At Least Stallone Admits He Was Wrong

Boy, how my opinion on Arnold Schwarzenegger has gone downhill in the past year.  It took me a while to realize it, but the man is a salesman first, second and third.  And beyond that, little else matters.  Terminator: Genisys was a real eye opener.  Not just because it was really, really bad, but because of the hypocrisy shown by Schwarzenegger, as outlined in this article.

When Schwarzenegger had a book to sell, he beat his chest about gunning for his core fans.  “I was suspicious that the studio was pulling back and trying to turn The Terminator into something rated PG.”  It was then Jim Cameron who put Arnold’s T2 fears to rest.  “The killing was still there, but it was done by the T-1000.  As soon as I understood that the movie was going to stay R-Rated, I relaxed.”

Then, when there’s a movie to sell, everything changes.  Schwarzenegger goes to bat and promotes his PG-13 Terminator movie.  He can get away with that because only real fans bought his book, and their numbers are smaller, they’re expendable.  Worse though, the movie was utterly terrible – and Schwarzenegger attempted to invert reality and simply promote facts out of the picture.

I can forgive a lot from these icons of manly cinema.  Take for example Sylvester Stallone.  He made a shitty movie with The Expendables 3, where one of the biggest problems was its soft-assed PG-13 rating.  A while after, when the uproar had settled mind you, Stallone came out and called the whole thing a ‘horrible miscalculation‘.  I can forgive Stallone a lot of the time because of things like this, the man can be his own worst critic.  He can admit when he fucked up.  And that includes his entire resume.  I mean, to give Rocky V a 0/10, that’s too harsh even.

What I can’t forgive though is to be patronised all year round and spoken down to.  Some actors appear in crap movies and bite their tongue until a certain P.R. window has closed.  Others peddle horses shit, knowingly, without end.  I called for Stallone to admit that The Expendables 3 sucked.  I won’t bother calling on Arnold Schwarzenegger to admit that Terminator: Genisys sucked even worse.  That’s because the man doesn’t give a fuck what we think and only cares about the bottom dollar, if the movie was one for the books then mission accomplished.  You won’t get that guy to budge when it comes to admitting he basically screwed you as a fan, for a prolonged stint in the sun.  Hell, not only will he not apologize, he’s already thinking on the next high profile, low quality cash-in.

Schwarzenegger won’t even admit his old movies suck (the few that do, that is).  When someone encourages him to reflect with some light hearted self-debasement over his old flops, he’ll instead go into relentless P.R. mode, all these years later.  There’s an exception… Terminator: Salvation, Schwarzenegger readily admits that that is a sub-par Terminator movie.  Oh, wait.  He wasn’t in it.

You know, Paramount made Terminator: Genisys.  It went ahead with a crap script.  Paramount attempted to do the same with Beverly Hills Cop 4.  But Eddie Murphy said no.  He also went on TV and said he was determined to stop making movies that suck.  He could’ve easily been the centre of attention with a crappy Beverly Hills Cop 4, but dignity won out with that guy.  Why couldn’t that have been the case with Arnold Schwarzenegger?  And why won’t he admit now, or never, that Genisys was a mistake?

Am I supposed to kiss Arnold Schwarzenegger’s ass?  Why?  Because he is a screen icon?  I’ve spent my fair share on this man.  VHS.  Cinema.  DVD.  Blu-Ray.  Games and, far enough back, I pestered my parents into buying his action figures.  Remember that old Terminator 2 figure with the rocket-launcher for an arm?  I had that, and many more.  In return I don’t want to be treated like a dumb customer on the court of a used car outlet.

In the words of Jack Nicholson, extend me some fucking courtesy.  I believe I’ve earned it.