It’s a bafflingly popular action sub-genre right now, and
one made popular by an actor who apparently doesn’t care much for action
films. Insufferable portmanteau term ‘Geriaction’
is now the name given to action films featuring older actors. For modern action, one would expect to see Chrises
Pratt, Evans, or Hemsworth, currently in their prime, jumping off buildings and
shooting terrorists. But with the action genre currently dominated by superhero
adaptations, the non-lycra action fix can be found in the pension queue.
The 1980s saw a distinctly Reaganite movement in action
cinema: the exaggerated figures of Stallone and Schwarzenegger as one man
armies, defending America from people who were not American. Hyper-masculine, no emotion, just the
mission; individualism writ large. In bullet holes on a wall. Fast forward to the mid 1990s and the smaller
frames of Keanu Reeves (Speed),
Nicholas Cage (Con Air, Face/Off), and Tom Cruise (Mission: Impossible) were holding their
own alongside their exaggerated contemporaries with increasingly bonkers high
concept films. One of the best examples
of 90s action (despite my unreserved dislike of the director) was Michael Bay’s
The Rock. The gimmick? Sean Connery as an old action hero (and possibly still
James Bond…) who saves the day for the younger guy.
Cut to years later and Stallone makes another Rocky sequel,
and it’s not bad at all, banishing the memory of Rocky V. He then makes Rambo (2008), and then The Expendables (2010). A passion project, made with tongue edging
towards cheek, he assembled the likes of Dolph Lundgren, Micky Rourke, and
eventually Schwarzenegger, Norris and Willis, to feature alongside contemporary
stars like Jason Statham and Jet Li. Despite some of the worst character names
in living memory, and not actually being very good, it’s a massive hit and yields
two sequels (and counting, apparently).
At the subtler end of the scale, Harry Brown saw Michael Caine not even attempt to roll back the
years, but take out a gang of vicious charvers. This followed Clint Eastwood
fine 2008 fable Gran Torino, in which
a jaded old man learns to respect another culture and defeats wrong ‘uns as
victim rather than victor. Both films
focused on the character and environment rather than how to apply a chokehold
or torture a henchman (although they did that, too).
Aiming for more fun was the Liam Neeson vehicle Taken (2008). Allowing audiences still drunk on the torture
porn subgenre to get their kicks, but confuse savagery with quality, it was
another huge hit, spawning two sequels and a TV series. The premise, more grounded that The Expendables’ OTT
army-of-one-man-armies, saw Neeson’s retired CIA spook seek bloody revenge on
the gangsters who kidnapped his daughter.
It’s also pretty mediocre, but the gimmick of Neeson’s highly skilled
badass tearing through the Albanian mafia was irresistible to many.
Neeson, a better actor than his late career suggests,
seemingly couldn’t resist the paycheques and went on to star in guff like Unknown, Non Stop, Run All Night,
and A Walk Among The Tombstones
(which isn’t as bad as the marketing suggested it would be). The odd grouping of Bruce Willis, Morgan
Freeman, John Malkovich and Helen Mirren brought a kind of naff comic book
twist with RED and RED 2, which we probably could have
done without. Richard Gere (The Double)
and Kevin Costner (3 Days To Kill)
have also got in on the act, with limited success. The sub-genre in full swing, then started to
get bizarrely more interesting as it
went on. A brief history of sub-genre
fads will tell you, these things tend to succumb to the law of diminishing
returns (postmodern horror, high school comedy, torture porn, found footage,
epic fantasy, manchild comedy, anything Adam Sandler made), but Geriaction has
recently started to churn out some quality.
Denzel Washington was perhaps an obvious choice to get his
own vehicle (albeit one with a blue badge), but when Antoice Fuqua directed him
in The Equalizer (2014) it was quite
a surprise when the results were actually pretty good! An adaptation of the
Edward Woodward TV series, Washington brings his megawatt charisma and a cool
efficiency to his retired black ops man-on-a-mission. The film looks great, had plenty of intrigue
and is pleasingly unpleasant where it needs to be. It’s nothing, though, without Washington’s
stoic, OCD killing machine.
To the surprise of just about everybody, though, Keanu
Reeves’ John Wick (2014) managed to blend
a great hook (somebody wrongs the titular master assassin, who then leaves a
trail of bodies in his wake), an actual mythology (the incredibly cool assassin
hideout/market The Continental), and some impressive action chops. The equally good sequel shows that the idea
had and still has mileage. While Reeves,
currently 52, may not exactly fit the pensioner model, the premise of ‘Retired
Badass Reluctantly Takes One Last Job’ still feels fresh enough to carry the
film.
Referring back to my original premise and opening paragraph,
the current spandex-happy action trend has added to the Geriaction canon with
this year’s Logan. A sequel to two terrible Wolverine films, and
with a protagonist who has been misused in at least half of the X-Men franchise,
James Mangold’s film is brutal but melancholic; a fine antidote to constant
superhero excess. It also finally answers
the question of how to pose a challenge to a character whose healing factor makes
him almost invulnerable: make him old and stop him from healing. This vulnerability adds a whole extra layer
of interest and drama; he’s gone from wild animal to underdog.
And therein lies the appeal of the geriaction subgenre; the underdog
bites back. While the 80s revelled in indestructible
super-men, and the 90s in crazy high concept, we now live in an age of
franchises and remakes. It’s a reversal
of the 80s trend and a simplification of the 90s, making new franchises along
the way; take a man who’s past it or simply doesn’t want it anymore, fuck with
his life, light the fuse and walk away.
Like the characters, this has probably now had its day, but it has been
a subgenre that has got steadily better with age.
But officially, The
Wild Bunch is still the best of the lot.
