decommissioned. Their night gets complicated by the unexpected arrival of a prisoner transport bus, and then even more so when they’re targeted by a dangerous gang that’s taken a blood oath to destroy them. With no help and nowhere to run, the cops and criminals have to join forces to fight back against their assailants. The action is fast and furious, with Carpenter having to rely on old-school tricks in favor of big-budget bombast. The success of the film, thanks to Carpenter’s efficient use of budget and runtime, is what captured the attention of producers Irwin Yablans and Moustapha Akkad, who approached Carpenter with an idea for a horror film about a killer stalking babysitters on Halloween.

10 'The Warriors' (1979)

93 min.

Walter Hill is similar to Carpenter in his stripped-down approach to genre filmmaking. His films have all, similarly, never cracked a two-hour runtime, and he has a few action classics that come in around 90 minutes. There’s the minimalist masterpiece The Driver, the buddy cop classic 48 Hrs., and, of course, the iconic cult film The Warriors. An essential 70s New York film that puts a comic book aesthetic over its gritty action, Hill’s film is one long nonstop chase across the city.

Taking place over the course of a single night, the film follows the titular gang as they try to make their way home to Coney Island from the Bronx after they’re framed for killing a legendary gang leader. With the cops on their tail and every rival gang standing between them and home, they’ll have to fight their way back. The film features a plethora of colorful gangs, with the most memorable being the Baseball Furies, who the Warriors engage in a memorable bat fight with. Everything else is just as equally memorable in the film, from the ensemble cast to the costume design and the rain-soaked visuals.

9 'Mad Max 2' (1981)

96 min.

Both the original Mad Max and its first sequel run around 90 minutes. As much as there is to love about the first film with its grungy dystopic aesthetic and visceral revenge plot, Mad Max 2, aka The Road Warrior, blows it away in every respect. Director George Miller had been severely limited by the first film’s low budget, so when he saw an opportunity to make the sequel with more than five times the money, he set out to make a much more ambitious action film. Moving the narrative from a dystopia to a full-blown post-apocalyptic world and amping up the biker meets S&M aesthetic, Mad Max 2 became the most iconic and influential depiction of its kind until Miller would outdo himself with Mad Max: Fury Road decades later.

Though the franchise is known for its loose continuity, Mad Max 2 does feel like a proper extension of its predecessor. Having lost everything dear to him and achieved his revenge in the first film, Max (Mel Gibson) now wanders the wasteland focusing only on survival. It’s only when he comes upon a small camp of survivors, under constant assault by a roving gang of marauders, that he revives his heroic duties as a post-apocalyptic knight-errant. Mad Max 2 is a masterclass in visual storytelling, taking cues from Westerns and samurai cinema in its sparse dialogue and vast landscapes, and it never wastes a second of its short runtime as it speeds toward a visceral desert chase climax.

8 'Commando' (1985)

90 min.

7

Commando may not be the best Arnold Schwarzenegger action movie, but it might be the most Arnold Schwarzenegger action movie. It's an overblown exhibition of 80s excess made without a hint of irony or any attempt to elevate it beyond its genre, and that's exactly why people love it. As Schwarzenegger's answer to Rambo, the film casts him as a literal one-man army who takes on an entire island of armed goons in order to save his kidnapped daughter. Unlike Sylvester Stallone's iconic franchise, the film has no political opinions or post-Vietnam trauma. It's just an excuse to see swole as hell Schwarzenegger kill bad guys and blow stuff up, which he does real good.

John Matrix (Schwarzenegger) is a retired Special Forces operator who is content to lead a quiet life with his daughter Jenny (Alyssa Milano) when a group of mercenaries, working for the deposed dictator of a fictional South American country, kidnap her and demand he carry out an assassination to get her back. What Matrix does instead is kill every man responsible for putting his daughter in harm's way, armed with all kinds of maximum firepower and an endless supply of one-liners. Commando isn't a masterpiece like Predator or The Terminator, but it is perfect for the kind of movie that it wants to be.

6 'Police Story 3: Supercop' (1992)

95 min.

Like Schwarzenegger, Jackie Chan is an undisputed action icon. His iconic martial arts films, which often combine the humor and stuntwork of classic silent films with more impactful fight choreography, are second to none. The Police Story films are Chan’s signature franchise, funneling all of his unique talents into increasingly outlandish installments. While all the films in the series have fairly efficient runtimes, it’s the third film, subtitled Supercop, that is the most brisk, and also possibly the most entertaining. While Chan is excellent as always, what elevates the movie is the addition of Michelle Yeoh, who is every bit his equal, and performs some of the film’s most death-defying stunts.

Inspector Ka-Kui (Chan) returns as Hong Kong's most decorated officer, this time tasked with going undecover to take down a powerful drug lord. He's joined in this by Interpol agent Yang (Yeoh), who proves to be just as skilled as he is. Supercop is filled to the brim with incredible action sequences and outrageous stunts. Chan dangles from a ladder from a helicopter while Yeoh jumps a motorcycle on to a movie train. There are sequences similar to many found in bigger-budgeted Hollywood films, but the difference here is that Chan and Yeoh are performing all the stunts themselves and without the benefit of any visual effects. It's real action done by real superstars.

5 'El Mariachi' (1992)

81 min.

As the debut film for Robert Rodriguez, El Mariachi features many of the hallmarks that would come to define the rebellious director's career. Shot on a budget of $7,000, the film is as stripped down as action films can get, yet it still has a kinetic energy that more bloated films with more bloated budgets and runtimes can't compete with. It would become the first film in Rodriguez's Mexico Trilogy, and while the sequels would deliver more action in more minutes, El Mariachi does it all in less than 90 minutes with less money than most films spend on a single explosion.

The titular Mariachi (Carlos Gallardo) is traveling through the border towns of Mexico with only his guitar case looking for work. Unfortunately for him, a dangerous criminal, who's got a feud going with a vicious drug lord, has just escaped prison and is also traveling with a guitar case, only his is full of guns. Thanks to a cruel case of mistaken identity, the Mariachi finds himself caught in the crossfire and has to fight for his life and the life of the woman he's fallen in love with. Famous for its shoestring budget and stylized direction, El Mariachi rightly put Rodriguez on the map and is still a no-frills, all-thrills action cult classic.

4 'Batman: Mask of the Phantasm' (1993)

76 min.

One of the best Batman movies ever made doesn't have anything to do with Tim Burton or Christopher Nolan. It comes from co-directors Eric Radomski and Bruce Timm, and was the first film to be spun off their critically acclaimed Batman: The Animated Series. Originally intended as a direct-to-video release, Batman: Mask of the Phantasm was given a theatrical release by Warner Bros. which gave its animation team a severely truncated production schedule. They still delivered what is one of the most complete cinematic adventures for the Dark Knight, featuring a brand-new villain created for the film, with a running time of almost half an hour less than the next shortest Batman movie.

Depicting both the early origins of Batman (voiced by the inimitable Kevin Conroy) along with his years later conflict with the more extreme vigilante the Phantasm, who is killing off members of Gotham's organized crime families one by one. Similar to the series from which it sprung, Mask of the Phantasm is a remarkably mature animated film, both in terms of violence and how it delves into the psychological torment of the Caped Crusader. Featuring an appearance by the iconic Joker (voiced by Mark Hamill) as well, there are some Batman films who consider this the best and most quintessential representation of the character, which is doubly impressive considering its compressed runtime.

3 'Iron Monkey' (1993)

90 min.

A modern martial arts classic directed by the legendary Yuen Woo-Ping, Iron Monkey wasn't given a proper theatrical release in the United States until after the international success of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. While that release was considered controversial by action purists for the numerous changes made to the original film, including changing the entire backstory of some characters, the original Hong Kong version is now more widely available to enjoy. Featuring Donnie Yen in a starring role, it's an action-packed adventure that flies by just as quickly as its gravity-defying characters.

In what is essentially a superhero story funneled through a stylized version of Chinese folklore, the film follows the titular Iron Monkey (Yu Rongguang) who works as a physician and as a masked vigilante by night. He robs from the rich to give to the poor, and eventually joins forces with legendary martial artist Wong Kei-Ying (Yen) to defeat a corrupt governor. The action is kinetic and the fight choreography elegant, and serves as the perfect action primer for anyone who has yet to experience the immensity of the Wuxia genre.

2 'Ghost in the Shell' (1995)

82 min.

Mamoru Oshii’s massively influential anime adaptation of Masamune Shirow’s manga Ghost in the Shell is stunningly animated, with detailed cyberpunk visuals and visceral action sequences, and it finishes in the amount of time it takes many modern action movies to get going. It also manages to tell a totally complete and complex narrative involving philosophical themes questioning the nature of humanity and consciousness. It’s rightly regarded as one of the greatest animes of all time, but it’s also an incredibly exciting and efficient sci-fi action thriller.

In a future city of Japan, where technological advancements allow human brains to be transplanted into cybernetic bodies, a special security team, led by Motoko Kusunagi (voiced by Atsuko Tanaka) hunt down a hacker known as the Puppet Master. It’s densely plotted considering the elements of intelligence and technology at play and the relatively brief runtime. While it may require more than one watch to fully absorb all its details, the first time through is enough to simply absorb its influential aesthetic and atmosphere, and enjoy its kinetic action set pieces. It’s also possible to watch and rewatch this classic in the same time it takes to watch more bloated, and less intelligent, Hollywood blockbusters.