from Bloghawgs.com Movie Correspondent Jim Gooch

An Appropriately Masculine Mohicans pic per Jim Gooch's request

Sadly, Avatar is likely to win all the biggies at this year’s Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Director, and a whole slew of technical nods. 

I say “sadly” because Kathryn Bigelow’s The Hurt Locker (the actual ”best picture” of the year) will not get the recognition it deserves.  The best war movie of a generation will be a casualty of America’s love-affair with all things big, pretty, fake and easy to understand - in other words, James Cameron films. 

Anyway, one thing these two Oscar hopefuls have in common is great action; both directors are masters of the genre.  And this got me thinking about how I would rank the great action movies of my generation.  

Note that the following list is concerned only with pure action/adventure movies, as opposed to movies that contain amazing action sequences but would be more appropriately included in a different genre, like westerns (Unforgiven), historical epics (Brave Heart), sci-fi (Blade Runner), or super-hero films (Dark Knight).  

The following films would all be found in the action/adventure section of your local video store, back when those existed.   

So without further ado, I give you the Ten Best American Action Films of my generation – roughly the last 30 years. 

Can anyone come up with a better list?