Although I am sure most of you have already seen the trailer for this weekend’s release of The Hangover, I have included it to the right just in case as it served as the inspiration for this top ten list thanks to the right hook Mike Tyson delivers to Zach Galifianakis laying him out for a ten count. The clip got me to thinking about the best punches I have seen landed in movies and those that have stuck with me. Since I hadn’t seen The Hangover prior to posting this list I have no idea if Tyson’s blow would have made it, but I think I have gathered a collection of ten knockdowns worthy of consideration.
Just to clarify, this is a list of my personal favorite single punches thrown in movies. One punch and done. While other punches may surround the ones I have listed here it is the one specific punch that made the bloody-knuckler worthy of consideration. With that note… let’s get ready to rumble!
To think Conan the Barbarian was Arnold Schwarzenegger’s break-through role as an actor is appalling, but one thing cannot be ignored and that is the moment when Conan stumbles into the side of a camel and decides to knock it out. As awful as this movie is, this is a scene that is impossible to forget.
Conan goes on to punch a horse in the sequel, Conan the Destroyer, as well as conks out another camel after it spits up on him, which is a little more understandable than it was in this clip, but then again, the camel really should have been watching where Conan was going.
You can check out a montage of Conan vs. animal knockouts here.
This is one I am sure many will debate, but when I first saw this film I laughed my ass off at this moment.
Son in Law was released in 1993 and featured a sexy 22-year-old Carla Gugino and not to forget Tiffani-Amber Thiessen who at the time was known to most as “Saved by the Bell” hottie Kelly Kapowski. I haven’t seen the movie itself for quite a while, but Son in Law, along with Pauly Shore’s Encino Man, were two of my guilty pleasures. I’m not sure if either one would make me laugh now, but I know this clip still cracks me up.
The quality of movie doesn’t get better at the eighth spot, but to think of movie punches and not think of Jason’s decapitation of Julius in Friday the 13th Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan would be a crime. Julius is introduced early on as a young boxer who is apparently undefeated, but when he decides to take on Jason in a bit of rooftop sparring he doesn’t last long.
While the film itself is certainly one of the worst horror films I have ever seen, this punch was the first, and only, thing you would hear about from anyone that saw it. As for Vincent Craig Dupree who played Julius, he never really went on to have much of a career, but I am sure his role as Black Man on Bus in Dutch in 1991 is something he remembers fondly.
SIDE NOTE: Wouldn’t a better title for this film been Friday the 13th Part VIII: Jason Takes a Boat to Manhattan? They could have got The Lonely Island for the soundtrack.
