How do the many action-packed movies of Scott Adkins rank, from worst to best? Hailing from England, Scott Adkins is one of the most recognizable action stars around today, transitioning between different accents with ease and leaving viewers speechless with his simply astonishing abilities as a martial artist. Though his leading man work exists mainly in the straight-to-video world, that label has quite arguably flipped from the pejorative it once was to a legitimate selling point now that inventive action movies that forgo a wide theatrical release have begun putting much of their big-screen brethren to shame.
For those who don't closely follow the straight-to-video action scene, Adkins is a face that millions know well, from minor roles in Unleashed, stunt maven Jackie Chan, Jean-Claude Van Damme, Jet Li, or Donnie Yen, the template of a "Scott Adkins movie" is something that is now well-established and beloved.
Whether in the Ninja films, more comedic roles like Undisputed franchise, Scott Adkins continues to thrill viewers with his winning blend of charisma, physicality, and well-honed martial arts prowess. Few of his vehicles are ever lackluster, and even some of his more B-level action movies pack a big punch, especially if Isaac Florentine is involved as director. Here are the 32 "Scott Adkins movies" ranked from the worst to the best.
32. Incoming
A prison action movie set in the International Space Station certainly sounds like a blast, which is more than can be said for the sci-fi film Incoming. When the terrorists aboard the space station hatch a plot to crash it into Moscow, it's up to a handful of personnel to stop them, including the abrasive CIA operative Reiser, played by Adkins. Incoming is a case of a movie's ambition exceeding what it's capable of delivering — clearly being made with a shoestring budget — that it's sadly not able to effectively mask. It also completely wastes the talents of Adkins with fight scenes that are both too few and underwhelming, along with a villainous twist in the last twenty minutes that only seems to be there for the sake of having one. Add in crummy visual effects a-plenty, and Incoming is sadly the worst Scott Adkins movie (Adkins himself having had shared his own disparaging words for it on social media).
31. Black Mask 2: City Of Masks
Ostensibly a sequel to the 1996 superhero movie of terribly rendered CGI effects, and a gigantic brain in a tub that wants the hero back in his clutches at all costs. City of Masks is absurd on every level, but the wire-fu heavy fight scenes are decent enough, and the final battle between Black Mask and Lang lets you know the film is being headlined by two future action stars in the making.
30. El Gringo
Released in 2012, El Gringo isn't one of the more memorable Scott Adkins vehicles, but it's able as a Friday night watch. An unidentified traveler only known as "The Man" arrives in a Mexican town with a case full of $2 million, running afoul of drug cartels, DEA officials, and other assorted enemies, all while he simply wants nothing more than a glass of water. Adkins raises the film from what it otherwise would have been without him with an in-over-his-head performance, and the action scenes aren't bad. As the antagonist, Christian Slater is also in tow and equally game as Lieutenant West. Overall, El Gringo is neither a bad action movie nor an especially great one.
29. The Legend of Hercules
A January release in 2014 doesn't exactly inspire confidence in something bearing the title the epic scope of 300 beautifully and giving one of his hammiest villain performances to date. If you've got 90 minutes to kill, The Legend of Hercules will at least keep you on board with Scott Adkins going all in as its villain.
28. The Shepherd: Border Patrol
The first collaboration of Jean-Claude Van Damme and Scott Adkins, The Shepherd: Border Patrol came during the period between Undisputed 2 and Ninja when Adkins is still on the rise, and with Isaac Florentine at the helm, it's an alright action flick. Van Damme portrays ex-New Orleans cop Jack Robideaux, who the border patrol in New Mexico, and soon finds himself battling drug smugglers. Van Damme's career had fallen off the radar a bit in the early 2000s, gradually working his way back up in his straight-to-video work, and Border Patrol is enough to make one wonder why he hasn't worked with Florentine more frequently. Adkins is around to steal the show as the villain Karp, with his and Van Damme's final fight being the highlight of the film. The two still struggled to find the perfect project and a fight sequence that truly put both of their skills to use, for a while, which ended up being Universal Soldier: Day of Reckoning, but Border Patrol at least got people used to the idea of Van Damme and Adkins on-screen together.
27. The Expendables 2
The sequel to Sylvester Stallone's 2010 action star ensemble, The Expendables over scheduling with Undisputed 3, and he clearly relished the second chance to board the series as Vilain's aggressive associate Hector. As the best installment of the series, The Expendables 2 is lower on the list due to Adkins still being in a secondary role, but he channeled Boyka as Hector and got in one awesome fight scene with Jason Statham.
26. Assassination Games
The sophomore team-up of Jean-Claude Van Damme and Scott Adkins, Assassination Games is closer to a crime thriller than an action flick and is best enjoyed on that level. Van Damme and Adkins portray assassins Vincent Brazil and Roland Flint, who are forced to team-up in pursuit of a common enemy. Director Ernie Barbarash has repeatedly shown his skill with action films, later working with Van Damme again on Pound of Flesh and Adkins on Abduction, while Assassination Games settles into a darker, more simmering approach. Van Damme's son Kristopher Van Varenberg also appears in the film in the role of Schell, while his daughter Bianca also portrays Flint's comatose wife Anna. Taking the style of a chess game, Assassination Games works decently as an intellectual thriller, though the first confrontation between Brazil and Flint is decidedly far too brief.
25. Legacy of Lies
A dark, contemplative spy thriller, Legacy of Lies basically takes the minor role Adkins had in the a Tom Clancy story, and Legacy of Lies would be it.
24. Abduction
Nearly two decades after the goofy Black Mask 2: City of Masks, Scott Adkins team up with Andy On again for the more straightforward Abduction. Adkins plays Quinn, a man abducted by otherworldly beings in 1985 and dropped into Vietnam in 2018, determined to rescue his daughter and teaming up with On's Conner, who's on a quest to save his abducted wife. Sharing some similarly wonky plot elements with their prior collaboration, Abduction is far more fine-tuned in its considerably darker premise, with plenty of great action scenes along the way, including a rematch between Adkins and On (the latter is far less known in the West than Adkins, but fans of Hong Kong action cinema know On well from movies like True Legend and Once Upon A Time In Shanghai). Abduction is largely an enjoyable mix of sci-fi action and man-on-the-run, though the ending is a bit of a head-scratcher in the impact it seems to be going for.
