Dear Old Liam!!!

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So, last weekend, I saw this latest Liam Neeson flick titled Ice Road: Vengeance, which is a sequel to The Ice Road. While it was an enjoyable watch, I realized that it felt more like a stand-alone film than a continuation of the first film. As in, if someone watched the movie without any idea of the previous installment, they would never have guessed that the current one was actually a part 2.

But that didn’t take away the fun from the movie. It was full of action, just as we’ve come to love with Liam Neeson. It also had some sort of suspense. I’m using the term loosely here because the suspense wasn’t as nail-biting as it could have been considering the entire plot devices used in the movie.

However, this post isn’t a review of the movie; it’s me pouring my thoughts about the genre. Or should I say the sub-genre? I feel this is one that’s been like a slow burn, one that we didn’t see coming until it became a major part of Hollywood. And even then, many people still haven’t realized it. Yet, some actors have managed to carve a lucrative profession out of it for themselves.

And what’s this I’m talking about? It’s old men taking on action roles. Roles and stunts that normally would have gone to younger men, older men take them and knock it right out of the ballpark. Liam Neeson is known for this. He has always been an action star, but ever since he starred in the Taken trilogy, he’s been in a string of action movies back-to-back. In all of them, he’s either kicking serious butt, or he’s getting his butt kicked. And personally, I don’t have an issue with this because I enjoy his movies. But watching Ice Road: Vengeance, I began to see that just maybe, our beloved action star is no longer as vibrant and as bulletproof as he used to be.

In the action scenes of this movie, I could see that age was finally telling on him, and in some shots, even that could not be hidden. It’s kind of sad because this is his niche, and while moving to less stressful genres like comedy or romance would be easier on him, I don’t think it would work out well for his career. Because I’m not going to lie, when I go to the cinema to watch Liam Neeson, I’m not going there to watch him fall in love, I’m going there to watch him hunt down the people who laid hands on the person he loved. Yeah, I guess fans like me are part of the problem.😂

As I said earlier, casting older men in action roles is not something new, but we have so many of them. There are notable actors like Bruce Willis, who was acting in one action movie or the other before his illness set in. He was 67 years old when Assassin was released. We also have Samuel L. Jackson who is 76 and still acting in action movies (although he doesn’t take much lead roles). Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sylvester Stallone are 77 and 79 years old respectively, and they’re still active in action movies. Hell, they all have one movie or the other dropping this year alone.

And while it seems that the older generation is moving on, they’re already set to be taken over by other action stars like Jason Statham, Scott Adkins, and Gerald Butler. If you notice it, these actors have already made names for themselves in the independent action scene. Some actors like Aaron Eckert should also be considered when talking about this, and Idris Elba as well. Very soon, they’d be the old men kicking butt in action movies.

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So, what exactly am I trying to say? I don’t think there’s a retirement age in Hollywood. You retire when you feel like it. I just wish that these men are doing this because they want to, not because they have to. I know many of them have serious financial issues, which is why they’d take any script tossed their way, no matter how terrible. But still, they give their all to their work and still try to deliver.

I guess I’m just glad that in a chaotic world that’s age-sensitive as Hollywood, they’ve still managed to carve out a niche exclusively for older men. I guess that’s a plus.

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_{Thank you for reading. Feel free to share your thoughts in the comments, I would love to know what you’re thinking. Till we meet in the next post.}

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_{N.B: All images used in this post were gotten from IMDB, except the last picture of trees, that's mine. The thumbnail was designed on Canva with the embedded image also courtesy of IMDB.}

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