Introduction: The best or greatest guy movies in recent film history have been described or reviewed here. Guy movies often feature contests (games), hot cars and women, road trips, buddies, sexual initiations, male bonding, profanities and obscenities, and various bloody, kick-ass, violent fight sequences, often explosively lethal with high body counts. Themes and content of time-wasting, 'macho' or 'guys' films that would appeal most to male audiences usually include films with lavish doses of brutality, ultra- or cartoonish violence, warring, mean-spirited put-downs, competitiveness, action-filled scenes, blunt humor, trite dialogue, and scenes with gratuitous nudity and sex. Testosterone-boosting guys films often require the male viewer to leave his brain at the door in order to enjoy the fast-cut, inflated action - often devoid of character development and richly-nuanced dialogue.

Film genres (or sub-genres) most associated with 'guy' movies include action films, crime/gangster films, sports films, war films, and westerns plus an occasional comedy (Blazing Saddles (1974) and Caddyshack (1980), for instance). Most of the guy films included here are not worthy of much critical praise, although some exceptions include Cool Hand Luke (1967), The Godfather films, and Apocalypse Now (1979).

The heroes (or anti-heroes) of these films, predominantly with male casts and protagonists, were often loners or mavericks, destined to be unapologetic about their behavior. Male stars most often associated with 'guy' films include Paul Newman, Charles Bronson, Lee Marvin, Robert De Niro, Clint Eastwood, Jean-Claude Van Damme, Steven Seagal, Steve McQueen, Al Pacino, Arnold Schwarzenegger, and Sylvester Stallone, among others -- who were often cast in the roles of sports athletes, martial arts experts, secret intelligence agency operatives or spies, policemen, detectives, enforcers, or mobsters/gangsters/criminals. Various directors of 'guy' films often show up multiple times, such as Quentin Tarantino, Rob Cohen, Michael Bay and Jerry Bruckheimer (producer).

Note: The films that are marked with a yellow star are the films that "The Greatest Films" site has selected as the "100 Greatest Films". Other lists of 'guy' movies have been compiled by Maxim Magazine (100 Greatest Guy Movies Ever Made) and by Men's Journal (50 Best Guy Movies of All Time).