Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sylvester Stallone (AFP photo)

It was the mid-'80s.

Shoulder pads were big. Hair was bigger. And Schwarzenegger and Stallone were the biggest action heroes in the multiplex.

So here we are several (yikes!) decades later and we were just wondering -- are Arnie and Sly still relevant?

We know that Arnold's selective-memory tell-all book, Total Recall: My Unbelievably True Life Story, is selling briskly, fuelled no doubt by his promise to come clean about his long-term affair with the family housekeeper, but that's not what we're getting at.

What we mean is, as once-reigning pop culture icons, are they considered indispensable where remakes of some of their best-known movies are concerned?

And we say, yes. And yah. And yo. Here's the deal:

Over the course of the past year there have been several remakes/reboots/reconceptualizations -- whatever you want to call 'em -- of fondly remembered titles from the Stallonegger catalogue, minus the guys themselves.

The trend started in August 2011 with the 3D re-do of Conan the Barbarian, with Jason Momoa taking over the lead in the picture that would serve as Arnold's big breakthrough.

While the film scraped together a meager 23% fresh rating on the Rotten Tomatoes site, the international box office was less kind, not even earning $50 million against an estimated production budget of $90 million.

As for the 6-foot-4 Momoa, he'll next be popping up in the crime thriller, Bullet to the Head, opposite - Sylvester Stallone.

Cut to the summer of 2012 and the August arrival of Total Recall, with Colin Farrell now doing double duty in the twin roles of Douglas Quaid and Hauser.

Reviews were only marginally better than the Conan retread, but, more tellingly, the North American box office returns have been better left forgotten, piecing together all of $59 million to date against a reported price tag of $125 million.

Now we turn to last month's release of Dredd 3D, the remake of Stallone's 1995 effort, Judge Dredd.

Let's face it -- there certainly was plenty of room for improvement considering the derisive response that greeted the previous take on the British comic anthology and Dredd 3D rose to the occasion with much stronger reviews for both the movie and for star Karl Urban.

But to date, the $50-million production has only been able to lock up about half that amount globally, and is barely clinging to the domestic Top 20.

See, the thing is, no disrespect to Urban, Farrell and Momoa, but these types of movies cry out for great big personalities, not understated, focused performances.

Over the top is the only way to go here, which was a lesson learned by a miscast Christian Bale in the ill-fated Terminator Salvation.

No matter how well-made these remakes may or may not be, without a little camp and an accompanying, highly quotable Ahnuld/Sly-type soundbite, they end up being largely forgettable.

So while Schwarzenegger and Stallone plot their latest screen comebacks (Terminator 5? Rocky 17?), they should take some comfort in the fact that whether or not they make good on the threat that they'll be back, they never really went away.

Unlike those hairstyles and shoulder pads.