An awesome old school action movie is tearing it up on Netflix

The worldwide popularity and appeal of the John Wick franchise, not to mention the spiritual successors that arrived in its wake, proved once and for all that there’s definitely a place for old school meat-and-potatoes action movies in the age of superheroes and CGI, with Jason Momoa’s Braven a perfect recent example.

Everything about the glorious throwback is ripped straight from the 1980s, and in the best fashion possible. Our implausibly-named hero Joe Braven heads off to his remote hunting cabin in an effort to reconnect with his ailing father, before a gang of drug traffickers show up on the scene, leading to much chaos and even more axe throwing.

At a brisk 94 minutes, Lin Oeding’s gung-ho effort is never anything less than brisk and propulsive, while Momoa gets to put his action star credentials to good use, with the always-reliable and ever-grizzled Stephen Lang lending suitably badass support.

A 77% Rotten Tomatoes score was a seal of approval from critics, and perhaps the greatest shame surrounding Braven is that it hasn’t gotten a sequel. Not that it’s deterred Netflix subscribers from checking out the deliriously entertaining one-and-done roller coaster ride, though, with FlixPatrol revealing it’s charted on the platform’s most-watched list, and not for the first time.