During The Eighties and early Nineties, the Action genre was dominated by two names, and two names only – Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sylvester Stallone.
These Supermen of The Silver Screen came up around the same time, and both of them were superstars almost instantly. There were other huge Action heroes during this time period – like Bruce Willis and Jean-Claude Van Damme – but none of them quite made it to the legendary level of Schwarzenegger and Stallone.
Today, I can think of only two actors who are the contemporary equivalent of Arnie and Sly – The Rock and The Stath. Contrary to their Eighties counterparts, Dwayne Johnson and Jason Statham did not explode onto the film scene. Both actors came from different professions and slowly evolved into Action heroes through smaller parts that led to bigger and bigger ones.
Johnson – who was of course already a superstar wrestler – first appeared in films with carefully selected supporting roles in high-profile features like 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗠𝘂𝗺𝗺𝘆 𝗥𝗲𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗻𝘀 (𝟮𝟬𝟬𝟭) and 𝗕𝗲 𝗖𝗼𝗼𝗹 (𝟮𝟬𝟬𝟱).
Statham followed a similar path. After a quite successful stint on the British National Diving Team, the Brit Bruiser stole the show in two back-to-back Guy Ritchie films where he was part of a larger ensemble. After that, Statham’s career quickly took off with starring roles in the Transporter, Crank and Mechanic franchises.
From a professional perspective, I jumped on the Statham bandwagon early with film market pre-buys of 𝗛𝘂𝗺𝗺𝗶𝗻𝗴𝗯𝗶𝗿𝗱 (𝟮𝟬𝟭𝟯), 𝗛𝗼𝗺𝗲𝗳𝗿𝗼𝗻𝘁 (𝟮𝟬𝟭𝟯) and 𝗪𝗶𝗹𝗱 𝗖𝗮𝗿𝗱 (𝟮𝟬𝟭𝟱). All of them elevated beyond the limitations of a flawed script by the sheer charisma of its leading man.
As Sly and Arnie’s presence in the Action genre is becoming somewhat less prominent, The Rock and The Stath are only getting bigger, it seems. The two titans further solidified their status when they both joined one of the most improbable success-stories in Hollywood – the Fast and Furious franchise.
The winning streak culminated in 𝗛𝗼𝗯𝗯𝘀 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗦𝗵𝗮𝘄 (𝟮𝟬𝟭𝟵), which was really the equivalent of the Sly-Arnie blockbuster that never happened. Yes, I know we finally got to see The Eighties-Icons together in 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗘𝘅𝗽𝗲𝗻𝗱𝗮𝗯𝗹𝗲𝘀 (𝟮𝟬𝟭𝟬) and 𝗘𝘀𝗰𝗮𝗽𝗲 𝗣𝗹𝗮𝗻 (𝟮𝟬𝟭𝟯), but somehow these films never quite touched the potential of what a team up of the decade’s most prolific Action heroes could have been.
Statham added two more would-be franchises to his resume with 𝗦𝗽𝘆 (𝟮𝟬𝟭𝟱) and 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗠𝗲𝗴 (𝟮𝟬𝟭𝟴), so it is safe to say we will see much more of the Lad that shook up L.A. in the foreseeable future.
I for one, will be front and center.
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