Action hero feature (written for The List)

ONCE upon a time in Hollywood, back during the mid ‘80s and early ‘90s, the action movie was dominated by hard men who hit first, quipped second and then thought about asking questions later.

They usually starred Sylvester Stallone (Rocky, Rambo, Cobra, Cliffhanger), Arnold Schwarzenegger (The Terminator, Commando, Predator) or Bruce Willis (Die Hard, The Last Boy Scout), they almost always boasted supremely high body counts and there was usually a token damsel-in-distress that required saving. But then, suddenly, they became expendable.

A new era of Hollywood action movie was marked by the return of the super-hero (Batman, Spider-Man, et al) as well as a desire for a more ‘everyman’ approach that married sensitivity with intelligence as well as physicality, not to mention a more teen friendly focus.

The hard men went into politics, developed a sixth sense for better roles or disappeared onto DVD. Their supposed replacements – men’s men like Jet Li, Jason Statham and Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson – struggled to command the same box office clout as their predecessors.

So, with the passing of those three box office giants had the action movie entered a new phase? Was the day of the super-sized action hero over?

Perhaps not, for while box office is no longer comparable to the size of a leading man’s biceps, there are still signs that there’s room for them in this CGI-driven, demographically correct market-place.

Indeed, you only have to look at the groundswell of excitement that followed Stallone’s announcement of his ‘ultimate action movie ensemble’ The Expendables to suggest that the hard man’s day isn’t quite done.

Movie fans collectively cheered as a rota of names from Mickey Rourke to Dolph Lundgren via Steve Austin were added to a cast that already included Stallone, Statham, Li, Willis and Schwarzenegger.

The Expendables promised a testosterone-driven nostalgia trip overloaded with macho posturing, bone-crunching action and women just waiting to be rescued – a full-blooded, old school riposte to the teen-friendly antics of The A-Team or the ‘with great power comes great responsibility’ level-headedness of Marvel’s men in costumes.

And so it proves that much of the fun in watching The Expendables unfold lies in seeing past favourites squaring up to each other and letting the macho rhetoric run riot.

But Stallone’s throwback is also much smarter than many of his current box office adversaries, given that it boasts a knowing sense of its own absurdity as well as its audiences’ blood lust.

The much talked about on-screen reunion between Willis, Arnie and Stallone, is a blast, riddled with nods to the stars’ off-screen personas and screen histories, while the action sequences play to each performer’s strengths and age.

The serious acting, meanwhile, is left to the one recent Oscar nominee in the pack: Rourke, who offers a perfectly honed mix of regret and bravado.

The Expendables ovation at Comic-Con in San Diego also suggests that there is still a place for the likes of Stallone and company in the affections of cinema-goers.

For sure, their biggest successes come from falling back on past hits (Stallone, most recently, with his Rocky and Rambo revivals, Willis with Die Hard 4.0), but there are growing examples of action films that are resorting to old-school values – hard men performing hard tasks with a lesser emphasis on effects to back them up.

Clint Eastwood, another iconic action figure of days gone by, did it with Gran Torino, Liam Neeson punched above his weight in Taken, and Nicolas Cage has rediscovered his ‘inner crazy’ with memorable performances in Kick-Ass and Bad Lieutenant – all of which enjoyed respectable box office returns, and which look set to be remembered ever more fondly with the passage of time.

The ‘80s and even the ‘70s also continue to provide the inspiration to directors of some of the most memorable action films of modern times, whether it’s Christopher Nolan with The Dark Knight and Inception, Michael Mann with Miami Vice and Collateral, Paul Greengrass with his Bourne films or the Coen brothers with No Country For Old Men and their forthcoming True Grit revival.

One of the Expendables themselves, Dolph Lundgren, laughed when recently promoting the film upon hearing that Sly’s rag-tag bunch of ageing mercenaries were more fun to watch than their box office rivals, suggesting: “Is that because you can see us getting our asses kicked?”

But in an age when a lot of blockbusters seem to think that dazzling viewers with excessive action sequences enhanced by slick effects will suffice, there’s simply no beating the rush of excitement of seeing something that’s been done ‘for real’.

Director James Mangold, who collaborated with Stallone on Copland, recently tried to ‘loosen up’ the action film with his Tom Cruise vehicle Knight & Day, admitting: “I think that part of the way movies get made now is that there’s this kind of pro forma recipe for how to make things intense... there’s a lot of great professionals who know how to lock in and suddenly [make it feel] just like everything’s flying at you.

“But somehow to keep it lighter and to try and make something that feels a little loose-limbed... that’s what I wanted to do.”

If that proved unsuccessful [in the US at least], Lundgren is optimistic that The Expendables has a lot more to offer.

“It’s very unusual these days to have so many main actors in one film. I don’t think it’s ever been done really. The Expendables is the biggest film that Sly’s directed or ever been in. And while Arnold has been in films bigger than $80 million, I think Robin Hood was $150 million and you [only] got Russell Crowe and two or three other big names. Here, you get seven or eight guys, at least.”

So, with value for money factored in as well, don’t bet against a sizeable comeback for the classic action hero, particularly as Stallone is already planning The Expendables 2, Steven Seagal features in Machete, and Willis continues to strike a blow for the old timers in Red. Yippie-ki-yay!