8 Perfect Action Movies That Are Also Perfect Romantic Movies

Many of us turn to movies when we want to feel something, and two genres that can move us most powerfully are romance and action. Romance has long been part of storytelling, while the modern action film only really took shape in the late 1960s. Alfred Hitchcock's North by Northwest is often cited as the first to marry romantic drama with the kind of action cinema that followed, influencing early James Bond pictures and beyond.

Romantic subplots in action films are frequently serviceable rather than central, but a handful of movies manage to excel at both. When both elements work, the result can be gripping in the way great action grips us physiologically and touching or tragic in the way great romance does.

Sam Raimi's Spider-Man 2 tightens its focus on Peter Parker and Mary-Jane, balancing electrifying set pieces like the runaway train with a Shakespearean last act of character and sacrifice.

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