If you are a fan of film then you’ve undoubtedly heard the term B-movie before. Now the true definition of this term has changed as its use has evolved over the years. During the Golden Age of Hollywood, the term B-movie generally referred to the lesser-known, lower budget film that would most often fill the back end of a double feature.
In short, a B-movie can generally be summed up as being of a smaller budget. Often built on simplistic, and recycled stories, with minimal character work, and thin, formulaic plotting. These movies frequently sensationalize elements and can at times incorporate exploitation-style themes. Westerns were a staple of B-movie cinema during Hollywood’s Golden Age but as the 50’s came around and commercial television began to rise, second-billed features began to dwindle at theaters.
However, despite many production companies shifting to television, this was not the end of the B-movie. During the 50s and working into the 60s, the genres of horror and science fiction would see a boom in popularity in the B-movie market. From there B-movie production houses would lean heavily into martial-arts movies as the 70s would come and despite many B-movie studios closing doors or being absorbed into larger production companies as the 80s would come. This era would see the rise of new, smaller studios such as Carolco, New World Pictures, Cannon Films and others, which resulted in the genre of action seeing a boom in B-movies.
Now that was the very brief basics of what B-movies are for anyone who may have been curious before getting into this video. Growing up I was a huge fan of action movies; I spent countless hours as a kid walking the action movie isles at the video store and some of my favorites were in fact B-movies. These movies usually ran a tight 90s-minutes, featured a tough guy, plenty of violence, they often came complete with gratuitous sex scenes and young Anthony ate it up. So today we’re diving into ten B-action movies that I think still deliver plenty of entertainment all these years later.
The Taking of Beverly Hills (1991)
This action movie came out in 1991 and starred Ken Wahl as an aging star quarterback who gets caught in the middle of a scheme hatched by a group of corrupt cops who intend to use a fake chemical spill to rob the luxurious homes of the evacuated citizens in The Taking of Beverly Hills. Also starring Matt Frewer, Harley Jean Kozak, and Robert Davi.
This movie is like Die Hard but instead of Bruce Willis, you get a football player, and instead of Nakatomi Plaza, it’s all of Beverly Hills and this movie gives you all you could want from the genre. The villains plan to rob Beverly Hills by faking a chemical spill, which somehow works for a while, despite being the dumbest crime idea ever. And this movie assumes that the best way to stop a hostage crisis is to throw an aging quarterback at it. Seriously, our hero doesn’t just fight bad guys—he outsmarts them using (of course) sports logic instead of anything remotely normal. So, our hero takes on an army of thugs using shoulder blocks, his precision aim throwing, and a ridiculous amount of explosions, and throwing stars. The Taking of Beverly Hills is unintentionally humorous. It’s goofy. Over-the-top. Filled with explosive destruction, Wahl never even messes up his immaculate hair. What more do you need?
Silent Trigger (1996)
Next up is a solid assassin movie from 1996 starring Dolph Lundgren as a skilled assassin working for a top-secret agency that finds his newest mission altered when someone from his past shows up causing them to suddenly become the mission prime targets in Silent Trigger. Also starring Gina Bellman and Christopher Heyerdahl.
This movie has its flaws. The action is intense, and effectively violent to pack a punch but the uneven pacing can often feel like you sat on the remote and hit the slow-motion button. It’s all by-the-book stuff. Dolph Lundgren plays a sniper with the muscle mass of three men and the emotional depth of a marble statue. The character count is small and for the most part it’s a singular location plot which does build spots of tension. Lundgren does spend too much time brooding about his past, so much so his flashbacks interrupt what could have been a delightfully gratuitous sex scene. His partner spends most of the movie trying to figure out if she should kill him or make out with him while Dolph looks like he could take down an entire army using just his jawline. Silent Trigger doesn’t reinvent the wheel but delivers enough to entertain with the usual betrayal, angst, sexual-tension, hyper-violent gunplay and Dolph whispering existential sniper wisdom.
Live Wire (1992)
Before he was James Bond, Pierce Brosnan would play a bomb expert for the FBI who would be called into work a case involving seemingly random incidents of spontaneous human combustion that is believed to be linked to an exotic liquid explosive in 1992’s Live Wire also starring Lisa Eilbacher and Ron Silver.
I always have a little bit of appreciation for these movies built on comically absurd premises that are actually a little clever. Pierce Brosnan defusing bombs is cool, but Live Wire takes it a step further—what if people became the bombs? That’s right. This movie is built around an explosive liquid that turns unlucky victims into human grenades. Yes. Drink some water, and BOOM, you’re an unwilling grenade. The best part? This film treats that premise completely seriously. It’s a mix of espionage, explosions, and absolute insanity and you will be surprised at how entertained you are by something that really makes no sense. Bronson is defusing bombs with his sheer Irish charm, giving the sex scenes 100% energy, and laying on the melodrama thicker than a winter coat. It’s packed with absurd action, explosions, fun stunts, and moments where you just have to sit back and admire how the ‘90s really embraced cinematic nonsense.
Split Second (1992)
Also, in 1992 would come a fun sci-fi action thriller starring Rutger Hauer as a cop relentless to catch the serial-killer that took down his partner only to realize what he’s hunting is from another world in Split Second, also starring Kim Cattrall and Alastair Duncan.
If you take Blade Runner, throw in a heavy dash of Aliens, add a sprinkle of Lethal Weapon buddy cop nonsense, then you’ve got Split Second. Rutger Hauer, plays a caffeine-addicted, trench-coat-wearing detective, hunting a creature that looks like it escaped the conceptual designs from Aliens that didn’t make the cut. This movie has everything: climate change flooding, giant monster claws, revenge, and a detective who mainlines coffee and cigarettes like a truck driver. It’s all silly but still a blast. London is flooded, people are getting ripped apart, and Hauer is out here rocking a trench coat and sunglasses indoors like a hungover detective in a cyberpunk novel. It’s just a mashup of different movie tropes but it somehow manages to work. And by the time the final fight happens, you don’t even care about the plot, or the clunky editing. You just want more of Rutger Hauer barking sarcastic one-liners and ripping out alien hearts.
Soldier Boyz (1995)
Moving along I have a war themed action drama centering on a group of young prisoners sent into Vietnam to rescue the kidnapped daughter of a wealthy businessman in 1995’s Soldier Boyz. Starring Michael Dudikoff, Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa, and Tyrin Turner.
Michael Dudikoff leads a team of criminals-turned-soldiers on a rescue mission that makes zero sense yet somehow is surprisingly entertaining. The plot is amusing. Take six criminals, give them guns, and drop them into Vietnam for a rescue mission. The comical part is these guys go from “inmates” to “highly skilled commandos” in what feels like 24 hours. The movie never really explains why these random delinquents are better at war than trained professionals, but hey, details aren’t important when enjoying a B-action movie. It’s equal parts absurd, hilarious, and proof that in the 90s, anyone could be a hero as long as they had a tough attitude and a bandana. Now this one does get way too self-serious which does kill the pace in spots but with a concise runtime Soldier Boyz delivers explosions, one-liners, and Dudikoff looking vaguely disinterested in everything making it a textbook ‘90s action B-movie.
Hard to Kill (1990)
Steven Seagal would punch his way into the 90’s after the release of his first film in 88. Here he would play an IA detective investigating the mob that after a brutal attack awakens from a coma after 7 years and sets out for revenge in Hard to Kill. Also starring Kelly LeBrock and William Sadler.
You gotta love Hard to Kill for having the moxy to blend soap opera elements with a violent action movie. Steven Seagal spends half of this movie in a coma and still has ample time to rack up his body count. After 7 years in a coma Seagal awakes with a stage play beard and through the power of 90s action movie montages is able to get back to full strength in a week by punching wood, engaging in mystical breathing, turning himself into a human incense burner, and making love to Kelly LeBrock. From here the movie acts like it never happened and goes through the motions of a revenge quest filled with bravado, absurdly choreographed aikido moves, and random philosophical one-liners. The villains, including the most cartoonishly corrupt politician ever, never stand a chance. It’s peak Seagal: lots of whispery threats, slow-motion aikido moves, and a ponytail that you just wanna tug on to see if a Pez will pop out.
Extreme Justice (1993)
Coming up next from 1993 is a gritty action thriller about a young cop assigned to a very secret unit of the LAPD that operates as a vigilante death squad to take out criminals in Extreme Justice starring Lou Diamond Phillips, Scott Glenn, Yaphet Koto, and Chelsea Field.
This cop thriller about a secret LAPD unit that enforces justice with all the subtlety of a sledgehammer to me is a bit of a forgotten gem. This special unit is so extreme that they might as well be playing by Mad Max rules. It’s sort of like Training Day, but instead of moral dilemmas, it’s just dudes kicking down doors and blowing stuff up and letting people know how off the reservation they are. Extreme Justice is pure machismo, and I think it holds up great. Phillips spends most of the film trying to figure out if police brutality is bad (spoiler: it is), while Scott Glenn has the dead-eyed expression of a man who knows a guy like him in movies like these never make it out alive. The movie tries to be a deep exploration of morality, but let’s be honest, most people came for the shootouts and explosions. Glenn and Phillips are great together and the grittiness in this forgotten little cop thriller still lands with an enjoyable impact.
Black Dog (1998)
We fast-forward to 1998 for this next movie starring Patrick Swayze as an ex-trucker fresh out of prison for vehicular manslaughter reluctantly agrees to take a job driving a truck filled with weapons from Atlanta to New Jersey in Black Dog. Also starring Randy Travis, Meatloaf, and Charles S. Dutton.
This movie certainly has its issues, but it’s always been a Swayze favorite of mine. He’s an ex-trucker who just wants to live his life, but of course, he gets roped into smuggling illegal guns. But just that would be too simple. He’s also being chased by the FBI, the ATF, mobsters, and Meat Loaf (yes, the singer) who shows up as the villain, which is honestly the best thing about this movie. But even that would not be enough. There’s also a trucker legend about the “Black Dog,” a ghostly figure that appears when drivers are on the verge of madness—which is somehow not the weirdest part of this film. Swayze, who is way too good for this movie, handles everything with calm cowboy wisdom, while the bad guys explode every time their car so much as grazes a curb. Black Dog is like a homage to the 70s chase movies. It’s like Smokey and the Bandit meets Mad Max, and it’s glorious.
Showdown in Little Tokyo (1991)
Stepping back to 1991 would be a movie I consider to be the Citizen Kane of B-action movies. This one stars Dolph Lundgren and Brandon Lee as cops who will work to bring down the Yakuza in Showdown in Little Tokyo. Also starring Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa, and Tia Carrere.
Dolph Lundgren and Brandon Lee take on a Yakuza drug ring in a movie that is 90% biceps and 10% dialogue. The chemistry between these two is buddy cop gold—Dolph is the stoic giant, with a full set of vanity muscles and Brandon is the sharp, wise-cracking sidekick. The by-the-numbers plot here is perfect for connecting all the violent mayhem, ridiculous feats of human strength, and generic character work. Showdown in Little Tokyo is a movie that knows exactly what it is and leans into the silliness 100%. It’s filled with loads of over choreographed martial arts, neon-soaked action, and a shirtless Dolph dual-wielding katanas, practicing in his home dojo, and sharing a soak with Tia Carrere. Tagawa is the chef’s kiss of movie villains, and the scoring is perfect for inflating the comically serious atmosphere of this movie that somehow manages to thrive because of its flaws.
Man’s Best Friend (1993)
Next up is a comical little thriller from 1993. This one is probably more horror than action, but I wanted to add it anyway. It centers on a genetically engineered dog that is taken home by a reporter who has no idea she brought home a killing machine in Man’s Best Friend. Starring Ally Sheedy, Lance Henriksen, and a giant Tibetan Mastiff called Max.
What if Cujo was part Terminator? That’s Man’s Best Friend, a movie where a genetically modified super-dog goes on a murder spree. This dog climbs trees like a jaguar, pisses acid, and (I’m not making that up) has a built-in cloaking device like the Predator. Ally Sheedy and Lance Henriksen bless their hearts, sort of try. But the humans in this movie are so bad at decision-making that you sort of end up rooting for the dog. Who at one point eats a cat whole like a python in a comically absurd scene. This movie from the ground up is ridiculous but you have to admire the commitment to making a killer dog movie with some gusto. There’s plenty of amusing killing as this dog goes on the warpath and he even has time to hump the neighbor’s collie so the movie can end on a sequel tease that sadly never happened. And I think we can all agree cinema lost a true franchise that day.
Anthony J. Digioia II © 2025 SilverScreen Analysis & Movies Never Say Die
