Rare is the Hollywood thriller or action movie that doesn't have an exchange of gunfire. To compile our round-up of the most kick-ass shooting scenes from modern movies we had to narrow the list, so we've focused on the crime genre and excluded the slates of excellent war movies and Westerns (which could fill up their own lists) for our purposes. This accounts for the absence of the gunplay from Saving Private Ryan, the O.K. Corral sequence in Tombstone and the finale of The Good the Bad and the Ugly. Herewith, our hit-or-miss list of favorite shooting scenes in modern movie history.

10. Smokin' Aces (2006)

"Bring It!"

BUY NOW! Joe Carnahan's over-the-top shoot-'em-up starring Jeremy Piven, Ryan Reynolds and Alicia Keys makes the list for its two simultaneous high-caliber shootouts. In the penthouse of a Lake Tahoe resort hotel, the meth-fueled, mohawked Tremor brothers lay siege on hotel security with machine guns and chainsaws. Ten floors below, a confusing array of assassins, hit men, cops, pretend prostitutes, fake Feds and real FBI agents stands off in front of an elevator bank until one bad-assed sniper (Taraji Henson) gets the party started by firing her M82 50-caliber sniper rifle into the fray, unleashing a hailstorm of bullets, broken glass and chandelier crystals.

Body count: 4 upstairs/7 below View the clip »

9. Collateral (2004)

"Club Fever"

BUY NOW! Michael Mann didn't need any music at all to create the masterful shootout in Heat. In Collateral's unforgettable four-way nightclub gun battle between hired killer Vincent (Tom Cruise), a federal drug witness's bodyguards, a drug lord's thugs and the police, Paul Oakenfeld's spine-tingling club smash "Ready Steady Go" absolutely makes the scene. Vincent snakes through the pulsating, packed club with his unwilling cab-driver accomplice Max (Jamie Foxx), spies the narc and then all hell breaks loose. But Vincent remains icy cool throughout, saving Max in an uncharacteristic moment of kindness, killing the bodyguards and executing the informant without wrinkling his $2,000 suit. Max flees the club with a sympathetic officer (Mark Ruffalo), only to stare in horrified disbelief as Vincent guns the cop down outside the club, forces Max back into the cab, and heads off to execute his final target.

Body count: 8 View the clip »

8. Desperado (1995)

"Bar Fight Massacre"

BUY NOW! Robert Rodriguez cemented his reputation for stylistic ultra-violence with this barroom bloodbath from the sequel to El Mariachi. Roving guitarist-assassin El Mariachi (Antonio Banderas) rouses the suspicions of drug kingpin Bucho's goons, who have heard rumors of a killer toting a guitar-case full of guns, so they draw on El Mariachi, who smirks as they open his case to reveal... a guitar. Which slowly opens, casket-like, to reveal a small arsenal of guns, brass knuckles and other deadly weapons. To a swampy blues soundtrack, Banderas blows away Bucho's henchmen while bouncing around the bar like an Olympic gymnast on speed. Then he hits the street where he encounters buxom Carolina (Salma Hayek), pushing her aside to thwart one last gunman, whom he kills point blank with two shots to the head, splattering blood all over his face.

Body count: 21 View the clip »

7. The Untouchables (1987)

"The Station Steps"

BUY NOW! Style and suspense rate Brian DePalma's train station staircase shootout as one of filmdom's most unforgettable. In a tip of the fedora to Sergei Eisenstein's "Odessa Steps" sequence from 1925's Battleship Potemkin, a mother, weighed down with luggage, struggles to maneuver her baby carriage up the grand staircase of Chicago's train station when a midnight shootout between Eliot Ness (Kevin Costner) and Al Capone's crew breaks out. The runaway baby carriage careens down the marble stairs in a slow-motion blur of gangsters, G-men and sailors sending and receiving Tommy gun fire. The scene concludes with Agent Stone's (Andy Garcia) graceful stunt of tossing Ness a reloaded gun while sliding across the marble floor to break the baby's fall. It's pure poetry in (slow) motion.

Body count: 8 View the clip »

6. True Romance (1993)

"Hotel Ambassador"

BUY NOW! In an amateur drug deal blown out of proportion, young lovers Clarence (Christian Slater) and Alabama (Patricia Arquette) are caught in the crossfire between vulgar Hollywood agents, ambitious ATF agents, dodgy informants and trigger-happy mobsters. The feathers fly as the furniture is shot to ribbons, bullets rain, a blank movie screen flickers and blood splatters in this chaotic hotel room faceoff scripted by Quentin Tarantino and directed by Tony Scott.

Body count: 16 View the clip »