Decided by me (no other criteria other than popular knowledge and my decision are the deciding factors here, which means no moderator interference, please).

Just action. If more than 50% of the movie is considered sci-fi or comedy or any other genre, it will not be included above. I would say this is the best 20 action movies from the 90s, the gun/explosion/chase type of action movie, the 'sparks flying', cool, and smart type of Woo-esque action movie. I also tried to stay away from the major franchises as much as possible (notice no Mission: Impossible, no The Matrix etc.).

I initially picked 41 titles and cut it down to 20. You just have to pick three.

True Lies
Face Off
Speed

(I would have picked Under Siege 2: Dark Territory over Speed if it had been in the poll.)

It wasn't even on the prelimenary 41, sorry. But Under Siege was.

I haven't chosen yet. Too hard.

True Lies
Broken Arrow
The Rock

Pretty much all of them could fill my Top 3. This was a hard poll.

Speed
Face/Off
The Rock

1. Face/Off
2. Con-Air
3. True Lies

Ronin
True Lies
Under Seige

True Lies
The Rock
Speed

1. Con Air
2. True Lies
3. The Rock

Oh man, there are so many great films left off. I mean the 3 biggest action films of the 90s aren't even on here.T2, Mission Impossible, and Air Force One. Then the unconventional action films ID4, The Fugitive, Tombstone, Twister. My real top 3 would be Air Force One, The Matrix, and Total Recall. 90s action in general is full of so much variety, it's an extremely hard decade to rank.

Should have started with a wider poll, then condense a top 20 based on what everyone's first picks were.

Of the ones listed on here, probably Face/Off, Demolition Man, and Speed

I don't know why Last Action Hero was even included. It was a flop at the time and I don't think anyone cares about that movie. I don't know why something like T2 was passed up in favor of that.

1. Face/Off
2. The Rock
3. Con Air

Same.

The 90s were the best for action movies.

I'd go with The Rock, Speed and True Lies (Ronin, Face Off, Con Air, Cliffhanger as back-ups).

Speed, The Rock, and Face/off were probably some of the most important action films of the decade. There's actually a really good article from Stallone in the mid 90s talking about The Rock, Speed, and the Batman films basically meaning the end of the musclebound action stars doing big numbers. Along the lines that once Michael Keaton was able to put on a fake musclebound suit and prove to be intimidating and perform action realistically to an audience, it brought along the ends of mass audiences tolerating less than stellar actors and plots in favor of Physically commanding leads. You started seeing better actors who weren't known for physical roles, being surrounded by more expensive stunts, stuntmen, and special effects, turning them into exciting new action stars no one would have normally thought of.

When you really think about it was around 1996 when Stallone starting doing very soft numbers in the US, Van Damme and Seagal were DTV within 2 years, and Arnold who was able to stay relevant with 100+ million budgets for a while, also began to fall swiftly when the the studio backing and his physical presence got smaller and smaller.

On the other hand you saw action stars out of Nic Cage, Christian Slater, Tom Cruise, Keanu Reeves, Will Smith, Travolta, do more consistent numbers than Van Damme, Seagal, or even Stallone ever did in the US. It's no coincidence that Bond also started to become extremely popular in the US again during this time.

1. The Rock
2. The Matrix
3. Terminator II: Judgement Day

1. Terminator II: Judgement Day
2. Goldeneye
3. Die Hard With a Vengence

I love Last Action Hero.

I didnt include T2 because it wasnt on the list or else it would be on there.

Last Action Hero gets a bad rap because it tanked (JP killed it) but its a good film IMO.

Algren obviously made the conscious decision to not include science-fiction action films such as The Matrix and Terminator 2, instead focusing on more grounded action fare.

Like Face/off and Demolition Man and Last Action Hero (I love all three, but some are even more preposterous than The Matrix)

Though Metro has no business being on any list, it's not even a top 15 action movie from 97

Face/Off is still first and foremost a police action movie, just with a twist.

Demolition Man may be a stretch.

It IS a stretch. I made a conscious decision to include T2 and The Matrix on my list, though.

Agree about 1996 being the beginning of the end for the muscle bound actioner. I recall there were a number of news reports and articles at the time (96/97) proclaiming this - especially when Cage had a big hit with The Rock (followed by the Con Air/Face Off double a year later).

In 96 you had:

- Broken Arrow opened the year with great success but with new unlikely action stars (Slater and Travolta) helped to stardom in recent years by Quintin Tarantino.

- A month later - Executive Decision was released to solid numbers with its biggest action star Steven Seagal getting killed off at the beginning - symbolic?? Later in the year his Glimmer Man would tank.

- Mission Impossible heralded Cruise's accent as an action star and would become the 3rd biggest hit of the year.

- A couple of weeks earlier - Twister burst on to the scene as a CGI fest actioner

- June saw Schwarzenegger's last $100m generic action hit (not including B&R or T3). Even then it barely made $100m.

- Same month and the big game changer was The Rock which was a huge success and launched Nicholas Cage into the action stratosphere on the back of his Oscar win for Leaving Las Vegas.

- ID4 smashed records and backed up Will Smith as an action star after the previous year's Bad Boys.

- November saw Ransom become a big hit with a more serious and older Mel Gibson while Bond was back in a big way with Golden-eye - ushering in the new golden era of Bond box office to come.

- Daylight was a big underperformer for Stallone in December

- Rumble in the Bronx was a solid hit for Jackie Chan and introduced him to American audiences in a big way - paving the way for the Rush Hour movies