Maximus Rex
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5. Watchmen
The supposedly unfilmable comic book; Zack Snyder’s Watchmen polarized fans upon its release back in 2009. While the film certainly missed the mark at certain spots – Leonard Cohen should never play during a sex scene – the overall finished product still represents something remarkable. It's a wholly ambitious film that ensures every iconic character feels true to Alan Moore’s source material and reflects the brutality of an alternate 1985. While the entire cast stands out for their respective takes on the material, it's Jackie Earle Hayley’s Rorschach that deserves recognition for giving audiences with one of the most amazingly damaged and brutal on screen heroes in recent memory.
4. 300
This is Sparta! No movie has ever made defeat look so damn awesome. Zack Snyder’s 300 tells the tale of King Leonidas (Gerard Butler) and his 300 Spartans as they gloriously defend their home against an invasion. As a dramatization of the real life battle of Thermopylae – as well as another adaptation of a Frank Miller classic – 300 is chock full of slow motion, hardcore masculinity, and some of the goriest, most pulse-pounding war scenes ever committed to film. It’s the sort of movie you watch before a big game or a major life event so you can remember that it’s not about winning or losing, it’s about fighting for what you believe is right.
3. Dredd
Talk about a comeback story. Dredd completely surprised us back in 2012 and took the world of comic book adaptations by storm. After Sylvester Stallone nearly killed the character’s hopes of cinematic greatness, Karl Urban entered the picture and completely revitalized the dystopian cop. Set solely within a massive high rise, the film keeps it’s titular character confined and constantly outgunned, which basically allows him to Die Hard his way through hordes of bad guys intent on taking him and his partner down. Featuring awesome slo-mo gunplay, a grimy aesthetic, and a nearly pitch perfect villain in the form of Lena Headey’s Ma-Ma, Dredd has us all hoping that the character might just stick around to exact justice for years to come after all.
2. Deadpool
The latest, and hands down one of the greatest, Deadpool represents a shining example of how to excel at vulgar and violent superhero cinema. Unlike the reviled version of the character audiences got to see in X-Men Origins: Wolverine, Deadpool’s version of Wade Wilson is vulgar, violent, and downright psychopathic. By dropping more F-bombs than Eric Cartman and more bodies than John Rambo, the newest on-screen incarnation of The Merc with the Mouth seems poised for R-rated greatness. Deadpool’s journey to the silver screen may have been fraught with peril, but at the end of the day we can say the tumultuous journey was well worth it.
1. Sin City
Robert Rodriguez’ Sin City is a noir-tastic journey into the pages of Frank Miller’s landmark series of graphic novels, and when we say graphic, you better believe we mean it. Despite its outlandish style, the titular city feels incredibly lived in – even if you would never want to actually live there, one can almost smell foul stench of booze, blood, and gunpowder emanating from the screen. Armed with an all-star cast including Clive Owen, Bruce Willis, Mickey Rourke, and Benicio del Toro, Sin City manages to tell three dark, yet equally compelling interwoven stories set in the seedy underworld of Basin City. Beyond those stories one gets the sense of innumerable other unseen tales occurring somewhere in the background of the chaos. If any R-rated comic book film is worth your time, it's Sin City. You'll be forgiven if you skip the sequel though.
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