Aces High Bulletin Board
General Forums => The O' Club => Topic started by: Halo on August 24, 2007, 02:26:24 PM
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Whether fair or not, movie stars tend to leave their most lasting impressions from a particular movie or movies that resonate with us, even if these key impressions do not reflect the majority of their film work.
For whatever it's worth, here are my impressions of some major studs from their movies that made the greatest impression on me. Which movie studs impact you the most, some of these or others?
Sean Connery, Robert Shaw, Brat Pitts -- they never let you down, never get beaten within an inch of their life, never have to have their families annihilated to trigger their studly hero instincts.
Clint Eastwood, Bruce Willis -- they yank you around, frequently get severely beaten, but finally prevail in spite of vague families and motivations.
Mel Gibson -- he does let you down, often gets beaten within an inch of his life, can't muster studly hero instincts until his family is violated.
Tom Cruise, Richard Gere -- barely fringe entrants in studly category. Way too introspective and pouty, but usually get the women if they ever make up their minds they want them.
Henry Fonda, Gregory Peck, Harrison Ford -- confuse you from the beginning, rarely get severely physically inflicted, rarely have families involved but if they are they are more threatened than actually hurt, finally muster sufficient studly hero instincts to prevail.
John Wayne, Chuck Norris, Sylvester Stallone and that French sounding judo guy -- such nice guys it doesn't matter what happens to them, you always know everything will come out all right.
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Christian Bale and Martin Lawrence although Martin hasn't made a good flick since National Security.
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Brad Pitt has been beaten to within an inch of his life. In Spy Game, the chinese worked him over pretty well and he had to have somebody else come and save him.
John McClain's motivations in regards to his family were hardly vague in either of the first 2 Die Hards. He saved his wife's life by killing the villain in both movies.
Rocky didn't come out alright, at least not initially. He lost the fight in the first movie, by split decision. The French sounding guy isn't nice, he's just a well-muscled pansy that makes funny faces when he kicks people's asses.
Tom Cruise was neither too introspective, nor got the woman in Collateral. All he got was dead.
Harrison Ford has been shot in the forehead, encased in Carbonite (incapacitating him for the rest of the movie) and beaten by Nazis until he was bloody.
.... or not
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and dont forget Sean Connery gets a couple rounds of 00 in The Untouchables. Stallone certainly didnt come out alright in the end of F.I.S.T.
I cant figure how Richard Gere fits in any of these lists. And John Wayne belongs up at the top, how dare you rank him with Chuck Norris, Sylvester Stallone, and Van Damm :cool:
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Van Damme is nice but has some sort of brain atrophy.
Fight Club is the movie that fits Pitt best, to me.
Bobby or Jack Shaftoe would be really fun to see on the big screen.
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Impressions, the key is overall impressions, what we remember after years of viewing these heroes. All of them have exceptions, but what we remember the most is the main overall impression they generate.
Yeah, Gere and Cruise are studly marginals and probably should not be included. I was remembering them in Officer and a Gentleman plus Top Gun. Must have been the Navy uniforms.
What triggered this thread was thinking about how satisfying it always is to watch Connery and Shaw. Then I got to thinking Pitts is pretty reliable too, especially in Achilles.
What annoys me the most is the hero who makes a big deal of not getting involved until something awful happens that makes him finally get into action. In those preambles I really feel for the families who must make the ultimate sacrifice before their hero will rise and smite the bad guys.
John Wayne is always almost surrealistically injury proof, like Superman in a 10-gallon hat. Definitely bigger than life, and he was a big guy at what, 6-4?
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Well satisfying to watch would be a different list for me or at least add to it. These would be actors that no matter the type of movie, if they were in it (as a lead or supporting actor) I would watch and so far except a few I have not been disappointed. A perfect example is "The Red Violin" normally not a movie I would watch, but Samuel Jackson is in it so I watch and enjoyed the movie.
Walter Matthau
Kirk Douglas
Paul Newman
Robert Redford
Samuel Jackson
Clint Eastwood
Rod Taylor
James Garner
Robert Duvall
Gene Hackman
Morgan Freeman
Sean Connery
John Wayne
Cary Grant
Steve McQueen
and others
Most if not all of those guys played a hero of some kind, sometimes a villian. and for me almost 100% guarantied not to disappoint
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Henry Fonda plays a sociopath that kills women and children in "Once Upon a Time in the West".
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for some good old fashioned male actors being bad asses.. real badasses....
"The Wild Bunch" these guys were all good... there wasn't a lot of difference between the good guys and the bad but...
every person in the movie... including most of the women were more manly than the male heroes like decrapio and matt and cage...
the women didn't weep as much as the current crop of male "heroes" does.
not only the best western ever made but probly one of the best movies ever made of character study of the toughness of people in that era is the factor..
the acting was all spot on...every bit of it... location and dirt and props all... dead on.
lazs
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Originally posted by Halo
John Wayne is always almost surrealistically injury proof, like Superman in a 10-gallon hat. Definitely bigger than life, and he was a big guy at what, 6-4?
:huh You must not have seen to many john Wayne movie's then.
Hell, he got shot NUMEROUS times, unfathomable number of fights and even died in the last western he made, really classy way to go to :aok
The Duke was "the quintessential mans man"
He gave as good as he got and then some.
His role as rooster cogburn was awsome!
dumb drunk guy: she's a real pain in the bellybutton witch
Rooster: She is the way she is because THATs how she wants to be so thats how your gonna take cause thats how I take her.
Dumb drunk guy: oh yes sir sorry
Rooster: gotta agree with ya on the whole pain in the rear part tho :lol
Classic wayne
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My fav's are those that speak softly then kick butt.
Clint Eastwood - Unforgiven, Pale Rider
Sean Connery - Untouchables, Outland
Marlon Brando - The Godfather, Apocalypse Now
Richard Burton - The Wild Geese
Christopher Walken - The Dogs of War, Biloxi Blues
Michael Caine - Zulu
Liam Neeson - Shindler's List, Rob Roy
Steven Segal - The Siege
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Most of the above and I have to admit to enjoying Charles Bronson kick bellybutton in the Death Wish movies.
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i have enjoyed the bourne series.
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Matt Damon
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Originally posted by Airscrew
Well satisfying to watch would be a different list for me or at least add to it. These would be actors that no matter the type of movie, if they were in it (as a lead or supporting actor) I would watch and so far except a few I have not been disappointed. A perfect example is "The Red Violin" normally not a movie I would watch, but Samuel Jackson is in it so I watch and enjoyed the movie.
Walter Matthau
Kirk Douglas
Paul Newman
Robert Redford
Samuel Jackson
Clint Eastwood
Rod Taylor
James Garner
Robert Duvall
Gene Hackman
Morgan Freeman
Sean Connery
John Wayne
Cary Grant
Steve McQueen
and others
Most if not all of those guys played a hero of some kind, sometimes a villian. and for me almost 100% guarantied not to disappoint
Amen, Airscrew.
And (off the top of my head) can I hear a Billy Bob Thornton?
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whats up people not one of ya mentions the greatest bad prettythang of all
Li Yuen Kam, Jun Fan, Bruce lee
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nowdays... it seems that what qualifies you as an action hero is...
The ability to weep like a woman..
being a woman... not over 99 lbs tho... if there isn't 6 inches of daylight showing between your thighs when you stand then you are just a fat woman and unable to kick the crap out those men who made non PC slurs.
being short... very short... less than 5'10" but mostly in the 5'6" range.
model pretty.. male or female. pretty people are all the rage for action heroes.
being an airhead and not afraid to prove it by giving your left wing political views to anyone who will put a camera on you.
Having causes. telling people you are against suffering. as soon as someone tells you about suffering leave the mansion and talk about it.
Robert di nero was one of the first of these guys but... he is such an over the top good actor and so driven that he could make it work. You believed he was the badass he believed he was.
All the others we have today are cheap copies... laughable copies. The first flawed copy was probly the guy most of us get mixed up with him.. the scarface guy... bad as he was.. it was downhill from there.
lazs
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Matt Damon?
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Don't forget Lee Marvin.... an outstanding and strong, masculine character with plenty of savvy macho. a classic actor from days gone by, just like Robert Shaw.
it'd be funny to try and plug in Patrick Swayze or Richard Gere into any of Lee Marvin's roles... or Robert Shaw's for that matter.
i know these strong characters are around still ... but not in Hollywood very much. I wonder why?
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Originally posted by cav58d
Christian Bale and Martin Lawrence although Martin hasn't made a good flick since National Security.
I didn't realize until just this year that Christian is the same as who played in Empire of the Sun ~ which my kids & love; we watch every few months. Don't know why I didn't connect him as being that kid ~ he hadn't changed a bit. And thought he was great in... um.. what was the magician's movie recently??? The Prestige