PV Guide • 4th March 2026

Back in Action: February 1991

A look at the major action releases (and trends) of February 1991 and February 2026

This year, I’m taking a month-by-month look at the action movies released globally in 1991, talking about the trends and individual titles that made the year in the genre. Take a look at January’s if you haven’t seen it yet.

February was a banner month for global action in 1991, with big hits in Hong Kong, India, France, and the Philippines. Let’s take a look at the state of action in February 1991 and February...

PV Guide • 11th February 2026

Back in action: January 1991

This year, I’m taking a month-by-month look at the action movies released globally in 1991 and comparing them to those released in 2026, talking about the trends and individual titles that made the year in the genre. I’ve always been interested in projects that take a look at a year in film – taking a snapshot of a particular year, looking for patterns, what still remains today, what’s gone. There are many great similar projects out there, but this one is specifically inspired by the film critic...

Polygon • 6th April 2025

How the Righteous Gemstones brought sci-fi to church with the magic of jetpacks

As it barrels through its characteristically outlandish fourth and final season, Danny McBride’s HBO comedy The Righteous Gemstones has cemented a reputation for itself. Yes, it’s side-splittingly funny. Yes, its “failchildren of a crumbling empire” narrative is surprisingly relevant. Yes, there is a core of sincerity at the center of the madness. But Gemstones’ legacy wouldn’t be complete without talking about the bold ways McBride and co. spend the budget on ridiculous props and movie-level se...

Polygon • 17th March 2025

Bring back the 2000s-era sci-fi flopbuster

We didn’t know how good we had it in the 2000s. Sure, some things were awful, but the movie industry was something special. Every year felt like it held something new and fantastic: the Bourne movies, Avatar, Gladiator, Lord of the Rings, Pan’s Labyrinth, Lost in Translation, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, and Mulholland Drive, just to name a random handful. On top of that, There Will Be Blood, Michael Clayton, Atonement, Juno, and No Country for Old Men were going head to head at the Os...

Polygon • 9th January 2025

2024’s best movies were about waking up and becoming the person you want to be

Self-improvement is a common theme in fiction. Across genres, too — in action, romance, sci-fi, and more, we like to see characters better themselves and come into their own. Many of 2024’s most memorable movies held an even closer lens to this idea than usual, with a focus on how passivity can prevent people from living the lives they desire. These movies’ inciting moments of action come not from dramatic external conflicts, but from interior decisions, as their protagonists resolve to become (...

Polygon • 5th January 2025

Checking in on 2024’s many primate pictures, from Monkey Man to Better Man

At least five movies about primates or with a primate in the title made it to theaters in 2024, and quite honestly most of them were worth watching. So it is on us to document the year in primate pictures, and play everyone’s favorite game: How primatal is that picture?How primatal is that picture? Not very. Dundas is a surprising minor thread Gladiator II pulls on, but not for long, and not in a major way. He also can’t compete with Gladiator II’s killer baboons. (According to Hechinger, Ridley...

Polygon • 9th December 2024

Polygon’s Best of 2024

2024 has been… a year. But at the end of the day, there was plenty to sink our teeth into.Movies like Challengers, Dune: Part Two, Hundreds of Beavers, and Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga delighted us at the theaters, and it was a particularly strong year for genre movies: horror, action, and science fiction all had standout years. Meanwhile, Shōgun set a new bar for television storytelling that others are still scrambling to match.There were once again many video game adaptations this year, with varyin...

Polygon • 25th October 2024

Lady in the Water is the bridge between 2 eras of M. Night Shyamalan

After critical and commercial success with a trio of smart, entertaining, and impeccably crafted genre films, M. Night Shyamalan seemed on top of the world. The Sixth Sense, Unbreakable, and Signs thrilled audiences and critics alike, setting the director up as a major new player in Hollywood. Then prowled The Village — a box-office success, but one that received largely negative reviews and changed Shyamalan’s public reputation overnight to that of a twist-reliant fraud.The Village didn’t deser...

Polygon • 15th September 2024

An oral history of the action classic Blood and Bone

Cordeiro: I had seen a YouTube wushu reel at the time, and I said, “I have a proposal, and I’d like to show you.” And Michael saw the kick and goes, “Oh, that’s amazing.” And I asked, “Do you mind if I [am the one who gets kicked]?” Because I figured they’re going to give it to a more seasoned stunt performer. And [co-fight coordinator] Fernando [Chien] was so nice. He said, “No no no, David, you suggested it, you keep it.” And I’m like, Oh my God, this is my big moment. On the day we do it, I g...

Polygon • 26th January 2024

Monkey Man better be the start of Dev Patel’s action star era

I’ve been waiting years for Dev Patel’s action star moment, and it’s finally on its way. The trailer for Monkey Man, the directorial debut for the Slumdog Millionaire and Green Knight star, dropped Friday, and promises an action-packed story of class struggle in India.Patel stars as an ex-felon recently out of jail who joins an underground fight ring wearing a monkey mask. The trailer promises class conflict, brutal fight scenes, and big set pieces — if you, like me, hope Patel gets to play Jame...

Polygon • 22nd December 2023

7 more Seven Samurai stories to watch after Rebel Moon

There may not be a single movie more influential than Seven Samurai, and for good reason. Akira Kurosawa’s epic tale of a group of warriors hired by a village to protect them from bandits is so consequential in the history of global cinema that it’s impossible to fully track all the movies and shows that stem from it.Often listed among the great action movies of all time, Seven Samurai transcends even that lofty honor through Kurosawa’s care for the people in the story as well as his great techn...

Polygon • 27th June 2023

Andrew Koji on how Warrior (and hard work) saved his acting career

“Going from being in the red and really struggling, and emotional uncertainty and insecurity and financial insecurity,” he reflects, “my only goal ever as an actor was just to be able to survive and live off acting. It wasn’t anything too highfalutin, like ‘become an A-lister’-style nonsense. So I’m happy that I’m doing that. There’s still challenges, there’s still things to overcome. There’s still problems, and as I’m starting to see behind the curtain now, there’s a few things that still need...

Polygon • 25th January 2023

Mushrooms aren’t a threat, they’re our future

In 2021, my partner and I bought digital tickets to the Indie Memphis Film Festival. We watched many movies that we loved, including We’re All Going to the World’s Fair and I Was a Simple Man (both on Polygon’s list of our favorite movies of 2022), and an incredibly funny documentary about a group of bus drivers who put on a stage production of Alien called Alien on Stage (still awaiting for the wider release of that one)!The documentary spends time with a variety of people worldwide whose lives...

Polygon • 29th October 2022

Man of Steel still proves Henry Cavill is the best Superman

The first time we see Cavill’s Clark Kent, he’s a rugged man with a full beard and mustache working on a boat. He’s quiet and inexperienced, and immediately gets called a “dumbass” by a colleague who thinks he’s saved Clark by pushing him out of the way of a falling hazard. When the boat is called to a distress call at a local oil rig, Clark barely wastes a second, ditching everything to save the rig’s crew. He doesn’t say a word for the entire sequence, silently sacrificing the life he had buil...

Polygon • 4th August 2022

In praise of the train fight scene, a timeless action movie staple

The Raid series changed the action world, emphasizing brutal action that is easy to comprehend visually. After the first movie’s vertical approach in a high-rise apartment building, the second is considerably more spread out in narrative approach and location. In this standout scene (spliced together by a YouTuber so you only see moments from this sequence), Julie Estelle’s “Hammer Girl” absolutely wrecks some dudes on a train with her signature hammers. The Raid 2 would like to remind you that...

Polygon • 9th July 2022

11 times the 4th movie in a franchise was actually good

It’s incredible that Mad Max: Fury Road exists at all, period. The third sequel to a franchise that had all but evaporated from public consciousness, filmed across 138 days under the grueling heat of the Namibian desert and premiering in theaters nearly three decades after the last installment, Mad Max: Fury Road defied the odds in every way, securing its place as not only one of the best films in George Miller’s oeuvre, but as one of the most celebrated action movies of the 2010s. Tom Hardy doe...

Polygon • 7th April 2022

6 movies that made Michelle Yeoh one of the great action stars

Michelle Yeoh is having another moment, and we’re all better for it. After winning an Oscar for her turn in Everything Everywhere All At Once, Yeoh is now starring in the musical sensation Wicked. She also somewhat recently brought her movie star charisma and considerable action movie bona fides into new roles in Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, Crazy Rich Asians, and Star Trek: Discovery. Up next: James Cameron’s Avatar sequels. It’s a great time to be a fan of one of the world’s most...

SBNation.com • 17th June 2020

The 12 best video game athletes of all-time

Hopefully by now you’ve seen our week-long project this week, where you’re going to help us determine the best sports video game of all-time. But here’s another question, open for discussion: who is the best video game athlete of all-time? We’re talking about the characters in the games, not the people playing them.
Here are some names that immediately come to mind, in no particular order. Please tell us your pick, or who we forgot, in the comments.
Bo Jackson, Tecmo Super Bowl
Probably the firs...