What happened to the real action heroes? Where are people like Steven Seagal, Jean Claude van Damme and Sylvester Stallone? Sure, they are all still making movies, but why do I have to go to a DVD-store in order to be able to watch these flicks, and why can't I catch them in cinemas? Where did things go wrong for the tough guys who packed theaters back in the 90's, and who seemed to be in a new action spectacular every other week?
Rewind with me, if you don't mind, to 1993. It was the year that dinosaurs ruled the box office, and Jurassic Park packed theaters worldwide. It was also the year of The Fugitive, In The Line Of Fire, Cliffhanger, Rising Sun, Demolition Man, Tombstone, Last Action Hero and Hard Target. All great action movies starring some of the biggest action heroes in history, whose names only had to be mentioned on the poster for people to fill up cinemas worldwide.
Okay, now let's fast forward back to 2006 and let's look at what all these heroes are doing nowadays. Harrison Ford, star of The Fugitive and at that time the surest thing to guarantee that your movie would at least make 100 million dollars. His thriller Firewall bombed, and so did his last couple of movies. We will be seeing him in a new Indiana Jones movie, but when he is not wearing Indy's legendary hat, people just don't seem to be interested anymore. Clint Eastwood then. Still making great movies, but the man is too old to even pull off 'Old Dirty Harry' anymore. Wesley Snipes? His last big movie was Blade 3, but he was so hard to work with that a Blade 4 (which probably ain't going to happen) will be made without him. Instead, he now stars in movies like Chaos, which bypass cinemas and land right in your friendly local moviestore. Sylvester Stallone? Got so desperate after his last string of movies didn't make it to cinemas that he is falling back on his old characters Rocky and Rambo for a final splash. Arnold Schwarzenegger? Isn't he doing something in politics? Jean Claude Van Damme? Another actor who is now relegated to the Straight to DVD movies. There was a rumor that he would be the villain in Rush Hour 3, but recently admitted that he started that rumor himself. Kurt Russell? The only one still making the big movies that actually attract an audience. His Poseidon wasn't really big in America, but did great overseas (pun intended). Still, he isn't the huge box office draw he was anymore. Oh, and then there's Bruce Willis, ready to do a Harrison Ford/Sylvester Stallone and fall back on his most popular character, John McClane (even though he said he would never make an action movie anymore), and of course Kevin Costner, who was able to open anything he was in, but whose latest action movie The Guardian sank (another intended pun) without a trace.
Back in the 90's, it seemed like these people could do no wrong. Sure, they made the occasional flop (Seagal burying his career with his disastrous directorial debut On Deadly Ground, for instance), but most of their movies were big news when they came out. I used to buy a pile of movie magazines every month (remember, this was pre mass internet) and spelled any article that had any of these guys in it. They got more and more money for their movies, and even though not all of them were as talented (acting coming only second to action), they all had a natural charisma that secured them millions of fans, from here to Hawaii.
But after years and years of action movies, all with plots that seemed to be based on one template (one guy against an army of bad guys, fighting for justice, and rescuing the pretty damsel in distress), people got bored. Movies that seemed like surefire ways to pack theaters did not even make their money back anymore, and their stars started waning. We did not want Steven Seagal showing his moves anymore, we wanted Tom Hanks doing some real acting!
For many of the action heroes, it was difficult to adjust. Schwarzenegger and Stallone started making comedies, but that was a gimmick that only worked a few times for Schwarzenegger (people just didn't want to see a pregnant Schwarzenegger in Junior, by far the worst movie he ever made), and not at all for Stallone. Seagal tried dying halfway through in one of his movies, but this only got people thinking that maybe the world didn't need him to save it. And VanDamme just kept chugging along in new action flicks, which were met with fewer and fewer people paying money to see them.
The tough action hero was a dying breed, to be replaced by action heroes that made jokes while kicking ass (Jackie Chan), or by movies that didn't have any action whatsoever. You could say that the superhero movie has replaced the traditional action movie as a great night out for people looking for thrills, while most action movies that are made in the traditional way just don't find an audience. And the action movies that are a success, like the Bourne movies, they feature a hero that is not just a cool fighting machine who has time to crack jokes in between killing enemies.
Is there still room in Hollywood for traditional action heroes killing off bad guys, without messing their hair or even flinching when they open a door and 50 enemies come running out? You know, I think there is. Not in parody form or as a reinvention of the genre, just as traditional as you can imagine. Just make sure that you splice in some elements that have proven themselves popular in movies nowadays. Have Steven Seagal use his face muscles once in a while to show that he also has emotions. In the next Die Hard, let Bruce Willis use some actual dialogue, instead of a succession of wisecracks and quips. And when Stallone plays Rambo again next year, let him consider not just brutally killing all of his enemies without giving it a second though (or even a first thought), but just the really evil ones who deserve it. I think people would still like to see their old heroes kick ass, if only for old times sake.
If they aren't local and they have a spam bot send you the link, naturally avoid them.
Posted by: krk realty | May 11, 2011 at 04:22 PM