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Your Fave "Unlikely" Leading Men and Action Heroes - Page 2

post #51 of 71
9/2/10 at 11:49am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Evi View Post
Pesci was fucking terrifying in Goodfellas.
I always found it funny that Deniro in 2 separate films thought Pesci's character was banging his wife. Little engine that could.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Disciple_72 View Post
and Sir William of Forsythe, ... Hammerhead: Shark Frenzy (where he has a complete mismatch of a love interest in stunning soap star Hunter Tylo)
Ha, yeah. He sweats his ass off running around in that filthy wife-beater too.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Dave Jarvie View Post
watching John Cusak kick some ass in Grosse Pointe Blanke was a bit of an eyebrow archer
Roy was a kickboxer! Actually Cusack studied IRL.

Joe Don as MITCHELL. Definitely.

And Lon Chaney Jr.


He comes off so creepy in THE WOLFMAN. Even before he's bitten. Like an over-sized stalker.

Richard Boone!



He was kinda rough during his run of HAVE GUN WILL TRAVEL, but by the time he was in THE LAST DINOSAUR? The Fug had seriously set in.
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post #52 of 71
9/2/10 at 11:53am
Gene Wilder. Surprised he wasn't a first pick.

He hasn't been terribly useful for about 20 years now, but Eddie Murphy really transformed himself into leading man and action hero material by force of will. I was always impressed by that.

Also, Bill Murray. Pockmarked and slovenly, very little about Murray screams leading man, but even in the worst shit ever, Murray is obscenely magnetic and watchable.
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post #53 of 71
9/2/10 at 12:09pm
I enjoyed Tom Hardy's work in Layer Cake and Inception but neither prepared me in the slightest for how physical and intimidating he is in Bronson.
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post #54 of 71
9/2/10 at 12:16pm
How about Anthony Michael Hall? The geek from Sixteen Candles and The Breakfast Club turns into the leading guy on The Dead Zone.
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post #55 of 71
9/2/10 at 12:24pm
Wikus!!!

I love that when I first watched District 9, I figured Sharlto Copely's pencil pushing bureaucrat was just being set up as a dick who would come to a messy end 1/3 of the way into the movie. Who knew that he would end up being a sympathetic ass-kicking action hero?
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post #56 of 71
9/2/10 at 1:28pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Disciple_72 View Post
- Sammo Hung. Chubby, goofy looking legend of Hong Kong action cinema. Like fellow Peking Opera school alumnus Jackie Chan, Sammo endured brutal physical training at a very early age, which is why in his prime he could move like no fat guy you ever saw. For Sammo at his best, watch Eastern Condors or Pedicab Driver. Or just watch anything with him because he's awesome.
Great pick. Come to think of it, Jackie Chan must have seemed unlikely as an action hero in the early '70s, when producer Lo Wei made him shave his moustache and undergo eyelid surgery.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Disciple_72 View Post
- Tomisaburo Wakayama. Aka "Lone Wolf" Ogami Itto. Definitely not a jolly fat man. Watch in awe as a sweaty, grimacing, paunchy guy in a kimono becomes a whirlwind of mass slaughter. One of the great movie badasses.
...and to this we can add Tomisaburo's brother, Shintaro Katsu, who starred in the long-running Zatoichi series.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Disciple_72 View Post
- Bud Spencer. Looked a bit like some guy you might find passed out in the buffet area at a bear pride convention. A rather hairy gentleman of shall we say portlier dimensions. Often teamed up with Terence Hill, but also had a successful solo career in Europe. A funny and instantly likeable presence, known for slapstick action scenes where he would manhandle much smaller opponents with seemingly minimal effort.
...and to this the physically similar Paul L. Smith, who appeared with Michael Coby in a series of comedies ripping off the Hill & Spencer vehicles.
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post #57 of 71
9/2/10 at 2:28pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by DARKMITE8 View Post
Roy was a kickboxer! Actually Cusack studied IRL.
Yep, I believe he studied under kickboxing champion/sometime movie baddie/top tier uggo Benny "The Jet" Urquidez. A.k.a. 1408's CLAW HAMMER MANIAC! Coincidence- the undefeated Benny once praised Sammo Hung as for real one of the toughest guys he ever met.

It's clearly my own fault for the way I worded things ("unlikely" is very broad), but it's like there's two different threads going on at once here. Actors like Willis, Norton, Damon etc, I mean yes they surprised us in certain roles, but I think that's more about our perception of an actor and his abilities. I was taking more about those guys who when they get the lead it's like a giant middle finger to the traditional vanity of the movie industry. The ones who somehow slipped under the radar, and made us ask was it luck? Personality? Talent? Bad casting decision? Nepotism? Someone owe someone a favour? If not, how the hell did he end up there?

I go back to the original inspiration for this thread: Machete. But whatever, it's all good discussion.
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post #58 of 71
9/2/10 at 3:02pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Disciple_72 View Post
Yep, I believe he studied under kickboxing champion/sometime movie baddie/top tier uggo Benny "The Jet" Urquidez. A.k.a. 1408's CLAW HAMMER MANIAC! Coincidence- the undefeated Benny once praised Sammo Hung as for real one of the toughest guys he ever met.
And that's who Cusack defeated with a pen in GPB!
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post #59 of 71
9/2/10 at 3:19pm
Thread Starter 
Yeah, I wish I could remember what Benny says to the woman with the reunion guest list. That line cracked me up bad.
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post #60 of 71
9/2/10 at 3:46pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Teitr Styrr View Post
How about Anthony Michael Hall? The geek from Sixteen Candles and The Breakfast Club turns into the leading guy on The Dead Zone.
I should mention his work as bully guy at Community.
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post #61 of 71
9/2/10 at 3:57pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Disciple_72 View Post
Yeah, I wish I could remember what Benny says to the woman with the reunion guest list. That line cracked me up bad.
(Reading a name off the tags on the table) "It is I, Sidney Feldman."
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post #62 of 71
9/2/10 at 4:31pm
Thread Starter 
Thanks, that's it. Really funny moment.
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post #63 of 71
9/2/10 at 5:31pm
As far as action stars go, Wesley Snipes.



The skinny, little dude from Major League became fucking Blade.



Not to mention many other big screen badasses.
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post #64 of 71
9/2/10 at 5:55pm
Really, two of the biggest prototypical action stars, Stallone and Schwarzenegger, were both unlikely leading men and action stars. Whether it's their name, their nationality/ethnicity, the way they speak, or an unsual physical feature (Stallone's facial paralysis), very few people would have pegged them as future stars / leading men, but they got there and then some.
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post #65 of 71
9/2/10 at 6:19pm
I can't believe we went this far without mentioning



With guys like Bruce Lee or Jet Li, they look like they're fighters, but Jackie Chan is this somewhat stocky and cheerfully wide faced Asian guy, so it's hard to picture him as a badass if you're seeing him for the first time.
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post #66 of 71
9/2/10 at 9:20pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Cameron Hughes View Post
I can't believe we went this far without mentioning ... Jackie Chan
Mentioned 10 posts back. I noted the eyelid surgery.
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post #67 of 71
9/2/10 at 10:47pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Disciple_72 View Post
Thanks, that's it. Really funny moment.
To me, the funny bit is the alumni organizer's response: "You HAVE changed!"

Back on topic: Ken Jeong. OK, he's not a leading man (yet), but he's got Action Hero sewn up.
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post #68 of 71
9/3/10 at 11:52am
Thread Starter 
Man, I really need to watch Grosse Pointe Blank again.

Another Unlikely: Fat Elvis reminded me of this a few months back, George Kennedy getting his Death Wish on as star of The Human Factor. The must see trailer:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=U58mwO8ucGM

"You want me to turn these animals over to the police so that they can be put in jail? NOT ON YER LIFE!!!"

Watch out bad guys, because Big George is seething with righteous rage and he's not gonna take it anymore! Also he apparently did a lulzy sounding 1970s tv show called "Sarge", in which he played Father Samuel "Sarge" Cavanaugh, a cop turned crime-solving priest.
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post #69 of 71
9/9/10 at 6:42pm
Thread Starter 
Noticed Turner Classic is showing the Henry Silva starrer Johnny Cool tonight (along with the similar lone-gangster-on-a-path-of-vengeance films Point Blank and Get Carter... now that's a great lineup)

Silva was of course one of cinema's greatest baddies/creeps/mafiosi, but he was also leading man in a few US films, and many Eurofilms. Not sure when the Italians first took notice of him, but it may well have been Johnny Cool that made them sit up and ask "Who the fuck is this cherry?". Silva easily qualifies for this thread due to the simple fact that if he ever got offered the part of the Red Skull, he could skip makeup altogether by putting in an extra long session in the tanning bed.

Was always curious about his Argento scripted Men on a Mission flick Probability Zero. One of these days I'm going to hunt that one down.
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post #70 of 71
9/10/10 at 3:04am
Would Paul Giamati count?
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post #71 of 71
9/13/10 at 5:23pm
Thread Starter 
Leo Rossi: character actor, pinball wizard, and performer of perhaps the most soul-stirring rendition of "Amazing Grace" known to man. That face was seemingly perfectly suited for smug wiseguy parts and sleazy lowlife roles, but clearly the public couldn't get enough of him doing the hero cop thing and thus we have the Relentless franchise.
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