9 months ago 23rd Feb 08:15
Just two years ago Sylvester Stallone's career as a Hollywood leading man looked finished.
Having produced nothing of note since 1997's 'Cop Land' - but for a turn as the voice of an all-action insect in 'Antz' - it seemed the man who was a colossus in the 70s and 80s was no longer capable of carrying a movie aloft on his unfeasibly broad shoulders.
His journey towards the realm of movie relic had been coming ever since the dawn of the 90s. The man who made Vietnam veteran Rambo and heavyweight boxing champion Rocky into bona fide big screen icons could date the waning of his star right back to the risible 'Rocky V' in 1990.
Since then, an actor known for producing blockbuster action fare had come close to managing that feat only once, with 1993's moderately successful 'Demolition Man'. Tellingly, that film featured Sly as an old-fashioned supercop so bent on violence that he was cryogenically frozen. However, Stallone's career began to cool swiftly after its release, and eventually wound up in its very own state of suspended animation.
It's not as if this industrious star took his sidelining lying down. After all, this is the man who at the age of 29 had resorted to writing his own movie, 'Rocky, to finally break down the steadfastly locked door to industry success.
He made a brave attempt at re-inventing himself. With his measured turn as a semi-deaf, desk bound sheriff in 'Cop Land' Stallone gathered significant plaudits from critics, with some even whispering tentatively that his turn could lead to - shock horror ? him being recognised as a serious thespian. It never happened. Any chance of the public accepting such a drastic watershed in Stallone's career was swiftly nipped in the bud by his turn as Jack Carter in a misguided remake of 'Get Carter' in 2000.
Sly always had one thing on his side though, or to be more precise, two; he was responsible for two of action-lovers' favourite heroes of all time.
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