“Action heroes aren’t quite what they used to be - Tuscaloosa News” plus 1 more |
| Action heroes aren’t quite what they used to be - Tuscaloosa News Posted: 13 Aug 2010 03:05 AM PDT Published: Friday, August 13, 2010 at 3:30 a.m. Suddenly it was no longer tough enough to be lean and grizzled, like Clint Eastwood, or suave and bitter, like Humphrey Bogart, or tall and swaggering, like John Wayne. To be an action star, you had to resemble prime cut, like bodybuilder Arnold Schwarzenegger. But in 2010, where's the beef? The grade A is still that aged '80s gristle, as shown in "The Expendables," opening today at the Cobb Hollywood 16. It stars AARP-eligible actors who have spent as much time in the gym as in the actor's studio, including Sylvester Stallone, 64; Dolph Lundgren, 52; Mickey Rourke, 58; and Bruce Willis, 55, one of the few in the group who made it on wit and panache as much as muscle. Schwarzenegger, 63, even makes a cameo, as he did — albeit virtually, by CGI recreation of his younger cyborg self — in "Terminator: Salvation." So yes, for the first and probably last time, you can see Sly, Arnie and Bruce all in the same frame, in a blow-'em-up about a team of mercenaries, written and directed by Stallone. Their co-stars aren't babies, either. Eric Roberts is 54. Martial arts expert Jet Li and mixed martial arts champ Randy Couture are both 47. Formerly "Stone Cold" Steve Austin is 45. Ex-NFL star Terry Crews is 41. At 37, Jason Statham is the baby of the bunch, and possible heir apparent, if he can learn to unclench his jaws long enough to deliver a line audibly. It's not news that the old dudes are still punching in. Eastwood, 80, never faded away. He just turned craggier, more Mt. Rushmore-like. As director, writer, actor and composer, he still churns out films at a rate of nearly one a year, not trying to stay Dirty Harry, but often playing on the vagaries of aging, as with "Gran Torino," "Blood Work" and "Unforgiven." Harrison Ford, 68, came back as Indiana Jones in 2008. Ford looked great, even with a few gray hairs, and still had the Indy insouciance down, although the movie itself became yet another George Lucas mess, loathed by almost everyone. It still made some money, although not as much as expected, driven by curiosity and foreign markets. In a different way, 48-year-old Tom Cruise remains eternally youthful, but audiences don't seem to be buying it as in his "Top Gun" heyday. The first "Mission Impossible" made almost half a billion dollars, worldwide; the third version made half that, and some more recent vehicles such as this summer's "Knight and Day" may not even make back their budgets. Ford and Cruise's action careers probably lean on upcoming sequels: a rumored fifth Indiana Jones for the former, and a fourth "Mission: Impossible" for the latter. Rourke made a monstrous comeback in 2008's "The Wrestler," although he'd been returning from his ill-considered boxing career — and concommitant disastrous plastic surgery — for a couple of years, with standout roles in "Sin City," "Domino" and more. This summer he again showed off his muscular chops as bad guy Ivan Vanko in "Iron Man 2." Another "Iron Man" baddie, Jeff Bridges, 60, never left Hollywood. But a more talented and versatile actor than most on this list, he never really stuck with action-adventure, even after a handful of thriller and action roles in the '80s, in flicks such as "Against All Odds," "8 Million Ways to Die" and "Jagged Edge." He came back to the genre in the first "Iron Man," as Tony Stark's heavy brother, and will be back this fall in digital action in "Tron: Legacy." Like Bridges, Denzel Washington, 55, is best known as a real actor. But he looked incredibly believable kicking post-apocalyptic butt in this year's "The Book of Eli," and continues to team up with Tony Scott for heavy roles. Stallone himself amazed many with not only his physique but also his acting chops — limited, but effective in the right roles — in the 2006 "Rocky Balboa." But there are those older action-oriented gentlemen who have not fared as well. The "muscles from Brussells," Jean-Claude Van Damme, 49, zipped past his peak long ago. Even for an action hero, he's such a laughably bad actor that most of his vehicles have gone straight to video in the past decade. Wesley Snipes, 48, still looks fit, but a once-promising career slid into B-movie status following the Blade vampire hunter movies of the late '90s and early '00s. This year's "Brooklyn's Finest," while promising with a cast including Richard Gere, Don Cheadle, Vincent D'Onofrio and Ellen Barkin, and directed by Antoine Fuqua ("Training Day"), vanished without a trace. Chuck Norris, 70, has became a joke and seems retired, with no movie credits since 2005, for a "Walker Texas Ranger" TV movie. Steven Seagal, 59, never really went away, but he never really went anywhere to begin with, with his dork-knob haircut, flabby physique and mediocre, though occasionally popular, flicks. Mel Gibson, 54, might still have something to give on screen, but he can't seem to stop shooting himself in the foot in real life. So where are the newer kids coming from? Mostly, they seem to be like Bridges and Washington, actors first and beefcake only coincidentally, hitting the protein drinks and Shake Weights only when the role requires. Matt Damon, 39, won an Oscar for his writing on "Good Will Hunting" in 1997, and parlayed that into a diverse career including psychological thrillers ("The Talented Mr. Ripley"), crime capers (the "Ocean's" trilogy) and crime dramas ("The Departed"). But he became Bourne again, and again, for three smart action flicks based on Robert Ludlum's novels about a superspy who loses his memory and has to beat a lot of people senseless to recover it. Daniel Craig, 42, aka James Blond, already had a solid career before becoming 007, restoring weight and gravitas to the role after the feather-light years of Pierce Brosnan. Hugh Jackman, 41, had done everything from splashy musicals such as "The Boy from Oz" and "Oklahoma" to light romantic comedy, westerns and heavy drama before donning the claws of Wolverine in the X-Men movies, and the slings and arrows of "Van Helsing." Will Smith, likewise 41, has been everything from the Fresh Prince of Bel Air to Muhammad Ali to love guru Hitch, but audiences like him as a guy who carries a gun or a bomb — or flexes his own guns — in flicks such as "Independence Day," "Enemy of the State" and "I Am Legend." Gerard Butler, 40, showed pecs of bronze in "300," but mixes up explosions with romantic comedies and melodrama such as in "The Phantom of the Opera." Marky Mark Wahlberg, 39, started out in underwear and curiously monotone music, but even with the beginnings of a beer belly showing in "The Wrong Guys," can still flip between serious work such as "The Departed" and shooters like "Max Payne" and, well, "Shooter." Christian Bale, 36, seems to have been around forever, taking the lead in Stephen Spielberg's "Empire of the Sun" when he was just 11. As Christopher Nolan's Batman of choice, as a tough westerner in "3:10 to Yuma" and as G-man Melvin Purvis in Michael Mann's "Public Enemies," Bale weighs heavily in the ranks. Speaking of Nolan, brainier action like his "Inception" and "Dark Knight" demand more thespian skills than steroids. "Inception" offers a few clues to possible guns 'n' poses stars of tomorrow. Baby-faced Leonardo DiCaprio, 35, another kid star like Bale, keeps popping up with a gun in his hand. DiCaprio seems determined to overcome the fact that he can't grow a decent beard, so expect him to keep hawking testosterone. Tom Hardy, 32, Eames in "Inception," has been around awhile, as far back as 2001's "Black Hawk Down" and 2002's "Star Trek: Nemesis," but seems poised to break out as a household name with the 2012 "Mad Max: Fury Road." It will reunite director George Miller and the Max Rockatansky character from the "Road Warrior" franchise, but smartly leaving Gibson out this time. The fact that Hardy recently expressed that he may swing a little both ways, sexually — or did in the past; he has a child by an ex-girlfriend and is engaged to be married to another — suggests he's a tad more open-minded than Mad Mel, less likely to melt down in public. Joseph Gordon-Levitt, 29, acquits himself remarkably well in high-wire fight sequences as Arthur in "Inception." While known better as a comic or indie actor, the former "Third Rock from the Sun" star showed in the 2009 "G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra" that he's not afraid to go kooky. Like Gordon-Levitt, Shia LeBeouf, 24, can act. But as Indy's son in "Crystal Skull" and the kid in "Transformers," he showed a willingness to bulk up and dumb down. And his last name is only a few transposed letters away from French for "the beef." Although bland enough to make "Matrix" and "Speed" star Keanu Reeves, 45, look like Marlon Brando, Sam Worthington, 34, starred in three of the biggest action flicks of 2009: "Avatar," "Clash of the Titans" and "Terminator: Salvation." Why he keeps getting cast, with a forgettable face and stoic-unto-rigor acting, is anyone's guess. If he'd grow out the military cut into unflattering lengths, he could be the Seagal of tomorrow. Chris Pine, 30, looks more pretty boy than tough guy, but his undeniable wit and swagger as James T. Kirk in J.J. Abrams' "Star Trek" puts him on the list. He's co- starring with Washington in a Tony Scott thriller, "Unstoppable," so Pine's apparently not worried about letting his hair down. New Zealand actor Karl Urban, 38, has been quietly building since days on the "Xena: Warrior Princess" and "Hercules" TV shows of the '90s. He's equally adept as good guys — Eomer, leader of the riders of Rohan in "Lord of the Rings" trilogy, a very funny Bones McCoy in the new "Star Trek" or antagonist in "The Bourne Supremacy." He's apparently going to star in a new Judge Dredd movie, based on the comic series. A 1995 Stallone vehicle of the same origin didn't do so well, perhaps because of the presence of quality-Kryptonite Rob Schneider. Urban might metaphorically grab the passed torch in his next role, in this fall's heavily promoted "Red" (standing for "retired and extremely dangerous"). It stars Willis; Morgan Freeman, 73; John Malkovich, 56; and Helen Mirren, 65; as ex-CIA badasses drawn from retirement to blow things up one last time. Until the sequel, anyway. This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service — if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read our FAQ page at fivefilters.org/content-only/faq.php |
| Former 'Heroes' star Masi Oka cast in CBS' 'Hawaii Five-0' reboot - Entertainment Weekly Online Posted: 12 Aug 2010 06:29 PM PDT Now that he can't save the world (or cheerleaders) anymore as time-stopping teleporter Hiro Nakamura in NBC's now-canceled Heroes, Emmy-nominee Masi Oka is moving into a new prime-time do-gooding role: EW has confirmed reports that the actor has been cast in CBS' Hawaii Five-0 reboot, which is shaping up to have some serious geek-pop cred. The cast: Alex O'Loughlin (Moonlight), Daniel Dae Kim (Lost) and Grace Park (Battlestar Galactica). The exec producers: Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci (Star Trek; Fringe). Just what kind of mystery island drama is this new Hawaii Five-0 going to be, anyway? Oka will reportedly play a coroner in the show's fourth episode and may become a recurring character in the series. This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service — if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read our FAQ page at fivefilters.org/content-only/faq.php |
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