Welcome back, action junkies! Today, we’re diving back into the glorious world of ‘90s B-action movies—the unsung heroes of adrenaline-fueled, over-the-top entertainment. Whether it’s a tough-as-nails cop on a mission, a martial arts master with a vendetta, or a villain that’s just one explosion away from a dramatic monologue, the ‘90s delivered a non-stop rollercoaster of action. So, grab your popcorn, buckle up, and let’s revisit the B-movie classics that still know how to deliver a knockout punch.
Posse (1993)
We’re saddling up for this first movie from 1993. Directed by and starring Mario Van Peebles, Posse claimed it was bringing the Wild West back with a vengeance. And it features an all-star cast of B-Action movie tough guys such as Stephen Baldwin, Billy Zane, and a whole lot of bullets, justice, and style.
Here Mario Van Peebles rides into town with a camera, a cowboy hat, his buddies, and something to prove—and Posse delivers that proof with a high-octane, genre-flipping, racially-charged spaghetti Western that’s got more attitude than a saloon full of Eastwoods. Posse’s part history lesson, part revenge saga, and all style—like if Tombstone started reading The Autobiography of Malcolm X. This film says, “What if the Old West had a lot more Black excellence and a little less John Wayne?” And it’s a blast of nostalgia. There’s a heavy whiff of classic Western tropes—robberies, corrupt men in power, and towns that desperately need saving—but it’s all filtered through a ‘90s lens, complete with hip-hop swagger and surprise appearances (hello, Big Daddy Kane?). The dialogue swings from serious to silly to self-righteous to melodramatic. And Billy Zane, as the heavy, chews the scenery like he’s at an all-you-can-eat villain buffet. Posse’s a little uneven—like a horse galloping with one leg shorter than the rest—but it’s filled with action, complete with a final showdown that delivers chef’s kiss with a spurred boot.
Rapid Fire (1992)
We’re unleashing karate chaos with this next movie. Rapid Fire from 1992 is directed by Dwight H. Little and stars Brandon Lee as a student trained in martial arts who gets caught up in a deadly conspiracy. But when the mob comes after you, it’s time to make your own rules and start kicking some serious butt with rapid fire velocity.
Let’s talk about Brandon Lee. With his skillset, and good looks had he not been tragically taken so soon would have given Van Damme a run for his money during the 90s. In Rapid Fire, he plays Jake Lo, a college art student (sure, okay) who accidentally witnesses a mob hit and goes on the run from pretty much everyone, including corrupt feds, and Chicago mobsters. The plot is your standard “wrong place, wrong time, perfect cheekbones” scenario. But what sells this one is Lee, who’s got a glint in his eye and a roundhouse kick with deadly accuracy. His charisma alone could’ve taken down these bad guys, but thankfully he also has help from Powers Boothe (because if you need a morally ambiguous authority figure with a gravelly voice, Boothe’s your man). The action scenes are tight and aggressive, with plenty of flair, gunplay, martial-arts acrobatics, and dramatic slow-mo. Is it groundbreaking? Not really. But the movie knows what it is and doesn’t try to be deep—it just wants to kick, shoot, and gun its way through 90 minutes of pure 1992 B-action chaos. And for that, I salute it.
I Come in Peace (1990)
Next up is I Come in Peace from 1990. This sci-fi action thriller stars Dolph Lundgren as a tough-as-nails, rogue cop who faces off against an intergalactic drug dealer—because when aliens come to Earth, it’s not just for your average space invasion, it’s to deliver serious pain. But when Lundgren is on the case you may come in peace, but you’ll leave in pieces.
If Lethal Weapon had a baby with Predator and that baby decided to sell drugs from outer space, you’d get I Come in Peace. Dolph Lundgren plays a cop who’s angry, enormous, and allergic to protocol. He’s chasing drugs and when an intergalactic drug dealer crashes the party and starts harvesting endorphins from humans. You know, classic cop problems. The alien’s catchphrase is “I come in peace,” which he says right before killing people. So, it’s like your Alexa telling you to “Have a great day!” before launching a compact disc through your skull. Yes, this alien villain fires weaponized CDs—deadly, spinning music discs of death. The ’90s truly had no chill. Lundgren looks perpetually annoyed, and who can blame him? He’s got a by-the-book FBI partner, an angry boss, and a spaceman that looks like Fabio turning Houston into a battle zone. The buddy-cop dynamics are textbook mismatched duo theme, but the movie is so gleefully weird you forgive it. I Come in Peace is dumb in the bests of ways—explosions, one-liners, bravado, ass kicking, a plot that was probably written on a napkin, and it’s world class B-action cheese.
Fortress (1992)
Get ready to get locked up because next up is Fortress from 1992, directed by Stuart Gordon and starring Christopher Lambert is taking us to a high-tech prison where inmates are injected with something deadlier than the corrupt system—and escaping has never been more dangerous or more entertaining when Kurtwood Smith is in control.
In a dystopian future where the biggest crime is… having too many babies, Fortress introduces us to Christopher Lambert, a man who just wants to love his wife and raise his illegal second child in peace. Instead, he’s tossed into a high-tech underground prison. A concrete nightmare run by a sadistic AI system named Zed-10. There are explosive implants in everyone’s intestines (because subtlety died in the ‘90s), laser walls, robot enforcers, and torture cubicles that look like rejected IKEA chairs. And to me, Fortress is a glorious cheese casserole—grimy, grim, and filled with weird sci-fi flourishes. The effects are dated, the acting is somehow both wooden and sweaty, and the prison guards all look like they belong in a Nine Inch Nails tribute band. But it moves, and it delivers the goods: rebellion, explosions, and a completely bonkers final act filled with spectacle. Making Fortress a gritty little cult gem that still delivers loads of effective B-action entertainment.
No Contest (1995)
We’re heading to the big show for this next one from 1995. No Contest is directed by Paul Lynch and starring Shannon Tweed, Andrew Dice Clay and Robert Davi. When a beauty pageant is taken over and terrorists crash the show, the crown’s up for grabs, it’ll take more than a good showing in the swimsuit competition to come out alive.
Imagine if Die Hard was held at a beauty pageant and instead of Bruce Willis, we got Shannon Tweed—yes, the queen of late-night erotic-thrillers—doing spin kicks in a dress. That’s No Contest. Tweed plays Sharon Bell, a former model-turned-action star (very meta) hosting the Miss Galaxy pageant. Which of course is immediately hijacked by a group of goons led by Andrew “I Can Out-Creep Gary Busey” Dice Clay. He’s here for diamonds or revenge or just to scream in eyeliner—it’s never totally clear. What is clear is that Tweed has zero patience for his nonsense and promptly starts snapping necks in high heels. There’s a ton of ‘90s nonsense here: goofy tech, mindless dialogue, and martial arts that look like they were choreographed in a community theater beginners’ class. But despite its budget and general chaos, the movie never blinks. It goes full throttle into its absurd premise and lets Tweed carry the weight—literally, she suplexes a guy down a staircase. No Contest is junk food with lipstick—a fun, fiery mess where you can’t help but root for the pageant queen with a roundhouse kick and a perfectly timed one-liner always ready to go. And long may she reign.
Stone Cold (1991)
We’re diving into the world of undercover work and Komodo dragons for this one. 1991’s Stone Cold is directed by Craig R. Baxley. And stars NFL badass Brian Bosworth alongside Lance Henriksen and William Forsythe. This one’s all leather, mullets, and mayhem, and it does not believe in subtlety.
If you’ve ever wanted to see a football player infiltrate a white supremacist biker gang while rocking a mullet that could slice bread, then Stone Cold is your dream come true. Brian Bosworth—The Boz himself—stars as Joe Huff, a cop who goes undercover in a violent motorcycle gang run by Lance Henriksen, who acts like a Shakespearean warlord trapped in a Guns N’ Roses music video. The plot is mostly an excuse to get from one violent action fueled set-piece to the next, and honestly, thank God for that. The Boz wears jeans tighter than national security and carries himself like a man who bench-presses vending machines for fun. It all culminates in a courtroom shootout involving motorcycles, machine guns, and the casual destruction of constitutional law. It is utterly unhinged and deeply beautiful. And to me Stone Cold is an adrenaline-and-hairspray-soaked fever dream—one that throws logic out the window and then drives a flaming motorcycle through it for good measure.
The First Power (1990)
Up next, we’re diving into supernatural action-slasher territory with The First Power 1990, directed by Robert Resnikoff and starring Lou Diamond Phillips as a relentless LAPD detective who faces off against a satanic serial killer played by Jeff Kober who just won’t stay dead—because in 1990, evil always had a comeback tour.
Lou Diamond Phillips stars in The First Power, a movie where a streetwise LA cop faces off against a serial killer… who comes back from the dead. Multiple times. Because apparently this guy didn’t just dabble in Satanism—he majored in it with honors and also earned a minor in body-hopping. Phillips and Kober, bless their hearts, somehow manage to make all this silliness work. The plot is The Exorcist meets Lethal Weapon by way of Highlander, with psychic nuns, creepy hallucinations, and Logan constantly getting his butt kicked by people who were friendly five minutes earlier. Phillips gives it his all here and keeps his rage on a hair trigger. And between the body-hopping, sadistic mayhem, cop tropes, and a heavy reliance on pentagrams, The First Power somehow manages to result in delightful supernatural cop-noir nonsense. Is it scary? Not really. Is it fun watching Lou chase a demonic ghost ninja around 1990 Los Angeles while trying to look tough while also a tad confused as to what he is doing in this movie? Absolutely.
Johnny Mnemonic (1995)
Next up, we’re jacking into the cyberpunk fever dream that is Johnny Mnemonic from 1995 where Keanu Reeves uploads 320 gigs into his brain and still forgets where he put his emotions. This one also stars Dina Meyer, Dolph Lundgren, Ice-T, and Henry Rollins and is directed by Robert Longo.
It’s the year 2021, and Keanu Reeves is Johnny Mnemonic, a man who is basically a walking and talking, ultra stressed-out USB stick in a trench coat. Corporations run everything, people have tech diseases, and dolphins fight cyber-terrorism. Welcome to the future, baby. Johnny has 320 gigabytes of memory (which was a huge deal in 1995) loaded in his noodle. And now he’s got 24 hours before his brain leaks out his nose, and everyone—from Yakuza with laser wires, to Ice-T’s cyber-rebel faction—is out to either kill him or extract data using hostile neurosurgery. The movie tries to say a lot about data privacy, human connection, and corporate greed, but mostly says “look, this dolphin has a helmet.” There’s a ton of so-bad-it’s-good in this one: Dolph Lundgren as a homicidal street preacher, cybernetic implants that look like RadioShack threw up, and a vibe so aggressively ‘90s you can smell the smell the dial-up modems. Johnny Mnemonic is dumb, loud, vibrantly messy—and weirdly amazing.
Blackbelt (1992)
This martial-arts-fueled action flick stars Don “The Dragon” Wilson as an ex-cop who will take on the task of protecting a singer from a psychotic fan who moonlights as a serial killer in Blackbelt from 1992. Also starring Dierdre Haj, Matthias Hues, and Victor Mohica.
Ever wondered what would happen if a stalker thriller, a martial arts movie, and a bad soap opera fell into a blender and came out wearing fingerless gloves? Behold, Blackbelt. It stars Don “The Dragon” Wilson as an ex-cop hired to protect a pop star from an obsessed fan. Think The Bodyguard, but with fewer ballads and more flying knees. Because this stalker is none other than Matthias Hues fresh from his turn as an alien in, I Come in Peace. Naturally, the police are useless, so she hires Wilson’s character, Jack Dillon—a man of few words, tighter jeans, and deadlier elbows. The plot zigzags like a drunk squirrel: there are weird cult flashbacks, shirtless training montages, and moments where dialogue seems to have been written by throwing darts at a wall of clichés. But Wilson sells the martial arts, delivering spin kicks with the conviction of a man trying to act and balance on one foot. It’s so low-budget that at one point I’m pretty sure they used a karaoke bar as a hospital, but it tries. Earnestly. Blackbelt is cheap, mildly gratuitous, and completely ridiculous—but in that “how did I end up watching the whole thing?” kind of way.
Excessive Force (1993)
This high intensity action came out in 1993 and stars Thomas Ian Griffith as a detective who goes to war with the Italian Mafia when $3M dollars goes missing after a drug bust. And when one man must take on the mob, he will need to use Excessive Force. Also starring Lance Henriksen, James Earl Jones, Tony Todd, and Burt Young. Directed by Jon Hess.
Excessive Force stars Thomas Ian Griffith as a Chicago cop named Terry McCain. He’s got slick hair, a trench coat, pleated pants, and roundhouse kicks that defy gravity and logic. Griffith delivers lines like he’s auditioning for a cologne commercial, then knocks a guy through a car windshield before the scene can even breathe. Lance Henriksen shows up (because luckily for us he was in almost every action movie during this era) as a smirking mobster, and James Earl Jones briefly lends the film some credibility before presumably cashing the check and ghosting the production. The dialogue is full of gravelly threats and testosterone-soaked metaphors. Everyone yells. Everything explodes. The final fight ends in a glorious, slo-mo hailstorm of fists and melodrama. This one’s called Excessive Force—and it delivers. Pure, sweaty ‘90s B-action silliness. You’ll laugh. You’ll want justice. And you’ll be surprised at how much you just enjoyed something that you have seemingly already seen 100’s of times.
Anthony J. Digioia II © 2025 SilverScreen Analysis & Movies Never Say Die
