There are so many movies to watch, and yet, there is often so little time to do so. Everyone who says they have a list of movies and adds another one whenever a friend recommends it knows this feeling. If you survey how much time you actually have to watch a movie and cross-reference it with your list to see if any of those movies will fit into the window, chances are, they won’t be under 90 minutes.
Research has shown that people prefer movies to be around 92 minutes in length. That rarely happens these days, with prestige blockbusters and tentpole franchise films frequently clocking in well over two hours. But there are plenty of gems that are under 90 minutes that are worth your time, especially if you’re an action fan. Here are 9 of the best recent action films that fit into that category, giving you more to add to your list.
9
‘Survive the Night’ (2020)
90 Minutes
A family action thriller, Survive the Night stars Bruce Willis and Chad Michael Murray as a father-son duo who unexpectedly get caught up with a pair of criminals played by Shea Buckner and Tyler Jon Olson. The criminals need a bullet removed from one of their legs and stumble upon Murray’s character, who is a disgraced doctor. They hold his family hostage, including his father, played by Willis. But the doctor and father won’t go quietly, and the cat-and-mouse, shootout-filled evening continues.
It’s one of the many action films that Willis made in the final years of his career. Coming in at 90 minutes, some scenes are heightened with tension but nothing is spectacular in the film. Overall, it’s a bit forgettable, but if you’re a big fan of Willis, it’s worth checking out just to see him do his thing.
8
‘Fast Charlie’ (2023)
90 Minutes
Just as it felt like Bruce Willis was bound to be on this list, so too does it make sense that Pierce Brosnan would appear. Fast Charlie is a 2023 outing starring the former James Bond actor, directed by Phillip Noyce, and written by Richard Wenk. The movie features Brosnan as a hitman for the mob who survives a hit that killed his boss. He teams up with Morena Baccarin’s character, the wife of a person he killed previously, to go after the people who put the hit out.
As with any Brosnan role, his Charlie is smooth and suave, with just enough ferociousness to take the villains down. The movie also costars James Caan in his final role as well as Toby Huss, Gbenga Akinnagbe, and Christopher Matthew Cook. It clocks in at 90 minutes and features some decent shootouts.
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7
‘Castle Falls’ (2021)
89 Minutes
Another Scott Adkins outing, Castle Falls is Dolph Lundgren’s first time in the director’s chair. The film stars Adkins as a former MMA fighter who is a member of a demolition crew that is set to blow up an abandoned hospital. He stumbles upon $3 million in cash and, while trying to get out, encounters Lundgren’s corrections officer, who needs the money to help pay for his daughter’s medical treatments. While they have to try and get past each other, the gang that hid the money initially sends men to collect it, and Lundgren and Adkins have to work together to get out alive before the building blows up.
The film has a fun timing mechanism that keeps the story moving along because of the tight deadline the characters are under. There are awesome fight scenes, as two master martial artists go to work against the crew of bad guys. As anyone can imagine, there’s a worthy explosion that kicks the action up a notch. The movie checks in at 89 minutes. Lundgren also directed 2024’s Wanted Man.
6
‘Zero’ (2024)
88 Minutes
3
/5
- Release Date
-
April 11, 2025
- Runtime
-
80 minutes
- Director
-
Jean Luc Herbulot
- Producers
-
Hus Miller, Babacar Sy
Cast
A wild thrill ride about two Americans who find themselves with bombs strapped to their chests while they are in Senegal, Zero is an action comedy unlike any other. Starring Hus Miller and Cam McHarg, the two men must figure out why they are in the predicament they are in and how to potentially get out of it in the span of 10 hours. Willem Dafoe is the voice on the phone, giving them clues and answering questions throughout.
It’s a crazy premise for a film that is only 88 minutes long. The film is written and directed by Jean Luc Herbulot and premiered in 2024 in Spain and this year in the United States. Miller and Gary Dourdan, who also stars in the film, are producers as well.
5
‘Coffee & Kareem’ (2020)
88 Minutes
Coffee & Kareem has some good action but also some good laughs. Starring Ed Helms as police officer James Coffee and Terrence Little Gardenhigh as Kareem, the son of Vanessa, the woman Coffee is dating (Taraji P. Henson), the two must team up after Kareem unknowingly exposes a criminal ring. As the pair race across Detroit to outwit the criminals and keep Vanessa safe, there is a fun blend of adult humor and kid-friendly scenes that make the movie.
It was released by Netflix and co-starred David Alan Grier, Betty Gilpin, and RonReaco Lee. Michael Dowse, who directed Goon, Stuber, and the upcoming action thriller Trap House, helmed this from a screenplay by Shane Mack. Helms doesn’t make for the most convincing cop, but the movie falls in his wheelhouse of silly enough to be enjoyable for 88 minutes.
4
‘Avengement’ (2019)
88 Minutes
- Release Date
-
May 24, 2019
- Runtime
-
88 minutes
- Director
-
Jesse V. Johnson
-
Craig Fairbrass
Lincoln Burgess
-
-
-
Avengement is a 2019 British thriller starring Scott Adkins as Cain Burgess, an escaped prisoner who locks himself in a bar and holds patrons hostage. He claims to know the bar owner, and the story unfolds through mostly flashbacks of how he is the bar owner’s brother, who is out for revenge after his brother ordered a hit on him. The tight narrative clocks in at 88 minutes, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t action.
Adkins’ Cain Burgess is a vicious killer, turned that way by prison. The actor uses his martial arts background to really sell the fight scenes. For anyone who loves good brawls, this is a movie for them. The body count keeps rising, as the audience becomes in tune with who Cain is.
3
‘Sixty Minutes’ (2024)
88 Minutes
Octavio, an MMA fighter, has only an hour to get from where he is to his daughter’s birthday party, or he will lose custody of her forever. Unfortunately for him, he is an MMA fight that he abandons, setting off a chain of events that have everyone chasing him down, trying to stop him from getting to his daughter. Sixty Minutes stars Emilio Sakraya and costars Dennis Mojen, Marie Mouroum, and Florian Schmidtke.
The German-language film was directed by Oliver Kienle and is available on Netflix in the under 90 minutes category, as it comes in at 88 minutes. Sakraya has the build for the part and engages in some solid street action to give weight to this wild chase thriller. Because he’s trying to make it there for his daughter, the movie feels heavier and the consequences feel larger.
2
‘Point Blank’ (2019)
87 Minutes
Two familiar faces in the action movie genre led Point Blank back in 2019. Frank Grillo plays a criminal who, after getting hit by a car, is in the hospital recovering. Anthony Mackie plays the ER nurse overseeing his recovery while his wife is kidnapped in hopes that Mackie will break him out before two detectives can find him. It’s revealed that Grillo’s character has a flash drive these cops need, and they’ll do anything to get it back.
The unlikely duo have to evade these cops in order to stay alive and keep their families safe. Marcia Gay Harden, Teyonah Parris, Christian Cooke, and Boris McGiver costar. It is a remake of a 2010 French film of the same name, and it was directed by Joe Lynch. It feels in the same vein as Joe Carnahan movies like Boss Level, The A-Team, Narc, and Smokin’ Aces felt, with high-paced action (which is fitting because Carnahan was a producer on the film). It clocks in at 87 minutes.
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1
‘Shadow in the Cloud’ (2020)
83 Minutes
- Release Date
-
December 31, 2020
- Runtime
-
83 minutes
- Director
-
Roseanne Liang
-
Chloe Grace Moretz
Maude Garrett
-
-
Beulah Koale
Anton Williams
-
Taylor John Smith
Walter Quaid
For those in the mood for a shorter action horror film, Shadow in the Cloud is a solid option. Starring Chloë Grace Moretz as Maude Garrett, a British Royal Air Force officer during World War II, on a secret mission to bring a package from New Zealand to Samoa. While in the air, a creature is revealed to be on board, and Garrett and her crew must band together to fight not only the evil force but also Japanese planes.
It’s a pulpy mix of sci-fi, horror, and historical action that is a fun time for 83 minutes. Moretz admirably carries the movie and stars alongside Beulah Koale, Taylor John Smith, Nick Robinson, and Callan Mulvey. Max Landis, who previously wrote Bright, Chronicle, American Ultra, and Victor Frankenstein, wrote the screenplay and the film was directed by Roseanne Liang.
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