Killing in the Name of...
Today I watched Kill Bill parts 1 & 2 (2003 and 2004).
I was in a college film studies class when this movie was announced. The professor for the class was excited there would be a new Quentin Tarantino movie coming out but he was incredibly skeptical if it was going to be any good of an action movie. "He's never done action in any of his movies," he had said. And Tarantino really hadn't done any action, or car chases, or martial arts in any of his movies. They were mostly known for quippy dialogue and pointing guns at each other. Pulp Fiction's story cuts around the big boxing match and any moments of action are quick and cut away. It's a good thing that professor's worries didn't come to be.
These two movies go together as one great and one long action movie with so many flashbacks mixed in to give every character a full life. They mix genres, they mix media (animation) and the action is expertly choreographed with the incredible scores. There isn't really another movie that has come out since this that has been such a perfectly brutal martial arts action movie.