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 Could Matt Damon be the next Harrison Ford? |
Arnold's in the governor's mansion. Harrison Ford is nearing retirement age. Bruce Willis and Sylvester Stallone are over the hill at 50 and 60, respectively. But they're all stubbornly clinging to their action hero status.
Let's face it, busting through plate glass windows, toting machine guns and racing against time to get the bomb off the bus/elevator/plane is a young man's game. To put it in action hero parlance: They're too old for this, um, stuff. Ford is reportedly set to dust off the bullwhip and the fedora to play Indiana Jones for one last crusade. Willis is casting around for a script for Die Hard 4 because dying is apparently really, really hard. Stallone, 60, has made it known he intends to resurrect his punch drunk lover-fighter Rocky Balboa. When will these senior citizens step aside and let the next generation of heroes drop in from a hovering helicopter? And more importantly, who will make up that next generation of rugged Rambos in waiting? We've compiled a list of manly men who appear to be up for the challenge and have taken a look at their qualifications to save the day.
The Rock
Action experience: The Scorpion King, Walking Tall, The Rundown, Doom.
Strengths: The possibility of talent lurking beneath muscles.
Liabilities: Be Cool didn't exactly rake in the cash.
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Buddy Factor: He needs a dirty dude to play off. Nobody is dirtier than Johnny Knoxville or dudier than Sean William Scott. Both have played Sundance to the Rock's Butch. Knoxville in Walking Tall and Scott in The Rundown.
Bottom Line: He needs something iconic and ironic.
He's the next: Salt N' Pepa said it best: He's got a "body like Arnold with a Denzel face."
Vin Diesel
Action experience: Triple X, Pitch Black, The Chronicles of Riddick, The Fast and the Furious, The Pacifier.
Strengths: A great name and an ambition to act. Really act.
Liabilities: Ambition can be a failing too.
Buddy Factor: He needs somebody to make him smile. We predict a movie made with a monkey somewhere down the line.
Bottom Line: He kind of scares us and we wish he'd inject a little more humour into his roles.
He's the next: Steven Segal. He takes himself too seriously.
Matt Damon
Action experience: Two Bourne movies.
Strengths: Bourne fills out tight tank tops in all the right places and makes people bleed.
Liabilities: He's too good an actor to play only action heroes.
The Buddy Factor: We like him when he's stealing things with Clooney and Pitt, but his best onscreen duo was with Franka Potente in The Bourne Identity.
Bottom Line: We won't begrudge him his Syrianas or his Good Shephards, so long as he's Bourne again.
He's the next: Harrison Ford. A good, solid actor with several blockbusters franchises behind him.
Ryan Reynolds
Action experience: Blade:Trinity, The Amityville Horror.
Strengths: Good lookin', funny, smart mouth. We're sure Blade: Trinity had a plot, but we can't really remember it being about anything other than his lower abdominal muscles and one-liners.
Liabilities: Reynolds seems to enjoy doing slacker comedies more than action thrillers.
The Buddy Factor: He needs a smart, sassy gal to banter with. A Scully to his Mulder, a Maddie to his David. A Turner to his Hooch.
Bottom Line: If he ever gets sick of screwball comedies and fat suits, he'll be a hero to reckon with.
He's the next: Bruce Willis. Reynolds has world-weary snarkiness oozing from every pore.
Paul Walker
Action experience: The Fast and the Furious, 2 Fast 2 Furious, Timeline, Into the Blue and Running Scared
Strengths: He's hot and looks good driving, running and firing guns.
Liabilities: Painfully bland.
The Buddy Factor: Pair him with somebody with a personality.
Bottom Line: If he's not careful, his career will go the way of Cuba Gooding Jr.'s and he's already done the Disney dogs and snow movie to prove it.
He's the next: Matthew McConaughey.
Justin Timberlake
Action experience: That one episode of Touched by an Angel where he starred as "Street Performer."
Strengths: The little girls love him, so he's got a built-in fan base.
Liabilities: Did we mention the former boy band label?
Buddy Factor: Usher is his boo.
Bottom Line: Can't you just see him racing down an alley as he runs to escape a fiery explosion?
He's the next: A pretty boy whose acting talent people doubt, famous for dating a hot blonde or two? He's single-white-femaling Brad Pitt.
Clive Owen
Action experience: Sin City, Derailed, The Bourne Identity, the lead in a series of action-packed BMW ads.
Strengths: Dark, good looks,
Liabilities: At 42, he may be a bit long in the tooth to be bursting onto the action hero scene.
Buddy Factor: We're pretty sure Clive is a loner at heart.
Bottom Line: Maybe he could play a baddie.
He's the next: Sean Connery. He's a class act with an iconoclastic bent.
Daniel Craig
Action experience: Layer Cake, Munich, Casino Royale.
Strengths: Seems like a solid-enough actor and is apparently willing to do his own stunts as Bond, even if it means losing some teeth.
Liabilities: A blond Bond?What next? Stirred martinis?
Buddy Factor: Any minx will do.
Bottom Line: He's inherited the title of Bond, but will he continue with the action movies or go to the serious side of acting as he did in Munich?
He's the next: Pierce Brosnan.
Jason Statham
Action experience: Two Guy Ritchie films, The Transporter series.
Strengths: Looks great driving expensive cars.
Liabilities: Bald and British. But are those really liabilities?
Buddy Factor: He works best as part of an ensemble.
Bottom Line: He's a scoundrel, but when the going gets tough, so does he.
He's the next: Michael Caine, who was in the original Italian Job and is also working-class tough.
Colin Farrell
Action experience: S.W.A.T., The Recruit, Minority Report, Phone Booth, numerous barroom brawls, if you believe him. Which we don't.
Strengths: He looks smokin' hot -- even when he looked dirty.
Liabilities: Possible future beer gut.
Buddy Factor: Two pints of Guinness -- one for each hand.
Bottom Line: He's kind of a jerk, but he's a jerk you love to hate.
He's the next: Russell Crowe. We see more than a few phone-throwing incidents in Farrell's future.
Ice Cube
Action Experience: xXx:State of the Union and Are We There Yet.
Strengths: Mentored by Samuel L. Jackson in the last xXx movie.
Liabilities: Jackson's next movie is Snakes on a Plane.
Buddy Factor: We'd pair him with Ice-T in a movie called Frozen Justice.
Bottom Line: There's always Barbershop 3.
He's the next: Samuel L. Jackson.
DJ Qualls
Action Experience: Road Trip.
Strengths: If he turns sideways, he disappears!
Liabilities: See strengths.
He's the next: Mel Gibson. What?It could happen.