"Not that I'm one of them". Arnold or stallone would never say something like this.
Arnold would say "I have to inject estrogen just to keep my power in check....my raw masculinity is too powerful so I have to balance it out with estrogen to keep my power under control"
That's the type of funny and only half joking thing Arnold would say. Regardless of his awful "screw your freedoms" moment, I'm not going to stop being a fan of Arnold Schwarzenegger.
Now as far as the rock, I actually enjoyed some of his earliest movies. Walking tall, the rundown, and The Scorpion King.
And something that was interesting is I never even thought about him in terms of race. I didn't think, white, black, Samoan. He was just the Rock. I truly was color blind with the rock. Then I noticed in these later movies I've seen they emphasize racial aspects of him. In Hobbes and Shaw it's a giant embarrassing part (of an embarrassingly bad movie) where he visits his Samoan family, they do traditional Samoan dances and then fight with traditional Samoan weaponry while wearing grass skirts. That's like something out of a Bollywood movie. And more and more frequently the "I'm Samoan/Polynesian....isn't that incredible?" Has become more of a thing with him when in the early 2000s the background, ethnically or otherwise didn't enter my mind because again he was just the rock. It reeks of lameness and it's embarrassing how he's going for those "intersectionality points". It's embarrassing for anyone but the Rock has already been successful. It's doubly weird when it's not a person who's trying to just make it in Hollywood. I get it, you are accustomed to a lavish lifestyle and the only way to maintain it is hope you get cast in a billion dollar franchise since that's all that exists is that or A24 indie films.
But there is a third option; lean into the rock as a brand, promote testosterone, buddy up to mel gibson, mark Wahlberg, etc and hope a new Hollywoo alternative comes about. it's riskier than playing the Hollywood humiliation ritual games but you don't have to sell your dignity. So the upsides are worth it.
I mean chuck norris was not a physical imposing guy but he leaned into rugged southerner and ran with it, embraced it.
Jean Claude Van Damme is lean muscular and has always had a sense of humor about him, winking at the female audience when they swoon when he stretches or takes his shirt off (younger van damme obviously). Same with Arnold. Due to age he's not the hulking monster he used to be. He's lost a lot of muscle due to age. But Arnold still retains the masculine strength personality. The rock even at a smaller size could still embrace that brand that is "the rock". I mean in his wrestling career early on, he was semi soft and doughy looking (muscular fat) but still had the rock attitude.
He doesn't need to be huge. Scorpion king era rock is when he looked the most like an action hero. Roided out rock didn't look good in my opinion. Only a few people can pull it off, schwarzenegger being one of them. The limit of what typically looks good is Rambo 3 era Stallone. As in you can guess he's probably taking roids but his body isn't so crazy that it's not outside the realm of plausibility that you could achieve that body without roids either. It still looked like a natural body, just a very muscular one.
I've always said Stallone's Rambo 3 physique was peak male form. He was absolutely shredded, but slightly leaner than he was in Rocky IV, just enough to be very mobile and agile. He could still pull off that beautiful jumping spinning inside-to-out-crescent kick during the desert fight, but also still looked like he could kick the arse of anyone who looked at him funny.
It's a shame Stallone didn't do a few more action flicks in a similar vein during that time to really take advantage of his 2% body fat physique.
I've always felt Stallone squandered the best years of his career doing lame dramas and comedies when he should have been taking the roles Ahnuld wasn't interested in.
From 1987 - 2005, there were only 5 films where you get to see his physique:
Rambo III
Lock Up
Cliffhanger
Demolition Man (where he's noticeably cut weight)
And The Specialist.
After The Specialist, which came out in 1994, it's 12 years before he reprises his role as Rocky, by which point it's clear he's on the juice (he was pushing 60, after all).
And other than Demolition Man and Dredd, can you really name anything Stallone was in prior to his Rocky rennaisance? He basically wasted 20 years doing shit that didn't fit his character at all. There was a ton of action movies he should have been in but chose not to play because he wanted to be "more mature" in the eyes of critics.
Yeah, it was pulpy stupid popcorn fun. Just one of those in the line of a movie like S.W.A.T or the Italian Job or Poseiden remake in terms of quality in my eyes. Just sort of turn your brain off entertainment. Not award winning serious movie, just some fun mid level sword and sandal type action film.
"Not that I'm one of them". Arnold or stallone would never say something like this.
Arnold would say "I have to inject estrogen just to keep my power in check....my raw masculinity is too powerful so I have to balance it out with estrogen to keep my power under control"
That's the type of funny and only half joking thing Arnold would say. Regardless of his awful "screw your freedoms" moment, I'm not going to stop being a fan of Arnold Schwarzenegger.
Now as far as the rock, I actually enjoyed some of his earliest movies. Walking tall, the rundown, and The Scorpion King.
And something that was interesting is I never even thought about him in terms of race. I didn't think, white, black, Samoan. He was just the Rock. I truly was color blind with the rock. Then I noticed in these later movies I've seen they emphasize racial aspects of him. In Hobbes and Shaw it's a giant embarrassing part (of an embarrassingly bad movie) where he visits his Samoan family, they do traditional Samoan dances and then fight with traditional Samoan weaponry while wearing grass skirts. That's like something out of a Bollywood movie. And more and more frequently the "I'm Samoan/Polynesian....isn't that incredible?" Has become more of a thing with him when in the early 2000s the background, ethnically or otherwise didn't enter my mind because again he was just the rock. It reeks of lameness and it's embarrassing how he's going for those "intersectionality points". It's embarrassing for anyone but the Rock has already been successful. It's doubly weird when it's not a person who's trying to just make it in Hollywood. I get it, you are accustomed to a lavish lifestyle and the only way to maintain it is hope you get cast in a billion dollar franchise since that's all that exists is that or A24 indie films.
But there is a third option; lean into the rock as a brand, promote testosterone, buddy up to mel gibson, mark Wahlberg, etc and hope a new Hollywoo alternative comes about. it's riskier than playing the Hollywood humiliation ritual games but you don't have to sell your dignity. So the upsides are worth it.
It's pretty obvious that his doctor told him he had to stop shooting up testosterone or he was gonna die. He's lost 70 pounds since then.
I mean chuck norris was not a physical imposing guy but he leaned into rugged southerner and ran with it, embraced it.
Jean Claude Van Damme is lean muscular and has always had a sense of humor about him, winking at the female audience when they swoon when he stretches or takes his shirt off (younger van damme obviously). Same with Arnold. Due to age he's not the hulking monster he used to be. He's lost a lot of muscle due to age. But Arnold still retains the masculine strength personality. The rock even at a smaller size could still embrace that brand that is "the rock". I mean in his wrestling career early on, he was semi soft and doughy looking (muscular fat) but still had the rock attitude.
He doesn't need to be huge. Scorpion king era rock is when he looked the most like an action hero. Roided out rock didn't look good in my opinion. Only a few people can pull it off, schwarzenegger being one of them. The limit of what typically looks good is Rambo 3 era Stallone. As in you can guess he's probably taking roids but his body isn't so crazy that it's not outside the realm of plausibility that you could achieve that body without roids either. It still looked like a natural body, just a very muscular one.
Absolutely nailed it.
I've always said Stallone's Rambo 3 physique was peak male form. He was absolutely shredded, but slightly leaner than he was in Rocky IV, just enough to be very mobile and agile. He could still pull off that beautiful jumping spinning inside-to-out-crescent kick during the desert fight, but also still looked like he could kick the arse of anyone who looked at him funny.
It's a shame Stallone didn't do a few more action flicks in a similar vein during that time to really take advantage of his 2% body fat physique.
Damn, are you my long lost twin or something?
I've always felt Stallone squandered the best years of his career doing lame dramas and comedies when he should have been taking the roles Ahnuld wasn't interested in.
From 1987 - 2005, there were only 5 films where you get to see his physique:
Rambo III
Lock Up
Cliffhanger
Demolition Man (where he's noticeably cut weight)
And The Specialist.
After The Specialist, which came out in 1994, it's 12 years before he reprises his role as Rocky, by which point it's clear he's on the juice (he was pushing 60, after all).
And other than Demolition Man and Dredd, can you really name anything Stallone was in prior to his Rocky rennaisance? He basically wasted 20 years doing shit that didn't fit his character at all. There was a ton of action movies he should have been in but chose not to play because he wanted to be "more mature" in the eyes of critics.
Hell, in the 90's he was part of that gay black separatist faction the Nation of Domination in the WWF.
I think that's just him doing what he needs to do to keep getting movies.
You…liked the scorpion king?
Yeah, it was pulpy stupid popcorn fun. Just one of those in the line of a movie like S.W.A.T or the Italian Job or Poseiden remake in terms of quality in my eyes. Just sort of turn your brain off entertainment. Not award winning serious movie, just some fun mid level sword and sandal type action film.
I remember there being a naked lady in it, so it had one thing going for it