The 1980s were a marvelous era for action film. It was the decade before the birth of the summer blockbuster and the beginning of explosions preceding storytelling. Actors who would formally be criticized for their over-the-top, dramatized acting were placed in big-budget films that would miraculously make back their budget at the box office and so much more. Beside giving meatheads the green light to foray into the world of acting, their saturated place in film also made bankable stars out of foreign-born and sometimes unintelligible actors, lending to an invasion of European stars on the silver screen. These big names mostly got their start in iconic films that became classics, but then followed them up with a string of bad action films and cringe-inducing sequels that sometimes stretched across decades.
Strangely enough, these powerhouses of manly muscle are reintroducing themselves to a new generation, and not by showing their old works. No, the action stars of yesteryear are reemerging on the big screen in new – and just as formulaic – films. Why are these men coming back to movies? Most, if not all, of them are peaking at 60 years of age, and yet are making films where they are trying to relate the same macho, bicep-heavy enthusiasm as 30 years ago. I don’t blame these guys on cashing in on nostalgia with their toned bodies and wrinkly abs. But trying to take it further and make another long line of films that are just going to get panned by critics and ridiculed by movie-goers? That sounds neither entertaining nor helpful to the sagged careers of these late bloomers.
That’s not to say that youth is overvalued in the action arena. Nowadays actors need credibility for badass prowess. They can’t shimmy into a role with just built-up muscles and some attitude, because any Chippendales dancer can do that–the exception being last summer’s “Magic Mike.” No, actors need to be learned, knowledgeable and ready to fly off a building at a moment’s notice. We have always wanted our action stars to exhibit at least a cursory knowledge of weapons, martial arts or have enough bravery to withstand a four-way attack by a villain’s goons. Besides the fact we want our heroes superhuman, we also fancy them to be older. Many of the most notable stars got their starts in their thirties, including Jean-Claude Van Damme, Harrison Ford and Sylvester Stallone. Most, if not all, of them were men who looked like they could take a punch, not like a male model for Abercrombie and Fitch.
This recent trend started with “The Expendables” in 2010, and though it wasn’t tinged in the irony it should have been, it reignited studios’ desires to make vehicles for past big names. The allure of that film – and its sequel – was to see our old friends come together for the first time. Separately, they’re doomed to fail, because not having that sentimentality makes the film simply about one sexagenarian with a shotgun trying to relive the hype of thirty years ago.
Aside from it being downright sad that these men are trying to relive their glory days, those who do re-enter the genre aren’t timely. The ’80s were all about battling communism, fighting against an unseen force with thoughtless violence and taking on a power without fear. Now, we don’t have the same aggression and patriotism that would have us looking for an unsung hero. Instead, we’re more a culture of superheroes having powers that humans may never attain. Being able to throw a car off a small child? There are mothers pumped on adrenaline who can do that.
It’s not to say that these guys have disappeared for 20-plus years, fading into irrelevancy. That may be true for Arnold Schwarzenegger, who became a governor, lost his wife in a cheating scandal and is now grasping for some kind of new age among his contemporaries. It is true that he is now staring in films such as “The Last Stand” and a newly announced sequel to “Twins” called “Triplets.” These things are true of the former terminator, but Stallone has been plugging away for decades, making sequels to his major franchises, even in the last several years. Most of the greats have stopped making the big-time films they are most famous for and taking on cameos, such as Dolph Lundgren rumored to be in a “Masters of the Universe” remake and Sam Jones in “Ted.” Left to small-time roles and cameos, these guys still make their mark by helping us remember what beefcake bravado could do back when oiled-up, god-like figures were not overtly absurd.
These men used to hold up films with bloated budgets on the line, too big to fail in a sense, and now they’re returning maybe half of that budget in failed followups in doomed-to-fail ventures. Though we may not be veering away from the past these meatheads embody, we are done with the ones that made the genre what it was.
