Lights! Camera! Action Season!

No McClane, no gain - Bruce in Die Hard 4.0Holding out for a hero?  How much action can you handle?

Well, this month’s ALL ACTION APRIL season on Action & Thriller is going to test your mettle as we throw an amazing array of explosive action, stunts and death-defying HD awesomeness at you.

But just who are the greatest action stars of all time? It’s a tough call – Will Smith, Matt Damon and Tom Cruise make a good case, but in the end just couldn’t hold their own. We’ve whittled it down to the all-time greats – the real hard cases who’ve put in the time to kick ass and take names.

So here’s some of the beefiest and brawniest to ever boot movie booty, all presented in sweaty, gun-oiled HD…

CLICK HERE FOR ALL-ACTION APRIL'S ENTIRE EXPLOSIVE LINE-UP!

Vest to impress - Willis in the original Die HardBruce Willis
Age: 54
Height: 5’ 11” (1.82 m)
Nickname(s): Bruno
Action breakout: Die Hard (1988)
Best fisticuffs: There’s no denying the bone-crunching brilliance of the fight with Karl (Alexander Godunov in Die Hard)
Career kills: 100+
Movies in the All Action Aprill season:
Die Hard, Die Hard 2, Die Hard With A Vengeance, Die Hard 4.0, The Siege, Striking Distance

Good ol’ Brucey started out as a comedy actor and wannabe crooner (he released an album as ‘Bruno’), and back in 1988 the idea of “Bruce Willis, action star” was laughable… laughs promptly silenced by Die Hard - the Best Action Movie Ever Made™. Since saving Nakatomi from terrorists, he’s even saved the entire world from an asteroid! To think that he started out romantically Moonlighting…

Van Damme, that's a big one!Jean-Claude van Damme
Age: 48
Height: 5’ 9” (1.75 m)
Nickname(s): Muscles From Brussels
Action breakout: Bloodsport (1988)
Best fisticuffs: Any fight where he roundhouses some poor chump.
Career kills: 40+
Movies in the All Action April season:
Sudden Death, Knock Off, Legionnaire, Universal Soldier: The Return

Born Jean-Claude Camille François Van Varenberg, Van Damme may be the only action star to have ballet training as well as professional fighting experience. He’s easily the most flexible and flamboyant fighter on screen, famed for jumping, spinning roundhouse kick and painfullooking leg splits. Recently, JCVD has had a bit of a resurgence by playing a older, bitterer version of himself in JCVD.

The deadliest pony tail in the businessSteven Seagal
Age: 57
Height: 6’ 4” (1.93 m)
Nickname(s): The Great One, Lord Steven, The Master of Aikido
Action breakout: Nico (1988)
Best fisticuffs: Sword fighting with the Rasta bad dude in Marked For Death (1990)
Career kills: 140+
Movies in the All Action April season: Marked For Death

Steven Seagal could actually kick your arse. Sly, Arnie and Bruce may be pumped, but Seagal is the real deal – an ex-covert operative with lethal fighting skills and the first Westerner to open a dojo in the Far East. Plus, his movies can be made into a sentence: while Under Siege and Marked For Death, Seagal’s Above The Law and Out For Justice On Deadly Ground and always Hard To Kill, even with Exit Wounds in his Ticker.

Still Sly after all these yearsSylvester Stallone
Age: 62
Height: 5’ 9” (1.75 m)
Nickname(s): Sly
Action breakout: Rocky (1976)
Best fisticuffs: Even for a star with such a massive action-movie pedigree, nothing rivals the carnage of the final fight in Rambo Career kills: 220+
Movies in the All Action April season: Daylight, Rambo, Rocky I-V, Stop! Or My Mom Will Shoot!

Sly has the best filmmaking and acting chops of all the action stars, having cowritten and/or directed many of the Rocky and Rambo movies (including the intense latest entry). Stallone’s 40-year career is one of the most iconic in Hollywood – who else can lay claim to creating two movie icons like Rocky Balboa and John Rambo?  Launched at the end of the Pacino/De Niro driven '70s, Sly's action-man status was challenged by the arrival of muscle dudes like Arnie, so he went back to the gym and carved out a physique to rival any of them.  With Ahnuld doing a desk job, who's in better shape now?

Death metal in The TerminatorArnold Schwarzenegger
Age: 61
Height: 6’ 2” (1.88 m)
Nickname(s): Arnie, Ahnuld, Austrian Oak, The Governator
Action breakout: The Terminator (1984)
Best fisticuffs: His mano-a-mano face-off with the titular Predator (1987)
Career kills: 310+
Movies in the All Action April season: The Running Man, End Of Days, Predator, Conan The Destroyer, Kindergarten Cop, Red Sonja, The Terminator

Before busting blocks (and heads), Ahnuld was a champion bodybuilder (Mr Universe five times; Mr Olympia a then-record seven times) of incredible success.

Let him sum it up: “During the peak of my career, my calves were 20 inches, thighs 28.5 inches, waist 34 inches, chest 57 inches, and I had 22-inch arms.” No one measures up to Arnie. Everyone knows that The Terminator and Conan franchises launched him to mega-stardom, a hugely successful real-estate career, marriage into American royalty (his wife, Maria Shriver, is a Kennedy) and, now, to a career in American politics as Governor of Cuh-lifforhn-ia.

Some of the others may be tougher, but Arnold is the biggest star of the bunch.

The action heir apparent - Blighty's own StathamJason Statham
Age: 36
Height: 5’ 10” (1.78 m)
Nickname(s): The Stath
Action breakout: The Transporter (2002)
Best fisticuffs: Crank (2006)
Career kills: 30+ (he’s only a young ’un!)
Movies in the All Action April: Lock, Stock And Two Smoking Barrels, War



Don’t miss the Stath in The Bank Job at 9.45pm on Sat 18 April on Sky Movies Premiere / HD

He’s the new kid on the block, but with the Transporter and Crank franchises dishing up adrenalised thrills the world over, Brit Statham is undoubtedly the current heir to the action throne...

JASON STATHAM Q&A

SMM:  So how much of The Bank Job is based on true events?

JS: All of it! As far as we know. We tried to make this film as close to the truth as possible. Everybody likes a true story, to get behind something that happened. And we all know for a fact that the bank was robbed. We all know that there was a blanket that was on the press because nothing was ever written about it. You ask yourself ‘Why? Why did that happen?’ Something scandalous went on. We did the best we could to fill in the gaps.

SMM: Apparently one of the real robbers came to the set and he looked like a 75-year-old version of you…

JS: People said, ‘Is that your dad?’ He was walking around on set, and we were told that we were not supposed to say who he was. I think there were just three of us on set who knew what his job really was, or what he used to be.It's a steal in The Bank Job

SMM: We’ve heard that you’re going to be teaming up with Sylvester Stallone soon…

JS: Yes! He’s writing, directing and starring in a movie called The Expendables and he’s invited me along for the ride. I’ve seen every movie he’s ever done. He’s one of the legends of our time. He’s also a great guy. I had a couple of meetings with him. So charismatic, very funny indeed – and he looks as fit as a butcher’s dog.

SMM: Sylvester recently said that Rambo could take on your character in the Transporter films...

JS: [Laughs] I’ve always liked Sly’s sense of humour. You know the fact that he’s even talking about me makes me very, very happy. I mean, I’ve watched his movies for years, and to think that he would even know who I am is very cool. I love his films.

SMM: Maybe you could fight Rocky in part 7 or 8...

JS: Me and Rocky, huh? I’m not bad, I’m better without the gloves though!


Sky Movies Magazine - AprilWords: Richard Matthews
This article originally appeared in the Sky Movies Magazine, April '09.
 

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