Sylvester Stallone Calls Out Action Wimps For Ruining His Genre
Hey, Tobey Maguire! Listen up, Robert Downey Jr., Shia LaBeouf, and the rest of you would-be action heroes! Take heed of Sylvester Stallone, who has but a few words to explain the demise of his beloved genre since its zenith in the '80s -- and indirectly or not, you are implicated.
In fairness to Stallone, the specific connections to guys like Maguire are drawn by his NYT profiler. Nevertheless, the inference is clear: When it comes to the kind of explodey, R-rated, head-busting, mercenary thrills promised by Stallone's The Expendables, don't send a milquetoast, CGI-ed boy to do a prodigiously pumped man's job:
Asked what had killed classic action films like his Rambo and Rocky series -- which each eked out a respectable performance with retro-style sequels in the past few years -- Mr. Stallone answered in a word: "technology."
When stars could "Velcro their muscles on, it was over," he said.
A lithe but loopy Tobey Maguire could play a perfectly credible Spider-Man, as computer-generated effects made up for the raw athleticism that Mr. Stallone, [Arnold] Schwarzenegger and others brought to their trademark roles. Meanwhile, attitudes changed, as Matt Damon, the self-doubting, Mini-Cooper-driving hero of the Bourne films, set the standard for a new and less violent kind of hero.
Also fun: Stallone sees Taylor Lautner ready to inherit the muscle-bound mantle. And Jean-Claude Van Damme declined the role that Stallone eventually offered to his Rocky IV nemesis Dolph Lungren, reportedly telling the actor-director, "[Y]ou should be trying to save people in South Central." I smell sequel!
· The Return of the Action Flick All-Stars [NYT]
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Comments
It's funny, because I was gonna blame plastic surgery for ruining the genre. Scars are the sign of a man, not facelifts.
(And in Seagal's case, the craft service table should bear the responsibility).
As much as action stars today are neurasthenic wretches (an archtype enforced and reinforced to keep young people from standing up to the manipulation of their own country, I believe), nostalgia for the grotesquely steroided physiques of Arnold, Sly et al is a big mistake.
The proto-fascist, latently homo (Hitler school), barely able to walk type of action hero is a serious dead end. I'll go back even further and take Lee Marvin or the hiply stoned, somewhat Beat Steve McQueen as a new/classic prototype.
It is all nonsense!
Jason Statham an example.
So "raw athleticism" loosely translates into "steroids," right?
In truth I do not believe that Stallone was speaking about Robert Downey Jr. The two men are very close friends. Robert Downey Jr.'s muscles are in fact real and he doesn't use steroids. He does weight training and martial arts.
I do however doubt Stallone's generation though. Most of those guys used steroids to get large and they still do. As for Stallone saying Taylor Lautner was the next big guy. That is funny. He is an 18 year old boy that weight lifts for fun. My son is twenty and looks like that. However, I don't think my son will make the next action star-though he is bigger than Lautner.
Avery Ptomey
Action movies still exist; they've just evolved since their defining moment in the 1980s.
Arnie is my all time favorite actor. He does an awesome amount of good work for all sorts of charities.
oil of olay for the win! lol althought I have been wondering about cosmetic surgery 🙂
CGI tech stuff is what made action hero's lose their bare knuckle brawn ,people got lazy a real man should look like they can break stones with their bare hands and be a one man army and do whatever he wants Arnold is a great example