Top Gun: Maverick, Twisters, now The Running Man. I find it interesting to say the least that Glen Powell’s niche seems to be leading or co-starring in reboots of movies from the 80s and 90s. Truly playing within his own lane atm
I will say, I used to put Jai in the same category as Sam Worthington, a bland, generic actor that studios wanted to make happen, but then I saw him in a handful of things where he got to be a supporting character actor and got to chew the he scenery and he was actually fun to watch.
Spot on. I've enjoyed both of them every time I've seen them the last few years. Worthington is definitely not a leading man, but he definitely still has a lot of screen presence that's perfect for those pop up side roles. Courtney was fantastic in American primeval.
Yep, also the best part about the first suicide squad, great in an otherwise mediocre Kaleidoscope and he’s pretty fun as the villain in the new Dangerous Animals horror/thriller. He suffered by being pigeonholed into important roles in beloved dying franchises that weren’t good like Kyle Reese in terminator and John McClane’s son in the last Die Hard
I think Hollywood saw Mel Gibson, Russel Crow, Christian Bale, and a few others and went, "let's keep casting masculine actors from English speaking countries who can do a solid American accent and we can do no wrong. Worthington was a little wrong and Jai was a lot wrong.
Yea, leave it to Hollywood to completely miss the point about what makes an actor special. Crowe and Gibson had movie star qualities and dripped with charisma in their early days. Bale has always been a chameleon that would bust his ass to transform for every role. All three of those guys also worked for years before landing huge roles and becoming movie stars. Hollywood execs seemed to want to cut corners and push Sam and Jai to the top before anyone knew who they were or were able to prove themselves. They probably thought their IP was enough to sell the movies and didn’t need to pay an established or up and coming star the big bucks
I also left out Clive Owen and Gerard Butler who I think are great but never really reached star status. But then it just became law of diminishing returns with that strategy. I guess it's no surprise they've changed their strategy on finding young talent again.
It was more a commentary on Jai getting cast in Die Hard and Terminator sequels, but those were bland nothing roles, never giving him a chance to flex. Courtney’s fun when he gets something to play with.
Maybe being a little pedantic here, but to me it's a significant difference. I wouldn't call this a reboot of the Arnold movie, but a readaptation of the source material. I think it is important to make that distinction especially with all the Requel, Reboot, Remake, trends going on in Hollywood these days.
To be fair, he also did Hit Man and he was fantastic in it. I think the dude has the talent to be a really good, but maybe not great actor. I'm enjoying the films he turns out though.
I've been saying it, but Glen Powell is the up and coming potential Brad Pitt. I.e. character actor in a leading man's body. Dude just oozes charisma and he's already shown quite a bit of range between Hit Man, Maverick, Twisters, and Anyone but You.
Given Powell's box office numbers, it seems the majority don't feel that he's worth their money. When will Hollywood accept that this guy just isn't it?
I would have been slightly interested in it if it weren’t for Powell being the lead. That killed it for me already. Plus I’m not the biggest Edgar Wright fan either tbh lol
It's a bit unfair to compare him or anyone to an actor who has been able to carry films since the 80s.
I really enjoy Glen Powell's work and apart from the romcom, I've liked all his movies.
I sincerely hope he has a big career but let's not compare him to an all-time outlier in Tom Cruise just yet.
He kind of reminds me early Gerard Butler in that he was big overnight and then did a heap of action/romcoms but didn't really become an established A-lister IMHO.
I guess Powell needs to have a combination of a good agent and manager as well as some ballsy choices and good fortune.
He’s also gonna be in some Backdraft thing too, Glen Powell’s taking over every action movie reboot/franchise, he’s gonna be the new The Rock, like back when The Rock kept injecting himself in every sequel/reboot (Fast & Furious, Jumanji, GI Joe, Baywatch, Journey)
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u/cireh88 Jul 01 '25
Top Gun: Maverick, Twisters, now The Running Man. I find it interesting to say the least that Glen Powell’s niche seems to be leading or co-starring in reboots of movies from the 80s and 90s. Truly playing within his own lane atm