‘The Furious’ Just Became the Highest-Rated Action Movie of 2026 With a Perfect Rotten Tomatoes Score
The action genre has been hungry for a new standard-bearer, and it looks like that contender has finally arrived. Directed by Kenji Tanigaki, ‘The Furious’ opened in theaters on June 12, 2026, backed by what can only be described as a staggering wave of critical enthusiasm. Distributed internationally by Lionsgate, the film carries an R rating for language and strong bloody violence and runs a lean one hour and 53 minutes.
The project has been quietly building momentum since long before its wide release. The film had its world premiere in the Toronto International Film Festival’s Midnight Madness section on September 6, with the production spearheaded by Hong Kong’s Bill Kong, the producer behind ‘Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.’ Director Tanigaki is a Japanese action choreographer who spent most of his decades-long career collaborating with Donnie Yen, and ‘The Furious’ is shaping up to be the career-defining work that showcases everything he has spent years refining.
At its core, the film is a propulsive revenge thriller with a deceptively simple setup. Xie Miao stars as the mute Wang Wei, a mysterious man who turns out to be extraordinarily good at kung fu when his daughter is kidnapped by thugs from a child trafficking ring. In trying to rescue her, he encounters Joe Taslim’s Navin, who is similarly on the gang’s trail after the disappearance of his journalist wife, played by Jeeja Yanin. The ensemble also includes martial arts veterans Yayan Ruhian, Brian Le, Joey Iwanaga, and Sahajak Boonthanakit, creating one of the most impressive action-film lineups in recent years.
@DiscussingFilm flagged the film’s critical standing, reporting that ‘The Furious’ is the highest-rated action movie of 2026 with a perfect 100% on Rotten Tomatoes. The reviews backing that score are nothing short of effusive. The Rotten Tomatoes Critics Consensus hails the film as a “relentless, blood-soaked spectacle of breathtakingly inventive martial arts choreography, with director Kenji Tanigaki delivering a brutal, balletic action extravaganza.” The Tomatometer has now been certified across 61 reviews.
The comparisons to genre royalty have come fast and frequently. The film co-stars Joe Taslim, a man who shares a crucial piece of DNA with the legendary ‘The Raid’, and critics have not let that connection go unnoticed. Action director Kensuke Sonomura, the choreographer behind the ‘Baby Assassins’ films, designed the sequences, and his distinctive style involving unpredictable changes in rhythm shines through at a scale much larger than his previous work. Taslim spoke to UPI about the evolution of fight filmmaking, saying, “People want to feel the character more. People want to feel the story. People want to feel the reality in that fight scene.”
Tanigaki himself made no secret of what separated this production from typical Hollywood action fare, stating plainly, “I’m not interested in making actors who cannot move look as if they can. Our cast has real skills from different martial arts disciplines. Everything we are doing is going to be practical.” With a perfect score to back that promise up, it appears audiences this weekend will be the ultimate judges of whether ‘The Furious’ truly earns its place alongside the great fight films of this century. Whether you think it can dethrone ‘The Raid’ as the gold standard of martial arts cinema is exactly the kind of debate worth having in the comments.
