I'm posting in c/movies but including tv shows, anime, comics, manga, etc.
Personally I think the final war rig sequence in Mad Max: Fury Road is the most impressive live-action fight I've ever seen. The practical effects and choreographing are incredible and the fight keeps moving along by having the stakes raised and characters dying, it doesn't meander.
In animation it's harder to say. Attack on Titan had a lot of really well animated action (it used be so good, goddammit). The battle in Shiganshina in season 3 is the best, the narrative weight is so strong, the characters all have really good moments, the stakes are really high and the production is incredible, animation, soundtrack, sound design, voice acting etc.
Mob Psycho has the most consistently incredible animation of anything I've ever seen, I think the group fight against the teleporting psychic in season 2 is my personal favourite, even if it's not the flashiest, it's really well directed and just such a cool fight, even though it's not that long.
The ChainsawMan manga has a lot of good fights, the Falling Devil arc is like my favourite arc of anything ever, but that's mainly because of the characters. The art is stunning, Fujimoto at his absolute peak, but the action is pretty straightforward. I mainly love it because it's Asa at her best as a character, and Asa is my favourite character of anything ever.
Wow it was way easier for me to choose a live action sequence than animated. Honestly there's so much lazy action in superhero slop that Mad Max stands out so, so much.
I watched heat for the first time a few years ago, and there was something about the heists that made them weird. Not bad, they just felt very different, like something didn't fit. Then I realized that the takes were so much longer than they would've been with most action movies nowadays. Heat as a whole has some really long shots, but even the more action-y bits are paced really slowly, compared to now. It makes the movie breathe better, and build up tension before releasing satisfactorily
Nah that's what made them good though, as it goes on it made skin crawl. And also the guns sound real good. Heat feels great to watch.
I think I've heard the gun sounds were "real". They were firing off blanks from the guns and the gunfire sounds you hear are those sounds being recorded.
It sounds less video gamey. Also very loud. The second heist was hectic cause of the sound.
Yeah what I meant is that longer, slower paced action scenes are not something you see nowadays, and that heat is all the better for having them.