It’s happening a lot these days. Pierce Brosnan’s “The November Man” hits theaters this Friday. Liam Neeson has kept his career chugging along because of it. Stallone and Schwarzenegger are doing it, even constructing a franchise based on it: action films starring men over 50.
Not that it’s a new phenomena, but it just seems to be happening with increased frequency, as actors who built careers making things go boom in the 80s and 90s put off collection of Social Security checks are making movies to show they still have the cojones to pull off the big-time movie. Sure, it’s the acting equivalent of buying a Corvette and dating a woman 20 years younger than you, but it’s keeping careers going.
Are these guys too old to pull that off? It’s hard to say. Stallone’s “Rocky Balboa” and “Rambo” flicks revived his career to a degree; Schwarzenegger’s movies have been, at best, middling hits, and while their “Expendables” franchise, a veritable cornucopia of geriatric movie stars, has been lucrative, even they admitted it’s time to bring in some fresh blood for the third installment, which has tanked at the box office.
Then there’s Neeson, who has arguably become a more bankable box-office star than ever with movies like “The Grey” and the “Taken” series boosting his public persona and giving him the “a particular set of skills” catchphrase for a guy who was for most of his career a “serious actor” who seldom made all-out action pics.
Brosnan is a notch below most of those guys on the box office totem pole; he has less charisma, and most of his appeal is simply being good looking. Quite simply, he hasn’t been able to score a real star vehicle since he left the Bond franchise.
Can he pull off a hit? A “November Man” sequel has already reportedly been greenlit, so the studio must have some faith in him. But do you?
