10 Embarrassing Times Movie Actors Tried To Be Badass

Clint Eastwood is near enough the personification of on screen badassery, dispatching enemies with nary a flicker of remorse across a career spanning eight decades. We all hit a wall eventually, though, and for Eastwood, that wall was 2021’s Cry Macho.

This film had been in gestation for nearly 50 years, and it shows. It’s the story of a retired rodeo rider tasked with crossing the Mexican border to bring back a teenage boy turning to crime. It called for a man of advancing years, gravitas and pathos.

That’s all well and good, but Clint is 91 years old. For all his legendary career and his continued relevancy, you would not be hiring this man to free your child from the Mexican criminal underworld. This isn’t a film filled with shootouts and fist fights, but still attempts to paint Clint as a paragon of grizzled (if complex) masculinity.

Eastwood at his best is a commendably subtle and studied actor, but here he risks venturing into self parody. There aren’t too many great roles for 91 year olds, and this certainly shouldn’t have been one of them.