Who is the Better Action Hero?

The Guy Who Never Runs Out of Breath vs The Breathtaking Guy

  • Total voters
    92
D

DragoonWalker

Member
Due to the travesty that is this thread, thanks to the Demigod of Troll Threads, I've decided to make my own thread for the real question worth asking:

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Action Accolades:
-Top Gun/Maverick
-Mission Impossible 1-6
-Collateral
-Edge of Tomorrow
Others: Minority Report, Jack Reacher, Last Samurai
Worst: The Mummy
Upcoming: Mission Impossible 7 & 8

OR

75

Action Accolades:
-The Matrix trilogy (yes it's a trilogy damnit)
-John Wick 1-3
-Point Break
-Speed
-Others: Johnny Mnemonic, Constantine, 47 Ronin
Worst: Matrix Resurrections
Upcoming: John Wick 4 & 5

Both still active, both known for putting a lot of physical effort into their own stunts, both from the same gen (aka the last true gen) of action heroes pushing 60. Who's your pick?
 
Cruise can run. But reeves was amazing in the Wick films, but then Tom does all his stunts.
mission impossible news GIF


Dammit. Xenu help me

tom cruise laughing GIF


Cruise edges it out for me.
 
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Cruise does his own stunts. He even learned to fly a helicopter for a movie. Tom cruise dunks on Keanu Reeves for the second time today.
 
Matrix is the best movie. The John Wick series would have been amazing if they used squibs instead of digital blood.
 
Keanu is a wholesome guy. He has been is movies that have aged like a wine but Tom cruise is a guy hanging on a plane for our entertainment, you can put anyone against him and they will lose period. The guy just gives 100%, even his haters respect him for that.
 
Keanu's movies are better (I think John Wick might be the best action movie ever made) - but yeah, Tom Cruise doing everything himself definitely gives him the edge.
 
Tom Cruise easily.

Keanu is so boring and in every movie I've seen him in he doesn't play the character. He just turns up and plays himself. That's one thing I hated about Cyberpunk. I can't see the character with Keanu. At least with Tom Cruise I can and I'm not exactly a huge fan of him.

Keanu has won the heart of the internet and his amazing gun skills blow everyones mind so I guess most people will side with him.

edit: i would like to add that Keanu's earlier stuff is far better than the shit he does today. he seems like a cool guy but i think he doesn't put much effort into his roles these days.
 
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nightmare-slain said:
Keanu is so boring and in every movie I've seen him in he doesn't play the character. He just turns up and plays himself. That's one thing I hated about Cyberpunk. I can't see the character with Keanu. At least with Tom Cruise I can and I'm not exactly a huge fan of him.

edit: i would like to add that Keanu's earlier stuff is far better than the shit he does today. he seems like a cool guy but i think he doesn't put much effort into his roles these days.
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I'm completely in on this notion. What happened to the Keanu Reeves from My Own Private Idaho, Point Break and A Walk in the Clouds? Check out his perfomance from Knock Knock, especially the scene near the end where he's pleading for his life whilst half-buried. It's the thing of internet meme culture.
 
They're just different. Cruise is better at anger and intensity. Reeves is better at empathy, or coming off like an everyman character.

Would I want Cruise in The Matrix? No. I actually don't think you could have anyone else in the Matrix besides Keanu.

Would I want Keanu in Collateral? No.

Cruise is the better actor. But in terms of action stuff, they're both fairly comparable and appropriate for different types of roles.
 
AJUMP23 said:
Nope he did Risky Business, and then it is all action movies.
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Jerry McGuire, Far and Away, Interview with the Vampire, American Made, Eyes Wide Shut, Rain Man, Tropic Thunder, Born on the 4th of July, A Few Good Men, Legend, The Color of Money, Magnolia, and more!
 
Punished Miku said:
Jerry McGuire, Far and Away, Interview with the Vampire, American Made, Eyes Wide Shut, Rain Man, Tropic Thunder, Born on the 4th of July, A Few Good Men, Legend, The Color of Money, Magnolia, and more!
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All of those are action movies and carried by the co-star or a child.
 
AlteredForms said:
I'm completely in on this notion. What happened to the Keanu Reeves from My Own Private Idaho, Point Break and A Walk in the Clouds? Check out his perfomance from Knock Knock, especially the scene near the end where he's pleading for his life whilst half-buried. It's the thing of internet meme culture.
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Daniel Day-Lewis...Shakespeare.
 
Damn, I thought Keanu really had a fight chance in this one. Sorry Keanu, I tried.
For what it's worth, I think Keanu has had the more iconic/milestone action movies in the genre, despite being less physically (and maybe mentally) intense.

GymWolf said:
But really van damme.
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Van Damme like the bridge between the American action heroes and the Hong Kong ones. Special guy for sure.

nightmare-slain said:
Keanu is so boring and in every movie I've seen him in he doesn't play the character. He just turns up and plays himself.
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Cruise also just plays himself. He's just happens to be one charismatic and hardass mofo.

winjer said:
Someone really likes Tom Cruise and Keanu Reeves.
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They're the only old school action stars we have left!
 
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Same as the last thread this goes to Cruise. Love Keanu and his movies much more but Cruise does his stunts man.
Keanu does do weapons nice though.
 
Tom Cruise, by a country mile. The amount of good action movies under his belt is insane. The last true Hollywood action hero.
 
I love the Cruise Missile. So much charisma.

GymWolf said:
Cruise obviously.


But really van damme.
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We are not so different after all..

Growing up Rocky and martial arts movies in general with Van Damme in specific were my favorite. I still consider Kickboxer one of my favorite movies.. It's a different kind of action than the OP was going for I think but technically it's still action I reckon..

 
The Cockatrice said:
As much as I like Keanu and his charm, Tom Cruise is and will forever be the action man along Arnie.
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I don't think cruise can be put close to stallone or arnie or vandamme when it comes to sheer screen presence and physicality.

He is a different type of action dude.

A mediocre actor like thad does a 10x times better reacher just by not being a skinny dwarf.
 
Keanu is a truly genuine person, I really like the dude and his roles as Neo and John Wick are eternal, but if I had to choose one based solely on his acting / performance skills, I'd have to go with Tom Cruise.
 
Patrick S. said:
I think Stallone is better than Arnold.
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Damn straight. Watched First Blood again recently, that film still holds up brilliantly.

Prefer Keanu's action films. Tom Cruise always seems to be over compensating for something...I dunno..get fed up of seeing his "look how fast I can run" scenes which always seem to me like some sort of contractual obligation he insisted on having in most of his film roles.
 
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Man that's tough. Keanu is part of multiple movies that changed the game. Matrix changed the game, Wick changed the game (hmm maybe collateral influenced it a bit)

to a lesser degree Point Break with bank robbing scenes.
 
The Cockatrice said:
Action=/=physicality. Also I doubt Arnie or Van Damme or Stalone would ever pull the stunts Cruise did in his life time so when it comes to real action, Cruise has them beat. Screen presence? no idea what you're talking about.
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Really? You don't see the difference in screen presence between arnold, thad and cruise?

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Jack-Reacher.jpg



And it is not a matter of having clothes on.

Also yeah he does dangerous stunts but he is never gonna have an action scene like commando when arnie fuck up an entire base while looking unstoppable or martial arts scene where he does spinning kick or impressive martial arts moves like vandamme (because he is not a martial arts practitioner like van damme)


Cruise never looked like an unstoppable force of nature, even stallone that is a dwarf look like he can kill a tiger with bare hands in rambo or demolition man.

I didn't watched any of his last movies but if he wasn't menacing when he was young and in top form i don't think he could impress me now.

Cruise would look ridicolous doing a scene like this because he just doesn't have the right size

 
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GymWolf said:
Really? You don't see the difference in screen presence between arnold, thad and cruise?

coverlg.jpg

clark_bar.png

Jack-Reacher.jpg



And it is not a matter of having clothes on.

Also yeah he does dangerous stunts but he is never gonna have an action scene like commando when arnie fuck up an entire base while looking unstoppable or martial arts scene where he does spinning kick or impressive martial arts moves like vandamme (because he is not a martial arts practitioner like van damme)


Cruise never looked like an unstoppable force of nature, even stallone that is a dwarf look like he can kill a tiger with bare hands in rambo or demolition man.

I didn't watched any of his last movies but if he wasn't menacing when he was young and in top form i don't think he could impress me now.
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No I dont see the difference unless you have a boner for big muscle men. Screen presence has nothing to do with muscles. Big muscle men with big guns shooting hundreds of enemies does not make for a better screen presence either vs the type of action movies Cruise does. Its like saying Sharknado is a better action movie cuz it has all these crazy stuff going on. Ridiculous. James Bond movies are better action movies than Arnold movies and I loved all of Arnies movies. I prefer the elegant kind of action, methodical, well crafted. Expendables was fun but it was stupid fun. MI is brilliant fun.
 
The Cockatrice said:
No I dont see the difference unless you have a boner for big muscle men. Screen presence has nothing to do with muscles. Big muscle men with big guns shooting hundreds of enemies does not make for a better screen presence either vs the type of action movies Cruise does. Its like saying Sharknado is a better action movie cuz it has all these crazy stuff going on. Ridiculous. James Bond movies are better action movies than Arnold movies and I loved all of Arnies movies. I prefer the elegant kind of action, methodical, well crafted. Expendables was fun but it was stupid fun. MI is brilliant fun.
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I'm not saying that his type of action is worse dude, that is a matter of taste.

The sharknado example was pretty stupid, you have fucking steve from beverly hills being the protagonist in these movies, they are not one man army movies, they are just trash.

You answered your own question, they are different type of actions, like james bond are different type of action.

And cruise would look ridicolous in a commando movie or a martial arts movie like arnold would look out of place in an elegant 007 movie.

The clear difference is there even if you can't see it, unless you think that the prison scene i posted would have the exact same effect with cruise instead of a 6.5 bulky guy.

You can literally go in any reacher topic and see how people think the same as me, cruise looked ridicolous as reacher.
 
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