I watched two movie trailers this week for films coming out in 2013 and they prompted me to have several discussions with friends about Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sylvester Stallone.
Some things you might not know that I learned this week:
Stallone was born in July 1946. Arnold in July 1947. That makes Stallone 66 years old and Arnold 65 years old.
Both of these guys are mega-action stars. OK, you knew that. At age 20 Arnold won the Mr. Universe competition. He went on to win Mr. Olympia seven times. Not an award winning bodybuilder, Stallone is no slouch, claiming to have reached a personal best of a 2.8% body fat percentage to film Rocky III.
Both of these guys have relied on their muscles in their action roles for years, making them literally seem bigger than life.
So I watched the preview for The Last Stand this week. Check out the preview I posted earlier here. If you missed it, check it out and come right back. Arnold is playing a tough guy. An older tough guy who seems like he is in his sixties. So then I saw this trailer for Bullet to the Head. Now check this out:
The movie seems pretty standard action fare for Stallone, similar to something like Tango and Cash from 1989 when Stallone was 43. The thing is, Stallone looks like he’s in his late forties. Maybe fifties. But his late sixties? Is this really Stallone? He looks almost as good as he did in Tango and Cash.
Maybe Arnold is just playing old in The Last Stand. After all it is about “acting” isn’t it? Yet I can’t help wonder if the governor gig didn’t allow him to keep in shape so much and maybe lose pace with his long-time blockbuster competitor, Mr. Stallone. Stallone is in better shape than everyone I know in their forties, so a big “bravo” to him for keeping so fit.
OK, so enough about comparing Stallone and Arnold. This trailer doesn’t look too bad, but probably something I would wait for Netflix for. One odd thing is the bullet coming from the movie screen at the audience. Seems like something they might have adjusted in light of recent events. The biggest redeeming quality of the trailer? For me, seeing Sarah Shahi at last coming to the big screen. Shahi gets some real face time in this trailer as the daughter of Stallone’s character. Heck they even have coordinating tattoos. As Shahi’s first foray into a big movie role, this role will hopefully do great things for her career. She has been stellar in both the TV series Life, as a cop, and Fairly Legal, as a lawyer.
Bullet to the Head hits theaters February 1, 2013. That’s 2 weeks after The Last Stand premieres. So we will get to see which movie audiences want to see, and it will be fun seeing these two stars go head to head once again.
C.J. Bunce
Editor
borg.com
