1. Sylvester Stallone
What can I say that this picture can’t say for me? The man is 68-years-old. That picture was taken two years ago. Besides being the oldest star on our list, Sly is also decidedly the king of over the hill action stars. He is a champ. He turned 40 in 1986. That is the year Cobra came out. Many of us weren’t even alive when Cobra came out. I wasn’t. That means that nearly all of Sylvester Stallone’s career has been over the hill. The only real hits of his that were made before 1986 were the first four Rocky’s and the first two Rambo’s. And I realize that is a lot but let’s look at what came after 1986. You’ve got: Cobra, Over the Top, Rambo III, Tango and Cash, Rocky V, Cliffhanger, Demolition Man, and Judge Dredd. That’s ten years. TEN incredible years. Now he’s fifty. Sly seems to take a break, but every Sly knows that Rocky may be down but he ain’t out.
At the age of 60, we get another Rocky movie. Then at 62 another Rambo. Then at 64-years-old (Fun Fact: 65 is the average retirement age) Sylvester Stallone unloads what may be his greatest gift to the action movie genre in The Expendables. Now I’m not saying it’s better than Rocky or Rambo or even Grudge Match but it was responsible for bringing so many over the hill action stars back into the light. Arnold came out of retirement for the cameo in Expendables that would later lead to larger pasts in EX2 and EX3. How long had it been since anyone had seen heavy hitters like Jean-Claude Van Damme or Mel Gibson in a major motion picture? New over the hill action stars like Jason Statham and Terry Crews got the opportunity to work together and learn from the great one. Sly has singlehandedly reinvigorated one of the greatest genres in film and he did it at 68 and he isn’t even done yet. He is working on the final Rambo movie, apparently titled Rambo: Last Blood (not joking), and a movie about Apollo Creed’s son simply titled Creed (better). Age is clearly nothing but a number for Sly and he seems determined to set the high score.
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Matthew Nando Kelly is a staff writer for Pop-Break. Aside from action movie editorials, he writes about film, television, music, and video games. Matthew also has a podcast called Mad Bracket Status where he discusses pop culture related brackets with fellow Pop-Break writer DJ Chapman. He loves U2, cats, and the New Orleans Saints. He can also occasionally be found writing lists on Topless Robot and his twitter handle is @NationofNando
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