Where are the heroes?

The mighty Stephen Hunter, my favorite film critic, has a great article today about the lack of heroes in Hollywood movies. I've noticed this phenomena while lecturing at the U about films. When I talk about action films being marketed worldwide, I used to be able to talk about the appeal of Bruce Willis or Arnold Schwarzenegger to foreign markets. Now there's no American action star that carries that the "king of action" mantle; I've reverted to talking about producer Jerry Bruckheimer. The 18 year-olds all know exactly who I am talking about. He's a modern-day David O. Selznick.

Nice article. It seems like he's more lamenting the death of the anti-hero action hero than he is of the action hero, but both seem to be lacking these days. I had hopes for Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, but his career seems to have stalled. Maybe Jason Stratham will break through.

I do not understand how Mark Wahlberg keeps getting action hero roles. In the words of MST3K, this is not our hero. This cannot be our hero. I refuse to accept this as our hero.