Back in Action: February 1991
A look at the major action releases (and trends) of February 1991 and February 2026
This year, I’m taking a month-by-month look at the action movies released globally in 1991, talking about the trends and individual titles that made the year in the genre. Take a look at January’s if you haven’t seen it yet.
February was a banner month for global action in 1991, with big hits in Hong Kong, India, France, and the Philippines. Let’s take a look at the state of action in February 1991 and February 2026, with expanded thoughts at the bottom for paid subscribers.
The numbers
There were 26 action movies released in February 1991 from 12 filmmaking nations. (Here’s a Letterboxd list).
February 2026 saw a whopping 48 action movies released globally, from 18 filmmaking nations. (Here’s a Letterboxd list).
Some takeaways: USA and India remain prolific in the genre in 2026, but the expansion of the Chinese film industry (and the consolidation of much of the Hong Kong industry and its talent into it) has crowned a new top dog. There’s also been a massive expansion in general thanks to the explosion of streaming as well as the changes in technology – without expensive film to buy and develop, more people (and more nations) are making action movies.
Cop thrillers, military thrillers, and revenge movies were plentiful in both February 1991 and February 2026. In February 1991, there were quite a few movies under a sub-genre I’ll call “more money, more problems” (Run, A Rede Maldita, Dhanam). In February 2026, the two most prominent trends are movies about AI concerns (Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die and Quantum Supremacy) and movies about men rescuing their kidnapped daughters (Furious Attack, Batang Paco, Ah Beng vs Liang Po Po) – the influence of Taken still looms very large globally.
America
The biggest American action release in February 1991 was Run, a thriller starring a young Patrick Dempsey that didn’t do well at the box office (returning $4 million on its $16 million budget). It’s still a pretty fun time – I’ll have more thoughts at the bottom for paid subscribers.
The rest of the American output that month were TV movies and B-movies. Notable for anxieties of the time: the TV thriller Flight of the Angel, starring William O’Leary (Home Improvement) as an Air Force pilot who goes rogue with a nuclear bomb and threatens to blow up an American city.
The most notable American action release in February 2026 was Gore Verbinski’s Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die – a time-travel action comedy about stopping a future rogue artificial intelligence (there go those anxieties of the time again!).
In parallel to the made-for-TV movies of 1991, the other American action releases this past month were all straight to streaming or digital rental services. The most notable is probably The Bluff , bringing back the long-lost pirate movie subgenre, starring Karl Urban and Priyanka Chopra Jonas.
India
Indian action cinema had quite a few big box office splashes in February 1991, led by three Bollywood hits. The biggest was Hum, Mukul S. Anand’s (Agneepath) revenge thriller/family drama starring Amitabh Bachchan, which ended up bthe #2 movie at the Indian box office in 1991.
Other box office hits of note out of India: Yodha, a Sanjay Dutt-starring crime drama; Patthar Ke Phool, an early Salman Khan vehicle that was also the award-winning debut for Raveena Tandon; and Dhanam, a crime thriller that was one of the highest-grossing Malayalam movies of the year.
The other releases from February 1991 include a few cop thrillers and a village drama about a man who has sworn off violence but feels compelled to right some wrongs. There’s been tons of repeat talent throughout the first two months of Indian action cinema in 1991 – these people were working. Superstar Rajinikanth has already been in three movies through the two months we’ve been doing this project.
February 2026’s most notable Indian action release was O’Romeo, a spy thriller/romantic drama from director Vishal Bhardwaj, known for his trilogy of adaptations of Shakespearean tragedies. The other Indian action releases from February 2026 are largely cop/crime thrillers or anti-hero/revenge movies.
East Asia
The Chinese New Year is always a big box office event, which means February is generally a great time for new action releases coming out of the region. February 1991 saw big new movies from John Woo and Jackie Chan coming out in back-to-back weeks. For Woo, it was the art heist action comedy Once a Thief, starring Chow Yun-Fat, Leslie Cheung, and Cherie Chung. For Chan, it was the Indiana Jones-style adventure comedy Armour of God II: Operation Condor. Both were among the top five box office hits in Hong Kong that year (Operation Condor #2, Once a Thief #4).
Elsewhere in East Asia, there were multiple period pieces that came out in February 1991 – a martial arts movie from China set in the 17th century (Wind Coming From 8 Sides in the World), and a Japanese anime about the 16th-century civil war, but with biker gangs (Bousou Sengokushi).
In February 2026, multiple masters of the genre returned with new entries in China, once again marking the Lunar New Year with an exciting group of new movies. The headliner is legendary martial arts choreographer and director Yuen Woo-ping’s triumphant star-studded wuxia extravaganza, Blades of the Guardians: Wind Rises in the Desert. It’s been a box office hit domestically and internationally, and is my favorite movie of the year so far.
Zhang Yimou (Hero, House of Flying Daggers) also returned with Scare Out, an intelligence/spy thriller that has not received quite as warm of a reception. And there’s one thing both February 1991 and February 2026 have in common: new (albeit very different) Jackie Chan sequels, as Panda Plan: The Magical Tribe continues his buddy comedy journeys with the panda Hu Hu.
Also of note in February 2026: a bunch of Chinese DTV action movies, a new spy movie (HUMINT) from the excellent Korean action filmmaker Ryoo Seung-wan (Escape from Mogadishu, I, The Executioner), a martial arts movie in Taiwan (Kung Fu) from novelist/filmmaker Giddens Ko, and multiple anime adaptations in Japan (Gintama: Yoshiwara in Flames, That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime the Movie: Tears of the Azure Sea).
The rest of Asia
The action industry in the Philippines delivered a hit of their own in February 1991, pairing up two irresistible stars (“bad boy” action star Robin Padilla and pop idol Sharon Cuneta) in the action-oriented romantic comedy Maging Sino Ka Man. The movie’s a lot of fun and was one of three Philippine action movies released that month.
In February 2026, action movies were released from the Philippines (Tenement, Batang Paco), Indonesia (Jangan Seperti Bapak), Iran (Escort), Singapore (I’m Not Gangster), and a Malay-Singaporean co-production (Ah Beng vs. Liang Po Po) teaming up movie stars from each nation. Of those, Escort looks the most interesting – it’s about a police officer escorting illegal cargo to get cancer medicine for a loved one.
Europe
The only notable action movie to come out of Europe in February 1991 was the ridiculously silly French spy comedy Operation Corned Beef, starring Jean Reno. It performed decently at the French box office, finishing 15th among 1991 movies.
There was also the Soviet remote island prison escape thriller To Kill the Scorpion, and Russian action movies continue in February 2026 with two (2!) movies about extreme sports bloggers who get pulled into a conflict that has ties to a past military event (Guantanamera, Save the Immortal).
In the UK, DTV action legend Scott Adkins has a new heist action-comedy out (Reckless), which I’m very much looking forward to.
Everywhere else
One of the most interesting action releases of February 1991 came from Mexico – The Legend of a Mask, which follows a reporter investigating the life (and death) of a wrestler. That one’s high on my list of 1991 action movies I’d like to watch but can’t find anywhere.
In February 2026, the crime thriller State of Fear was a major Netflix release from Brazil. Also of note in other regions: War Machine, an Australian sci-fi military movie starring Alan Ritchson (Reacher) from director Patrick Hughes (The Hitman’s Bodyguard movies, The Expendables 3), the Mexican military thriller Venganza, and Hunting Jessica Brok, an assassin thriller out of South Africa.
Best poster:
Run, without a doubt:
For paid subscribers, I’ve blurbed all the action movies I watched from February 1991 (Run, Hum, Once a Thief, Operation Corned Beef, Armour of God II: Operation Condor, Patthar Ke Phool, and Maging Sino Ka Man) and February 2026 (State of Fear, Hellfire, Blades of the Guardians, and The Bluff). And here’s a preview of the movies I’ll be looking at for March 1991.
