12 Surprisingly Awesome Straight-To-Video Movies

Why It Should've Sucked: Because there's a good chance you forgot there were two sequels to Universal Soldier before this, and how many third sequels are even remotely decent, especially in the action genre?

Why It's Awesome: Day of Reckoning opens with an unforgettable sequence in which protagonist John's (Scott Adkins) wife and son are brutally slaughtered by Luc Deveraux (Jean-Claude Van Damme), and that's just the beginning of a riotous, gorgeously-shot 114-minute orgy of violence.

While it's a little disappointing that franchise stars Van Damme and Dolph Lundgren don't appear that much throughout, STV legend Adkins is a more-than-suitable replacement when it comes to the fisticuffs (the dialoguing less so).

In addition to the superb violence, it's also got a surprising psychological undercurrent that's more effective than you'd expect. It might be clearing an incredibly low bar, but the fourth time really is the charm here: Day of Reckoning is the best film in the series.