I think Matt Damon is the current champ. The Bourne movies alone probably put him in that category, unseating Tom Cruise.
Tom Cruise himself was probably the last of the real action stars. The Mission Impossible movies, Top Gun, Collateral, The Last Samurai…
A nod for Mark Wahlberg, who fit the action hero role well in “Shooter”, a movie that otherwise sucked. He was great in Three Kings, and has appeared in other action roles in The Italian Job and The Departed, and soon will be starring as Max Payne in “Max Payne”.
But yeah, none of these guys are the type of action star who could market a movie just by having their names in giant fonts on the movie poster. Tom Cruise for a while, maybe.
Jonh Cena (The Marine, the upcoming 12 rounds) is trying to latch on that title, though. He’ll do okay, I guess, at keeping “action hero” on life-support.
I dunno if Abigail Bianca (from The Marine) was ever considered for Wonder Woman, but… yowsa!
Worldwide, I think Jackie Chan is tops. I watched that Chan documentary once (I forget its name), and people throughout the world instantly recognize him. When he came to Korea, he even wore a hoodie and had a dust mask and sunglasses on and people still recognized him!
His name has undeniable draw when it comes to action flicks.
Arnold Schwarzenegger is/was another prominent example. For me, at least, I associated Arnold with action movies and action movies with Arnold from a very young age. He’s past his prime for action movies now, so I wouldn’t consider him current, though. I mean, come on! Have you guys seen “Last Action Hero”? Who else could have played the action hero in that movie?
I think Bale is quickly rising to the occasion in Hollywood, though. Among my college-age friends, there’s already a devout following who pick up movies from the video store based on the name Bale alone. If he keeps it up, I’m sure he’ll come to have the same draw.
If they were doing “Last Action Hero” again, I wonder who they would cast from this modern pool of actors?
But the thing is with those guys I mentioned, none of them were *exclusively * action stars. They made some action movies, sure, but they also made comedies, dramas, what-have-you. The “pure” action star like Arnold didn’t appear until the 1980’s, and faded back to the realm of B-movies about a decade and a half later.
That’s why I wouldn’t call someone like Will Smith an “action star”, because even though he is perfectly capable of drawing in huge audiences to action movies, nobody would see anything unusual in him acting in a comedy or a drama. OTOH, when Stallone started making comedies or dramas, he seemed out of his element - and the films had little more than novelty value.
And while I love Jackie Chan, when was the last time someone gave him a $100 million budget?
Oh, absolutely. There’s an excellent documentary on the Empire of the Sun DVD in which Bale comes across as a charming, likeable kid, as well as one heck of an actor. Indeed, he played the part of bratty “Jim” so effectively, I was halfway hoping the Japanese soldiers would strangle the little twerp.
It’s just so strange to see him reappear, looking nothing like the child actor he used to be, and never getting addicted to drugs or holding up liquor stores (AFAIK) that it’s a bit jarring to reconcile the younger Bale with the current adult Bale.
I wouldn’t call him an “action star” btw – he’s far too versatile.
