10 Underrated Action Movies That Didn't Deserve To Bomb At The Box Office

1. Hard Rain

Last Action Hero Arnold Schwarzenegger
Paramount Pictures

Lost in the shuffle during a glorious spell for the action genre that gave us Mission: Impossible, The Rock, Air Force One, Con Air, Face/Off, Men in Black, The Mask of Zorro, Rush Hour and Blade in the space of two years, Hard Rain is so much more than the dismissive 'Die Hard during a flood' tag would suggest.

The $70m blockbuster had everything required to hit the same kind of box office heights as the movies listed above, including a killer high concept and a script from Speed's Graham Yost. Christian Slater may have recently done some jail-time and a stint in rehab, but Hollywood still hadn't given up on him as their next big action star quite yet, although Hard Rain's failure only served to accelerate his descent into mediocrity in the aftermath.

That being said, there's plenty to love about the movie, including a hugely impressive reliance on old-fashioned stunts, inventive action scenes that make the most of their waterlogged setting, Morgan Freeman making a rare appearance as the bad guy and an eclectic ensemble that also featured Ed Asner, Randy Quaid and the immortal Betty White.

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