Hasta la vista, baby

Associated Press/Merrick Morton - It's The Last Stand for the men who laid the foundation for today's blockbusters.

I grew up on Arnold Schwarzenegger films. Predator is one my all time favorite science fiction films, Jingle All the way is my favorite holiday film, and True Lies was the first time I was exposed to (and fell in love with) the big budget action genre. Schwarzenegger's 80's and early 90's films are embedded in the foundation of my love for film.

But once you hit 1997 on his IMDb page, it's easy to have predicted that a film like The Last Stand would be a colossal flop.

The problem with actors like Schwarzenegger, Sylvester Stallone, and Bruce Willis (who also have films coming out in Q1 of 2013 that I would expect to be flops. You can see the trailers here and here.) is that these men have been marketed as one trick ponies for decades, much to the detriment of their careers post the Terminator, Rocky, and Die Hard franchises. It should be noted that Willis has had some great supporting roles in films like Sin City and Lucky Number Slevin, but at the end of the day those roles could have been filled by a handful of chiseled actors from the past.

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If 2012 blockbusters taught us anything (see The Hunger Games & The Dark Knight Rises), it's that moviegoers are looking to be challenged intellectually. We want substance and resonance in our films. The action movies that the old guard stars in are nothing but mindless entertainment and don't appeal to the people who pay to see films now. There's nothing to be gained by seeing The Expendables 2.

In a culture that is built upon debating and commenting on everything over social media, these films don't stand a chance of being successful ventures for studios.

That's not to say that these men should be shunned from the industry. They should be corralled and adapted to modern times. What the above mentioned actors are in need of is a young and or intelligent director to give them a supporting role in a film that has a strong plot, like Quentin Tarantino did for John Travolta in Pulp Fiction (the role of Vincent Vega revived Travolta's floundering career). These icons can no longer carry a film by themselves, but they can be a tremendous asset if they swallow their pride and let an intelligent director revive their careers.

After all, the last thing anyone wants to see is The Expendables 4, which would assuredly be a straight to DVD/Netflix release.