9. Taken
20th Century FoxWho would have ever guessed that Oskar Schindler would become an action star once he got to be in his late 50's? For whatever reason, the transition has proved to be a popular one with audiences, and now other "past their prime" male actors, such as Kevin Costner and Sean Penn, are looking to get in on the elder-action-hero game. What, you may be asking yourself, is the problem with this trend? Before terms like ageist get bandied about, here's the issue with the old man/action hero genre. Number one, it just isn't realistic. It doesn't matter how much you go to the gym, how healthy you eat, or how much extra testosterone you take, when you get into your upper 50's and early 60's, you're no longer a spring chicken, and even taking into account a certain amount of suspension of disbelief that is required with any movie viewing, it just comes across as a bit silly. Once you get to a certain age, even filming action movies can become perilous, as the 71 year-old Harrison Ford found out recently. The biggest issue with the genre though is its stifling of new potential talent. Many young male stars broke through by starring in action movies. Some would continue to make action movies for the rest of their careers, while others proved they had deeper acting chops in more dramatic fare, but with only so many action flicks developed every year, the more of them filled by old-timers, the fewer chances there are for some new blood to make its way through.