Streaming services have no shortage of action movies available to stream, but it can sometimes be difficult to find a great action flick that you can watch for free. YouTube and Tubi have the best selection of free movies to choose from, but the library of available titles rotates from month to month. This month’s three great free action movies may be around in January, but don’t count on them being here when February arrives.
This month’s picks include a buddy comedy action flick, a surprisingly well-made prequel, and the start of an action franchise that is celebrating its 30th anniversary in 2025.
If you’re curious about what’s available in action on other streaming services, we also have guides for the best action movies on Netflix, the best action movies on Hulu, as well as the best action movies on Amazon Prime Video. For more options, check out guides for the best new movies to stream and the best movies on Amazon Prime Video.
Hot Fuzz (2007)
Hot Fuzz is both a parody of action movies and a pretty great example of the genre as well. In Shaun of the Dead, Edgar Wright reunites Simon Pegg and Nick Frost for a new story that casts the former as Nicholas Angel, a hotshot London cop banished to the small village of Sandford.
Despite forming a friendship with his action-movie-loving colleague, Danny Butterman (Frost), Angel is bored out of his mind in Sandford until some of the local residents start dying in inexplicable ways. Angel suspects Simon Skinner (Timothy Dalton) is behind the deaths, but he’s severely underestimated the scope of the threat he’s facing. Let’s just say that Angel and Butterman will have to be very well-armed if they want to come out of this mess with their lives.
Watch Hot Fuzz on YouTube.
Prey (2022)
Somehow, this made-for-Hulu original movie is one of the best Predator films since the 1987 original. Prey is making a guest appearance on Tubi this month, and it’s just as impressive now as it was three years ago. Amber Midthunder has a breakout role as Naru, a young woman in the Comanche tribe in the 18th century, over two centuries before Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Dutch had a run-in with a similar creature.
Naru’s desire to be a leader and a warrior earns her several rebukes from her people, but none of them are prepared when a Predator (Dane DiLiegro) begins stalking male members of the tribe and violently dispatching them as part of its hunt. This creature is more deadly than anything Naru has ever seen, but it also fails to see that she may be the most worthy prey to be found among the Comanche.
Watch Prey on Tubi.
Bad Boys (1995)
The original Bad Boys is such a prototypical Michael Bay movie that it overshadows the director’s later work because everything he did afterward was already perfectly executed in this film. Will Smith and Martin Lawrence play a pair of cops, Mike Lowrey and Marcus Burnett, respectively. After the most successful drug bust in their careers, Mike and Marcus are rocked when the drugs go missing and the suspicion falls on their fellow officers.
A young woman named Julie Mott (Téa Leoni) stumbles upon the lethal activities of the man behind the heist, Fouchet (Tchéky Karyo), and she desperately reaches out to Mike after one of their mutual friends is killed. Because Mike was unavailable and Julie insisted on speaking only with him, Marcus pretended to be his partner. And keeping up the charade proves to be increasingly difficult as all of their lives are endangered.
Watch Bad Boys on Tubi.
