Liam Neeson and Jason Statham release generic action films regularly, but which of these titans of formulaic carnage reigns supreme?
A week goes by, and there isn’t a new Jason Statham film. Yes, I know, it’s a disaster and will have you reaching for your Transporter DVD quicker than prime Usain Bolt doing a 100-meter dash. Then you stop a moment and notice something. There’s a new Liam Neeson release, and suddenly all is right in the world again. Or you might be watching something else entirely, where the gravelly vocals don’t have you cranking up the volume or flicking on the subtitles.
Which came first, the chicken or the egg? It’s an age-old question, but so too is the question about whether Jason Statham or Liam Neeson as action titans came first. Now, of course, over an entire career, Neeson has been around far longer. His career is close to touching the 50-year mark, whilst Statham began a couple of decades after Neeson. The giant Irishman became a regular fixture deeper within the cast lists of films like Excalibur and Krull, but later crept up to co-lead and leading man roles. Before becoming an action star, his range was pretty diverse but given his height and imposing presence, he often played tough guys and was no stranger to the action genre.
Schindler’s List pushed him to the forefront. He won an Oscar, started leading big productions, and again established himself more as a character actor than anything else. Through the 90s and into the new century, Neeson was a regular fixture on screen before becoming a part of Star Wars iconography as Qui-Gon Jinn in The Phantom Menace. Though the film did enormous box office numbers (unsurprisingly), its initial reception from mature Star Wars fans was mixed at best, but if there were definitely maligned elements, Neeson was not one of them. Unfortunately, he was killed off, but such was the clamour for more that his character reappeared in other media before returning in the Obi-Wan series in the more recent Disney era of Star Wars.
The thing about getting older as an actor, even one as flexible as Neeson to genre-jump, sometimes you need a kickstart to get things going again. That can be a reinvention. Does the rom-com star get gritty, or does the comedian get serious? For Neeson, it was a case of taking on a film that, on paper, read like the latest Steven Seagal film. An ex-badass government spook reawakens his skills to rescue his kidnapped daughter. Whilst Taken didn’t outwardly seem like something that would capture the zeitgeist and veer Neeson’s career into a late-stage action man, it defied expectations and became iconic. In fact, it inspired a slew of similar middle-aged ‘actors’ to do similar ruthlessly formulaic action films to try the same, but like Sean Penn’s Gunman, most fell short.
From Taken, we got a trilogy of rapidly declining quality. The first film, whilst formulaic, was delivered with punch and (at least once Neeson jets over to Paris after a clunky beginning) rockets along at breakneck pace. The iconic phone call was spoofed repeatedly, and even Neeson has sort of repeated the shtick in several other films in his Neeson-verse. Neeson also veered into enjoyably convoluted pot boilers with Jaume Collet-Serra like The Unknown, Non-Stop and The Commuter. Taken also worked because, unlike the aforementioned Seagal, he gave the role a distinctive gravitas and humility that might be lacking had a straight-up action star played the part.
Neeson hasn’t strayed completely away from character roles or more challenging acting parts. Even in the Neeson-verse years, he’s delivered some of his best work in The Silence and showed his comedic chops in The Naked Gun. However, the never-ending string of straight-up action films has titles that sound almost comically formulaic, like they came torn from an action film title-toilet paper. Absolution, Retribution, Ice Road, The Honest Thief, The Marksman, and more. Many of these also have oddly interchangeable artwork. Neeson’s upcoming film, The Mongoose, feels like we’ve seen it before with Neeson. Still, the films keep on coming out, and someone (besides me and FM Films’ occasional co-producer Nathan Shepka) must be watching them. They also now regularly pop up in prime positions on streamers (most notably Prime). Even if the theatrical releases are a glorified marketing exercise, the popularity on streaming remains, and they’re effectively what the straight-to-video films of the 90s and 00s were.
Then there’s Jason Statham. Not that he didn’t look tough, but his breakout roles in Guy Ritchie’s debut (Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels) and sophomore (Snatch) efforts didn’t push him as the hard bastard of each piece. That went to Vinnie Jones, though both actors had a similar initial shift from Ritchie gangster capers to Hollywood, playing smaller roles. For Statham, it was bit parts in the likes of Ghosts of Mars and The One. Whilst The One was a Jet Li-centric action film (during his Hollywood push) Statham evidently made an impression on Corey Yuen. Shortly after, despite being far from memorable in previous non-Ritchie films, Statham was cast as the leading man in The Transporter, a riff on Walter Hill’s Driver (which was a riff on Jean-Pierre Melville’s Le Samourai). Like Taken, the success of the first film was enough to spawn a trilogy (and subsequent TV spinoff and, for Transporter, a reboot).
Statham’s thing was growling his dialogue and keeping facial expressions to a minimum. He’s not wooden; he’s efficient, and it works. Statham has almost become a sub-genre himself. Pretty quickly, like Neeson’s twilight shift, Statham pumped out action films with almost gleefully mundane titles like Blitz, Safe, Shelter, Working Man, Wildcard, Redemption, and more. All the while partially rebooting or adapting semi-recognisable IP like The Killer Elite, Parker and The Mechanic.
Like Neeson, Statham has also dipped his toe into comedy successfully with Spy, where he sent up his image brilliantly. Then there were the Meg films, which put Statham up against megalodons rather than criminals. Again, those films were a little self-aware and played up to Statham’s indestructible image. One area where Statham has perhaps one-upped the action man version of Neeson is in his ensemble appearances. He’s led plenty of his own moderate-budget actioners but stepped into bigger-budget arenas to share the screen with fellow action icons in the Expendables franchise and the Fast franchise. Such was Statham’s impact in both that he shared a Fast spinoff with The Rock in Hobbs and Shaw. At one stage, a solo effort for Lee Christmas was planned in the Expendables universe but never happened, though it felt like the last remnants of that were just repurposed into the lacklustre and messy-as-hell fourth film.
Still, if there’s one thing that is truly remarkable about the Statham sub-genre and the Neeson-verse, it is this: The two forces have never collided. Somewhere there’s a script with a ruthlessly, unashamedly formulaic title just aching for the collabs to end all collabs. It’s probably called The Bus Driver, or it’s a verb title like Punch. Statham’s next film, Mutiny, looks as good/bad as you expect. If you relish any and all Statham, like you relish your bi-monthly pizza, then it looks agreeably serviceable.
So who is the King of disposable, generic action? Statham seems accepting and happy with his lot in life as a deliverer of kicks to the face. As for Neeson, he has 15 years on Statham, so it’s not too surprising that he often thinks about putting the action films to bed. In fact, it feels like every couple of years Neeson claims his next action film is probably gonna be his last. Then he makes Grenade 2, or whatever (and I watch). Looking at the respective high points for both, there’s not much between Taken and The Beekeeper (which deftly blended vintage Statham with self-aware Statham). Although Statham’s last film Shelter, was a chore to look at and sit through, the Stath’s lower action points probably don’t come close to Ice Road: Vengeance (because Ice Roads are notoriously vengeful) or Blacklight.
Though Neeson’s physique and frame and genuine tough-guy background made his prominence in the genre acceptable, Statham’s physicality and on-screen brawling prowess have never needed the help of sly camera work or editing. Granted, Neeson’s prolific action years came post-50, so it’s understandable, but even as he pushes 60, Statham still moves like lightning. Maybe he can’t quite add the depth or pathos Neeson is more able to (when he’s afforded the chance), but there’s also still potentially an action role out there that might push Statham as an actor as well as a fighter. As he’s proven in some of his forays outside of pure action, he has more strings to his bow (The Bank Job, Spy). Additionally, as he’s shown every time he pops up in a Fast movie, he’s a film stealer among several of his genre contemporaries. That’s why Statham is the King of generic action.
What do you think? What’s your favourite Neeson or Statham film? Let us know on our social channels @FlickeringMyth…
Tom Jolliffe
