{"id":475,"date":"2010-08-10T08:21:29","date_gmt":"2010-08-10T15:21:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/?p=475"},"modified":"2010-08-10T08:21:29","modified_gmt":"2010-08-10T15:21:29","slug":"daily-dose-could-the-expendables-use-some-velcro-muscles","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/?p=475","title":{"rendered":"Daily Dose: Could THE EXPENDABLES use some Velcro muscles?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Velcro musles? Sylvester Stallone maintains that the end of the 1980s muscle bound action star happened when Michael Keaton hit it big with BATMAN in 1989.\u00a0 His argument centers on the fact that due to the costume donned by the Dark Knight, any actor could be a tough guy.\u00a0 But is that really true?\u00a0 Maybe it’s the writing that’s to blame.<\/p>\n

Although I’ve not heard the full context of Sly’s comments, it seems that he’s selling actors short who, instead of spending hours and hours in the gym working their physical muslces, spend years perfecting their acting ones. And Keaton has frequently pulled off tough regardless of his relative lacking of physical prowess.\u00a0 While Stallone has hardened action star down, can he play soft and whimpy?\u00a0 Taking nothing away from those that skillfully sculpt their bodies using the latest fitness technology, the perfect combination of brain and brawn is rare.\u00a0 And Stallone’s choice to stay within one genre was ultimately his undoing.\u00a0 His “comeback” was through recylcing his former success.\u00a0 Instead of adapting to the times, Stallone chose projects that were beneath him–JUDGE DREDD anyone?<\/p>\n

Consider that Stallone was nominated for the Oscar very early in his career for 1976’s ROCKY.\u00a0\u00a0 Two nominations for best actor and best writing.\u00a0 The movie won 3 Oscars including Best Picture.\u00a0 Then as his muscles increased in size the intelligence of his projects seemed to decline.\u00a0 Sure, he carved out a forever memorable place as an action hero, but audiences came to expect less from the actor Stallone opting to embrace the tough guy.<\/p>\n

But playing tough is an art.\u00a0 Fellow action superstars Bruce Willis and Arnold Schwarzenegger rose to the top not because of the size of their bulging biceps but because of something often referred to as radiance. \u00a0The subtle difference between an actor and a movie star may rest on the level of radiance that person exudes.\u00a0 Certainly, it is possible to be both a skilled actor in the classical sense and at the same time be a matinee idol–Warren Beatty and Robert Redford are good examples.\u00a0 However, the tricky balance is almost impossible to achieve. Consider the career of Alec Baldwin.\u00a0 It wasn’t until Baldwin gained weight, went through a very public and messy divorce, and turned to comedy, often parodying himself, that he truly found both critical and popular success.<\/p>\n

But troubling is that Stallone has bowed to popular peer pressure to give the folks what they want while at the same time backhanding Michael Keaton, director Tim Burton, and others for damaging the action star profession.\u00a0 Of course, I ate up Sly’s last two films and like others will find his upcoming THE EXPENDABLES impossible to resist.\u00a0 My thought is that Stallone should just tell it like it is: physical appearance is an important part of the acting process.\u00a0 Consider that Robert DeNiro gained 70 pounds to play Jake La Motta in RAGING BULL or that Stallone himself let his body go a bit for COPLAND.<\/p>\n

Playing tough and looking the part matters, but only when the role, as written, calls for it.\u00a0 Jet Li, who stars along side Stallone and other action tough guys in THE EXPENDABLES is anything but an imposing physical beast.\u00a0 But his downright intimidating presence in LETHAL WEAPON 4 convinced me and anyone else watching that even at 5 foot 6 inches tall, he was a force to be feared.<\/p>\n

To be completely fair to Stallone, audience tastes changed as the 1990s dawned.\u00a0 The old style action fantasy that dominated the 1980s began to seem hokey and not credible.\u00a0 As viewers became more informed of movie magic mainly based on emerging computer technologies, audiences tired of stunts that defied the laws of physics.\u00a0 Films like THE MATRIX were able to narratively explain how the impossible could become actual.\u00a0 Stories had to explain more and earn our trust before inudating us with spectacular action sequences.<\/p>\n

But then nostalgia crept in.\u00a0 Quentin Tarantino gave us talky but action filled crime stories that seemed to mock with a twisted form of reverence the films of the 1970s and certain 1980s characters and stories.\u00a0 At one point, there was rumor that QT’s INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS might feature Stallone and a host of action stars from the past.\u00a0 And that could still happen in some high-concept future project.\u00a0 But such a film would not be how things used to be–how they were in the 1980s.\u00a0 No, modern more sophisticated approaches would trade on the built in audience nostalgia and something of a hybrid would emerge.\u00a0 Directors like Tarantino know that without the successes and the failure that came before them, their films wouldn’t be nearly as significant or potent.\u00a0 Stallone is owed the respect and attention he’s earned from his years of toiling in the often trashy underbelly of the action genre–remember that for every RAMBO we had to endure a TANGO AND CASH.<\/p>\n

But now, instead of complaining about “Velcro muscles” maybe Stallone, now age 64, should focus more on finding believable and original scripts that take advantage of his fading radiance.\u00a0 Re-treading the past for a buck wastes the years he’s got left to provide us with something truly special.\u00a0 The perfect combination of tough writing with a tough actor is what will work.\u00a0 Hitting the gym alone isn’t enough to convince us you’re a tough guy Sly.\u00a0 Even after all these years of being tough on screen, you still need to show us how tough you really are.<\/p>\n

NOTE: I’ll see THE EXPENDABLES this week and review it on Friday.\u00a0 My hope is that the negative stuff I’ve heard about the film isn’t true, I want to like this movie.\u00a0 As a child of the 1980s, watching one of your idols in decline won’t likely make for good viewing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Will nostalgia usher in a new age of the muscle bound action star?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-475","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog","no-thumb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/475","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=475"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/475\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":477,"href":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/475\/revisions\/477"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=475"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=475"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=475"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}