2001 was not a good year for action, to put it mildly. The year’s best offer is Ridley Scott‘s Black Hawk Down, and way further in second place — if we’re being kind — there are either Rush Hour 2 or The Fast and the Furious, which both were critical hits but received middling reviews. Nevertheless, it’s not like 2001 did not try. There were action movies with household names like Kevin Costner and Sylvester Stallone or up-and-coming names like Colin Farrell and Hugh Jackman. Explosion master Michael Bay also had a new film following the asteroid-sized hit Armageddon. However, their movies faltered.
This list highlights the action films from 2001 that missed the mark the most, which, in all honesty, is pretty much all the new releases save for the three aforementioned movies. Most of these are weighed down by bad scripts, while some of them were misguided attempts at blending genres. A few even arrived with major hype, only to leave audiences wondering how so many resources produced something so unremarkable. By looking back at these misfires, we get a clearer picture of the era’s trends and why 2001 was one of the worst years for action movies.
‘Pearl Harbor’ (2001)
Pearl Harbor tells the story of two best friends, Rafe McCawley (Ben Affleck) and Danny Walker (Josh Hartnett), who become fighter pilots during World War II and find themselves caught in a love triangle with Nurse Evelyn Johnson (Kate Beckinsale) as the attack on Pearl Harbor looms. Michael Bay came in to direct this historical war drama after a hat-trick of hits.
The action sequences are bombastic, true to Bay’s trademark style, but the film is bogged down by a lackluster romance between the lead characters, which slows down everything. When the promised Pearl Harbor attack sequence comes, it’s already too late. As a result, the action feels disconnected from the characters, and the characters themselves feel underdeveloped despite the audience spending almost three hours with them. As one would expect, Pearl Harbor was nominated for six Razzies, including the award’s top accolade, Worst Picture. Today, it’s often remembered as one of the all-time worst epic war movies in cinema, and it’s not hard to see why.
‘The One’ (2001)
The One follows Gabriel (Jet Li), a multiverse police agent who travels across parallel universes to kill alternate versions of himself in order to make him stronger and ultimately become the one. He is hunted by agents Roedecker (Delroy Lindo) and Funsch (Jason Statham) before he kills the last version of himself. Jet Li plays nine versions of the character in this film, written by the duo behind Final Destination and episodes of The X-Files.
The premise is pretty inspired, predating Hollywood’s obsession with the multiverse by two decades, but the execution lets the concept down. The CGI-heavy fights, meant to showcase gravity-defying physics, often look rubbery and artificial, diminishing the impact of Li’s usually incredible martial-arts presence. The script is so obsessed with the sci-fi elements that it forgets to explore the emotions and characters. With a premise this cool and a martial-arts legend in the lead, the movie had every opportunity to be a standout sci-fi action spectacle, but ultimately it offers neither style nor substance.
‘Lara Croft: Tomb Raider’ (2001)
Based on the hit video game, Lara Croft: Tomb Raider follows adventurous archaeologist Lara Croft (Angelina Jolie) as she uncovers clues left by her father. Joined by fellow tomb raider Alex West (Daniel Craig), the journey takes her to Cambodia and Venice as she tries to retrieve The Triangle, which is also hunted by the Illuminati led by Manfred Powell (Iain Glen).
Video game adaptations were notoriously bad until just recently, and Lara Croft: Tomb Raider joins that list. Despite a strong foundation from the game’s lore, the movie becomes a classic case of style without rhythm. The action scenes, even with interesting setups like giant robot training rooms and collapsing temples, are edited so frantically that they lose clarity and impact. It just becomes a collection of highly rendered cutscenes that are missing their emotional resonance. Angelina Jolie, however, is a great Lara Croft, and she might be the sole reason this film ever received a sequel.
‘3000 Miles to Graceland’ (2001)
3000 Miles to Graceland follows a group of ex-con Elvis impersonators who planned a heist during an Elvis convention in Las Vegas. Led by two criminals, Michael (Kurt Russell) and Murphy (Kevin Costner), the crew pulls off the robbery but quickly turns on each other as greed and paranoia tear the operation apart. The film also stars Courteney Cox and Christian Slater.
This heist action film is as messy as its premise suggests. The action sequences are loud but lack rhythm, often relying on excessive gunfire and over-the-top destruction without building real stakes or emotional investment. Costner’s performance is committed, but the character is so cartoonishly cruel that it earned him a nomination for Worst Actor at the Razzies. The film itself can’t find a consistent tone, wasting a collection of genuinely great actors. Its premise calls for camp, but 3000 Miles to Graceland convinced itself that it’s a gritty crime drama. With frantic editing and dated CGI, the film is another Worst Picture nominee on this list.
‘American Outlaws’ (2001)
American Outlaws reimagines the Jesse James legend as a teen-friendly Western about a band of young rebels fighting back against a ruthless railroad baron. After returning home from the Civil War, Jesse (Colin Farrell), Cole (Scott Caan), and their fellow guerrilla fighters find their farms threatened and their families displaced, pushing them into a life of outlaw heroism. The film follows their journey from small-town resistance to an American folk hero legend.
Instead of exploring the darker, morally tangled reality of the James gang, the movie frames them as charming, quip-happy underdogs in a story that would definitely attract the younger demographic on Netflix if released today. As a result, American Outlaws is riddled with historical inaccuracies, and its energy rarely matches its real-life figure. The action is decent but never really reaches the intended stakes and tension. Despite a charismatic cast, the characters lack depth, making their victories and losses feel inconsequential. Some audiences and critics said it’s a blatant ripoff of Young Guns, adding a lack of originality to its list of flaws. If you’re interested in the story of Jesse James, The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford is still your best choice.
‘Swordfish’ (2001)
Swordfish follows Stanley Jobson (Hugh Jackman), a legendary hacker pulled back into the criminal underground by a charismatic criminal mastermind Gabriel Sheer (John Travolta) who wants to unlock billions of dollars from a dormant government slush fund. With Ginger Knowles (Halle Berry), a DEA agent whose loyalty is unclear, Stanley works on a program that would enable them to access the funds.
The movie aims for sleek, cyber-thriller energy, like Ocean’s Eleven meets Hackers. The result is that it’s overly confident without any substance, boasting a memorable opening sequence that is its undeniable peak. The characters make wildly inconsistent choices and behave erratically, and the techno-babble-filled script attempts to be edgy but feels forced. With a star-studded cast that includes two main stars of X-Men, it should be a runaway action thriller hit. In the end, Swordfish feels like it’s imitating what a stylish action thriller should look like rather than actually being one. Travolta received the film’s sole nomination at the Razzies as Worst Actor.
‘Ghosts of Mars’ (2001)
Set on a colonized Mars, Ghosts of Mars follows a squad of police officers, led by Lieutenant Melanie Ballard (Natasha Henstridge), tasked with transporting a dangerous prisoner, Desolation Williams (Ice Cube). They discover that miners in the area have been possessed by an ancient Martian spirit and must fight their way out and exorcise the spirits from the area. Directed by John Carpenter of The Thing and Escape from New York, the film has a unique genre-blending premise that mixes horror, sci-fi and action.
Unfortunately, Ghosts of Mars never finds a stable footing, and the action suffers because of it. The costumes and production design look cheap, the editing is jarring, and the possessed antagonists resemble metal-band extra rejects rather than terrifying threats. Carpenter’s attempt to merge old-school B-movie charm with modern action sensibilities did not work, resulting in a clunky and uninspired film with repetitive shootouts. The film was a box office bomb and savaged by critics, with only a few enjoying it, including legendary critic Roger Ebert. As a consolation prize, the film has now become a cult classic among fans of genre films.
‘Driven’ (2001)
Driven follows a washed-up racer Joe Tanto (Sylvester Stallone) who returns to the CART competition to team up with a rookie driver Jimmy Bly (Kip Pardue). The two personalities clash in the team, while rival racer Beau Brandenburg (Til Schweiger) also adds to the heat. Stallone himself was initially interested in setting the story within the world of Formula 1, but could not get access to the teams on the grid.
If you like F1 The Movie, Driven is not the film for you. For everything the Brad Pitt film gets right about motorsports racing, this film fails. The racing scenes rely so heavily on awkward CGI that the sense of speed evaporates, leaving behind visuals that feel more like a video game cutscene. The film also takes itself very seriously despite its absurd physics, as if it’s a Fast and Furious film. With Stallone writing and starring and Renny Harlin directing, expectations were high for an adrenaline-pumping experience, yet the movie ends up feeling both hollow and unintentionally silly. Driven received seven nominations at the Razzies, which was the second most nominations behind the year’s winner, Freddy Got Fingered.
Driven
- Release Date
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April 27, 2001
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