[plissken99]

I think Pirate summed it up pretty well in his initial post. Comparing modern day action stars to those of the 80's, clearly we have a brains over brawn mentality at work here. Personally I like the new action star persona, it's more believable. The original Matrix alone makes you think more than Schwarzeneggers entire resume does.

Fact is, I don't think new Stallaone or Schwarzeneggers are possible. I mean what was the latest wrestler trying to turn action star movie just recently? I knew it was going to stink from the trailers, not only because wrestlers almost always equal bad actors(I say almost, because The Rock actually does ok in this dept) as you have someone trying to immitate the 80's feel. Actually The Rock may be the exception, his movies seem to work so far.

On the other hand, I grew up worshiping the ridiculous escapades of Schwarzenegger, Stallone, Van Damme, Seagal and Norris. Having just recently seen the new Rambo, Stallone can still sell it. I just don't think we have new stars that can, The Rock and Vin Diesel come the closest. And RT, Vin Diesel is already a better actor than Schwarzenegger ever was, that may be part of the reason he can't fully sell the 80's feel lol.

As for another Dirty Harry, my vote goes to Clive Owen. I could see a franchise out of his character from Shoot Em' Up.

Oh and yeah, female action leads of today are a joke. Linda Hamilton was the ultimate female action hero, and practically looked like a dyke(I say dyke only because it sounds tougher than Lesbain for the PC minded), were in not for the beautiful face. Sigourney Weaver is about as femanine as a female action star can get without saying "yeah right" every five minutes.