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Arnold Schwarzenegger V/S Sylvester Stallone Net Worth 2025 ( Photo Credit – Wikimedia )

When it comes to Hollywood legends, few names shine brighter than Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sylvester Stallone. These two icons have not only dominated the box office for decades but also built empires far beyond the silver screen. But in 2025, who reigns supreme in terms of wealth? Let’s break down their net worth and find out which action hero has a bigger net worth to flex.

What Is Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Net Worth in 2025?

Arnold Schwarzenegger’s journey to wealth is just as impressive as his muscles once were. As per Forbes, Arnold Schwarzenegger holds an estimated net worth of $1.1 billion in 2025. The superstar stands as one of the highest-paid actors of all time, earning around $500 million through his films. His blockbuster hits such as the Terminator franchise, Commando, Predator, Batman and Robin, and many more made him a household name.

Yes, this is real. Rocky Balboa, the underdog Philadelphia boxer created by Sylvester Stallone for the seminal 1976 sports movie "Rocky," was once included as a member of G.I. Joe. It seems that Rocky's powerful punches -- and ability to take them -- made him ideally suited to fight the high-tech international terrorist organization Cobra. As such, he became a team member with outlandish ultra-soldiers like Blowtorch, Gung-Ho, Snake Eyes, and, uh, Footloose.

The version of G.I. Joe in question was part of the property's popular rebranding from 1982. The then-new brand was subtitled "A Real American Hero" and is deeply familiar to individuals who are now pushing 50. It was a massive cross-media enterprise launched by Hasbro as a means of taking over a large portion of the toy market. "A Real American Hero" also involved a newly-relaunched toyline, which boasted a new menagerie of cartoonish characters figures that only...

The simple version of Sylvester Stallone's rise to fame has it that the young actor wrote "Rocky" and cast himself in the lead role, thus becoming a star overnight. Indeed, a 1978 Playboy interview began by recalling how, with that 1976 movie, Stallone had "burst upon the American movie scene like a Roman candle." As is so often the case with these things, however, Stallone hadn't simply transformed his life overnight -- he'd been struggling to break through for some time.

That very same interview with Playboy also detailed how Sly had "spent many years waiting in the wings for his career to take off," which wasn't just a metaphor. Stallone's acting career prior to "Rocky" consisted of him playing what he termed in a 1977 BBC interview to be "atmosphere." That is, after moving to New York in 1969, he spent years as an extra, playing "the guy that was being the...

Sylvester Stallone has come a long way since his Rocky and Rambo days, establishing a fairly bright career and reputation for himself in Hollywood as one of the greatest action stars of all time. However, despite being regarded among the GOATs, since, like, forever, he has had quite a few rivalries with his peers that he initially couldn’t get past – like with Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Of course, his bad blood with Schwarzenegger, out of all the feuds he has had over the years, is widely known, since both of them often butted heads while trying to be better than the other. But besides him, there was another actor that Stallone absolutely despised, with the sole reason behind the same being pure jealousy: Dolph Lundgren, since he simply felt too perfect to be true!

Besides Arnold Schwarzenegger, Sylvester Stallone despised Dolph Lundgren Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sylvester Stallone. | Credits: Lionsgate Films.

Arnold...

The very thought of Ryan Gosling appearing in a Barbie sequel as Ken is exciting for many fans of the actor. In December, multiple reports suggested that Barbie 2 is in the early stages of development. As much as we all like to see him back as Ken, there is another franchise that the actor needs to take over now after he got the approval from the Og star.

Gosling had previously revealed that his favorite film as a child was Sylvester Stallone’s Rambo. Interestingly, Gosling’s passion for the role got Stallone’s attention, who picked him to play the potential next generation iteration of the Rambo movies. We are positive that the Drive actor would be exceptional in such an action thriller.

Ryan Gosling should do Rambo revival now that he has Sylvester Stallone’s approval Ryan Gosling as Ken in Barbie | Credits: Warner Bros. Pictures

Sylvester Stallone...

A Working Man is yet another outing for a particular flavour of retributive escapism. Like Death Wish, Die Hard, and (Rambo) First Blood it's based on a novel, but what's astonishing is that despite tonal similarities to works from the 1970s the source novel is from 2014.

This review was delayed in part because I wanted to track down a copy. The film having been produced (and co-written) by Sylvester Stallone, I wondered how much of Chuck Dixon's novel Levon's Trade had made the transition to screen. I wondered how much of its regressive tendencies had been added. Among the film's bad habits there's the obligatory dead wife, the fetishisation of special forces, as with Taken the complications inherent in the layered politics of human trafficking, some queer-coded villainy and almost inevitably lockstep adherence to the monomyth of the hero's journey.

What astonished me more than the initial...

When Nintendo finally revealed the Switch 2, none of us expected FromSoftware to be a part of the release live stream. Once again, Hidetaka Miyazaki is doing something unique with the upcoming 2026 Switch 2 exclusive, The Duskbloods.

The game is to be an exploration of the PvPvE sub-genre of games, a rare departure from the signature style of the studio. Best known for Elden Ring and Dark Souls, Miyazaki recently explained the motivations and reasoning behind the idea of this shift.

Hidetaka Miyazaki is really being creative with the multiplayer aspect of The Duskbloods

Miyazaki describes the game as a PvPvE title (Player versus Player versus Environment). He explained why he found this approach liberating in a recent interview with Nintendo.

Yes, I’ve always found the PvPvE structure very interesting. It allows for a broad range of game-design ideas, while also letting us leverage our experience of designing challenging enemy encounters.

Exclusive: I caught up with Carolco co-founder Mario Kassar, who had two recently deceased artists on his mind, and how they helped shape his highest-flying foreign sales company of the ‘80s. That would be director Ted Kotcheff, who essentially launched Carolco with First Blood, and Val Kilmer on The Doors, playing the iconic singer Jim Morrison even though Tom Cruise was desperate to play The Lizard King.

Kotcheff was integral in First Blood, even as the pic almost imploded when Sylvester Stallone decided his Rambo character wasn’t going to die, like in the book and the script. The film’s financing was structured heavily around Kirk Douglas, who on the morning of shooting, was set as Rambo’s handler Col Trautman. Determined that his character had to put his tortured Vietnam vet protégé out of his misery, Douglas was aghast at the Frankenstein monster he created, and the actor...

Sylvester Stallone is one of the biggest movie stars in Hollywood history, but the man has also been featured in an impressive number of video games. That is to say, his characters have been featured in an impressive amount of video games. Stallone famously launched his own career with 1976's "Rocky," catapulting himself into the limelight with the story of his underdog pugilist from the northern slums of Philadelphia. Within a decade, Rocky Balboa made his video game debut with 1983's "Super Action Boxing," which was itself based on 1982's "Rocky III" and designed for the ColecoVision console. After that, the Stallone video game adaptations kept coming.

One of the most interesting examples was the 1986 platform game "Cobra," which was based on the film of the same name starring Sly as an LAPD lieutenant charged with protecting the witness of a horrific crime. The movie was panned upon its release,...

No performer likes to receive a thumbs-down for their work, but imagine how it feels when this is a reality for a lengthy period of time. For some actors, they embarked on terrible Rotten Tomatoes streaks that weren't kind to their careers. Now, bear in mind that Rotten Tomatoes isn't the be-all and end-all of a film's quality, but it's a tool used by many to see what's the overall consensus from the critics. In addition to this, while the aggregator didn't exist before the '90s, it still collects the big reviews from bygone eras to showcase what the critical thoughts were of major productions.

So, for this feature, it's time to head back in time to look at the major actors who received rotten ratings for a notable stretch of their careers. To make life easier here, though, films that haven't officially received the "rotten" or "fresh" label...

Get in touch to send in cinephile news and discoveries. To keep up with our latest features, sign up for the Weekly Edit newsletter and follow us @mubinotebook on Twitter and Instagram.News HooperThe Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has announced the creation of a competitive award for achievement in stunt design beginning with the 100th Academy Awards in 2028. “Stunts are essential to every genre of film and rooted deep in our industry’s history,” says filmmaker and stunt performer David Leitch, who led the initiative. The Academy also announced that members are now required to watch all nominated films in each category to participate in the final round of Oscar voting, though it's currently unclear how such a measure will be enforced.Director Ryan Coogler negotiated a rights-reversion agreement with Warner Bros. for Sinners (2025) under which he becomes the owner of his film 25 years after its release.

At its peak, the cinema market in China was worth hundreds of millions to Hollywood studios. We look at its rise and sudden fall.

One year after it earned Oscar nominations and box office glory in America, 1993’s The Fugitive found an audience in a more unexpected territory: China. At the time, it was unheard of for a relatively new Hollywood film to get a release in the country’s cinemas, but The Fugitive had broken through, playing in several major Chinese cities and selling hundreds of thousands of tickets.

The LA Times quoted one local cinema manager as saying that people were going back to see the Harrison Ford thriller multiple times; there were also reports of scalpers trying to sell tickets for twice their face value.

As pointed out in a 2018 feature published by We Minored In Film, however, there was a reason why The Fugitive made its...

While Sylvester Stallone’s stature on the big screen was largely defined by his larger-than-life depictions of Rocky and Rambo, he has done an immaculate job of highlighting one overlooked attribute in his arsenal with Tulsa King. Although the show has its fair share of issues and isn’t exactly one of the most revered pieces of media that Stallone has been part of, his portrayal of Dwight is undoubtedly one of Stallone’s best, in terms of sheer acting.

Tulsa King | Credit: Paramount Plus

Interestingly, stepping out of his comfort zone wasn’t a huge deal for the Rocky star, as according to Stallone, his nuanced take on the mob boss was comparatively easier than his action endeavors, especially Rambo.

Playing Dwight was no big deal for Sylvester Stallone

Given Stallone’s feats in the action landscape, one would assume a mob boss who doesn’t fit the stereotypical...

If you think sequels are bad now, you should have seen them a couple decades ago. Today, franchises are so ubiquitous that the studios take time to get them as right as possible, securing the original stars and trying to write stories that equal their predecessors. At the dawn of the blockbuster era, however, sequels were seen as cheap cash cows to be rushed out as quickly as possible while people still remembered the original. Nowadays, we know that nostalgia can overcome most of that and keep some properties around forever.

If you're wondering why your least favorite "Star Wars, "Star Trek," or "Superman" isn't on this list, it's simple: when you have an actor associated with an iconic character who continues to commit to the role, it elevates even "Superman IV: The Quest for Peace." It's hard to hate a movie that has Christopher Reeve in the tights, or Leonard Nimoy in pointy ears,...

Jason Statham’s new movie is finally losing steam at the box office after falling out of the top five, but one of his older flicks just got an update to help ease the pain. More than 10 years before Statham teamed up with director David Ayer for A Working Man, he starred in Homefront, the 2013 conspiracy thriller following a former DEA agent who moves his family to a quiet town only to get involved with a local drug lord. The free streaming service Tubi has announced that Homefront will hit the platform on April 18. The film also stars Winona Ryder (Stranger Things), Frank Grillo (Creature Commandos), and James Franco (Spider-Man 3). It earned scores of 42% from critics and 61% from audiences on Rotten Tomatoes.

Homefront is based on the novel of the same name by Chuck Logan, and action icon Sylvester Stallone wrote the script for the film. Stallone also penned...

In addition to his extensive feature career, Canadian-Bulgarian filmmaker Ted Kotcheff worked on NBC’s venerable crime drama Law & Order’ Svu for its first 13 seasons as a producing director. He started as a co-executive producer, earning a quick promotion to executive producer at the start of Season 2.

Following Kotcheff’s death at the age of 94, the he was remembered by former Svu star Chris Meloni.

“Ted Kotcheff was producing director on Svu during my time there,” Meloni wrote on Instagram Saturday. “I called him the Blustery Bulgarian. I loved that man. He was a master director- check his bio- and great company. To me his masterpiece was Wake In Fright.”

Probably best known for directing the first Rambo movie, First Blood, Weekend at Bernie’s and Fun with Dick and Jane, Kotcheff also helmed and co-wrote the Australia-set 1971 thriller Wake in Fright, starring Gary Bond and Donald Pleasence, which premiered...

First Blood set a benchmark for the action genre with its gritty sequences and compelling narrative. One combat veteran also confirmed that the jungle warfare depicted in the film was 100% accurate.

First Blood stands as one of cinema's best war dramas, it broke the mold of the blockbuster action flick. Per Insider, Special Ops Expert Bob Keller also explained what made the film unique: it's a very realistic depiction of jungle warfare, especially the brutal and sneaky kills. Keller served in the US Army Special Forces and was a Delta Force Operator, so he knows what he's talking about. "All this stuff would be 100% legit," he asserted. "Like as an Sf guy, being in the woods, like you'll be trained on booby traps, and all these tactics."

Keller aspired to be like Rambo growing up. "What kid didn't? Rambo First Blood is going off of a, like he's an Sf guy from Vietnam,...

First Blood, better known now as Rambo: First Blood, was the movie that proved Sylvester Stallone had a lot to offer Hollywood – as if his first outing as Rocky Balboa wasn’t enough. While both of Stallone’s franchises went on to see some ups and downs, the legacy of his early movies lives on in many ways. According to one Special Ops expert, First Blood is not just a great movie, but it is pretty accurate in terms of its depiction of the broken and troubled John Rambo.

Released in 1982, First Blood was an instant hit, but it was also a much quieter and more grounded movie than later films in the Rambo franchise became. Real life former Special Ops member Bob Kellar recently shared his thoughts on the movie with Insider, revealing that not only was he inspired by the movie as a child, but that Rambo...

Prolific Canadian director also made one of the country’s first internationally successful films, The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz, starring Richard Dreyfuss

Ted Kotcheff, the prolific Canadian director of films including First Blood, Weekend at Bernie’s, Wake in Fright and The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz, has died aged 94. His daughter Kate Kotcheff told the Canadian Press that he had died of heart failure on Thursday in Nuevo Vallarta, Mexico, where he lived. His son Thomas said: “He died of old age, peacefully, and surrounded by loved ones.”

In an amazingly varied career, Kotcheff’s work ranged from hardhitting TV plays and low-budget features in the UK, to hit Hollywood comedies and prestige-laden award-winners and cult films. Kate Kotcheff said: “He was an amazing storyteller. He was an incredible, larger than life character [and] he was a director who could turn his hand to anything.”...

Ted Kotcheff, the notable Canadian director who directed classics such asFirst Bloodand Weekend at Bernie's, has died at age 94 on April 10. Kotcheff's family confirmed his passing to The Globe and Mail newspaper. Described as a talented, multi-faceted journeyman by the Toronto International Film Festival, Kotcheff used his eye for hits to direct and produce works on television and theater in both Canada and Hollywood. He created a bridge in the gap between productions in both, using his projects as a way to show there's more power in collaboration.

First Blood (1982) gave Sylvester Stallone his first post-Rocky hit, which turned into sequels. Kotcheff didn't bother with the sequels because he thought they seemed to be celebrating the Vietnam War. "They offered me the first sequel, and after I read the script, I said, 'In the first film he doesn't kill anybody. In this film, he kills 75 people. It seemed to be celebrating the Vietnam War,...

In the early 1990s, filmmaker Sydney Lumet put an idea in stuntman Jack Gill’s head: stunt people ought to have an Oscars category.

Gill met with the then-Academy leadership as the opening salvo in what would become a decades long odyssey. “They said, ‘Ok great. It will probably take three to five years. Are you ready to put that much effort into it?’” recalls Gill. Heck, yeah, he was. “Now here we are, 34 years later.”

Today, Gill and the stunt community are celebrating Thursday’s news that, finally, stunts will be recognized in 2028 with a stunt design Oscar.

Gill, as well as countless others, pushed the boulder up the hill, but the effort was supercharged in recent years thanks to stuntpeople such as The Fall Guy filmmaker David Leitch gaining more clout in Hollywood as he became an A-list director. Leitch and his Fall Guy stunt designer Chris O’Hara...

Gold Derby's top news stories for April 11, 2025.

Ted Kotcheff, director of First Blood, Weekend at Bernie’s, North Dallas Forty, dies at 94

Canadian filmmaker Ted Kotcheff, best known for directing such well-known movies as First Blood, Weekend at Bernie’s, and North Dallas Forty, has died at the age of 94, according to Toronto's Globe and Mail newspaper. In addition to directing Sylvester Stallone in First Blood, Kotcheff worked with Academy Award winners Richard Dreyfuss (1974's The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz), Jane Fonda (1977's Fun With Dick and Jane), and Gena Hackman (1983's Uncommon Valor), and also spent 13 seasons as an executive producer on Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, starring Mariska Hargitay and Christopher Meloni.

The Pitt is a streaming hit

According to initial numbers from Max, The Pitt, the real-time hospital drama starring ER alum Noah Wyle, wrapped its final season on Thursday with 13 straight weeks of week over week growth...

Ted Kotcheff, director of First Blood and Weekend at Bernie’s, died Thursday, as reported by Canadian publisher the Globe and Mail. He was 94. His death was confirmed by his family, though no cause has been disclosed.

The Canadian filmmaker launched his career in in the late Fifties, directing film and television productions including Fun with Dick and Jane, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, and more over the following decades. His credits also include The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz and North Dallas Forty.

North Dallas Forty, in particular, is regarded as...

Canadian filmmaker Ted Kotcheff, known for his work on movies like Rambo: First Blood and Weekend at Bernie's, has died. He was 94 years old.

Per The Globe and Mail, Kotcheff's death was confirmed by his family, though additional details about his passing were not disclosed.

Kotcheff got his career in show business started with work with the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. This included work on shows like General Motors Theatre, Encounter, and First Performance. He then relocated to the UK where he took up similar work for ABC Weekend TV. He would also delve into directing a sthe helmer of the original 1964 West End production of the musical Maggie May.

Kotcheff's first feature film as director was for the 1962 British movie Tiara Tahiti. He'd follow this up with other films like Life at the Top, Two Gentlemen Sharing, and The Human Voice, as well as TV remakes of The Desperate Hours and Of Mice and Men.

It’s sad news today. Ted Kotcheff, the Canadian filmmaker who directed First Blood, Weekend at Bernie’s, and The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz, has died at the age of 94.

Kotcheff got his start working for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation as the youngest director on staff. However, he was briefly jailed and branded a communist after his first visit to the United States, which led to his leaving to work in London. He memorably helmed Underground, an episode of Armchair Theatre in which one of his principal actors actually died in the middle of the live shoot. He scrambled to re-structure the story during the commercial break while the other actors improvised, unaware that their fellow cast member had just passed away.

When Kotcheff returned to Canada, he helmed The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz, which starred Richard Dreyfuss as a brash young Jewish Montrealer who embarks on a string of get-rich-quick schemes to gain respect.

Ted Kotcheff, the versatile, two-time Palme d’Or nominee who directed more than two dozen movies including First Blood, Weekend at Bernie’s, Fun with Dick and Jane, North Dallas Forty and Wake in Fright and exec produced hundreds of episodes of Law & Order: Svu during a six-decade career, died Thursday. He was 94.

Family members confirmed the news to Canada’s The Globe and Mail.

Born on April 7, 1931, in Toronto, Kotcheff began his career as a producer and director in 1950s and ’60s TV there. He became an important member of the 1960s fraternity of filmmakers in England, distinguishing himself with the films Life at the Top and Two Gentlemen Sharing. He also won a BAFTA TV Award in 1972 for the BBC drama Play for Today.

By the 1970s, he was focused on longform projects, including features and several made-for-tv movies. He helmed and co-wrote the Australia-set 1971 thriller Wake in Fright,...

Canadian filmmaker Ted Kotcheff, best know for directing Sylvester Stallone and introducing Vietnam War veteran John Rambo in the classic “First Blood,” along with directing the Nick Nolte sports film “North Dallas Forty,” has died. Kotcheff was 94.

Kotcheff died on Thursday. His passing was confirmed by his family to Canadian publication The Globe and Mail.

Kotcheff also directed hit comedies like 1989’s “Weekend at Bernie’s.”

Born in 1931, after beginning his career in Canadian television in the 1950s, Kotcheff broke out and gained international recognition with 1974’s “The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz,” starring Richard Dreyfuss. His 1971 Australian thriller “Wake in Fright” earned critical acclaim and was later rediscovered and celebrated at Cannes in 2009.

Kotcheff’s most commercially successful film was 1982’s “First Blood,” which introduced the world to John Rambo and launched a classic franchise. Despite the film’s success, Kotcheff passed on directing any sequels, citing his opposition to the Vietnam War.

Ted Kotcheff, the unheralded Canadian moviemaker who moved gracefully among genres to direct such notable films as The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz, First Blood and Weekend at Bernie’s, has died. He was 94.

Kotcheff, who went on to spend 13 seasons as an executive producer on the gritty Dick Wolf series Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, died Thursday, The Globe and Mail newspaper reported.

The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz (1974), starring Richard Dreyfuss as a young hustler, is widely considered to be among the finest Canadian films ever made, and Kotcheff also directed a feature very high of the list of the best movies to come out of Australia — the harrowing thriller Wake in Fright (1971).

The Toronto native, who started his admired 60-year career directing for live television, also helmed the social satire Fun With Dick and Jane (1977), starring George Segal and Jane Fonda; the Nick Nolte-Mac Davis dark pro football drama...

Ted Kotcheff, the Canadian filmmaker who introduced moviegoers to Sylvester Stallone’s traumatized Vietnam War veteran John Rambo with “First Blood” and helmed comedies like “Weekend at Bernie’s,” “Fun With Dick and Jane” and “The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz,” died Thursday. He was 94.

His death was confirmed by his family to Canadian publication The Globe and Mail.

After beginning his career in Canadian television and working in the U.K. industry, Kotcheff broke through, first with the Australian thriller “Wake in Fright,” then with his 1974 feature “The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz,” a Canada-produced adaptation of Mordechai Richler’s 1959 coming-of-age novel starring then-rising star Richard Dreyfuss. The film took home the Golden Bear at the Berlin Film Festival and earned an Academy Award nomination for best adapted screenplay (for Richler and Lionel Chetwynd), launching Kotcheff’s career in the American film industry. In later years, Kotcheff worked in the Dick Wolf...

“They want crap,” Carolco executive Peter Hoffman once told the Los Angeles Times, “Every time people tell you they don’t, it’s bull. They want crap.” Hoffman was reflecting on the lackluster audience response to the Oscar-nominated Music Box (1989), while sci-fi action blockbusters such as Total Recall (1990) were filling coffers like mad.

Long before independent production houses like Skydance, A24, and Blumhouse were making waves alongside the major studios, Carolco made its name in Hollywood as a backer of lavish action films that included the Rambo series, Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991) and Cliffhanger (1993). Carolco’s rise and fall was as epic as one of their blockbuster action films.

It was known as “The Carolco Premium.” While rival indies TriStar and Orion had their share of respectable projects, Carolco led a rise of independent studios by creating and maintaining a blockbuster brand for making the most extravagant actions films of the era.

On the big screen, the late American actor Brian Dennehy was known primarily for his supporting roles in crime thrillers, Westerns, and action flicks, frequently playing intimidating and often corrupt law enforcement officers and politicians in films like First Blood (1982) and Silverado (1985), while also sometimes playing kind-hearted father figures in more family-friendly films like Tommy Boy (1995) and Ratatouille (2007). But, in a 2007 interview with CBS, Dennehy revealed that he personally considered his best performance to be a leading role in a relatively unknown art film from 1987: The Belly of an Architect, directed by British filmmaker Peter Greenaway. A perhaps apocryphal quote has Dennehy saying, "I've been in a lot of movies, but this is the first film I've made."

The film, which was recently given its first Blu-ray release in the U.S., shows a more vulnerable side of Dennehy that has more in common with his on-stage portrayal of...

David Ayer is a filmmaker whose sincerity has never been in doubt, as he is one of the few writer/directors of genre stories that has refused to give into snarkiness or overt satire. The grim, tough-minded sensibilities that worked so perfectly for “End of Watch” may have failed him with “Bright,” but it is nonetheless admirable that Ayer doesn’t believe he should speak down to his audience. Ayer’s films don’t lack self-awareness, but they don’t apologize for their blunt emotionality and occasionally simplistic messaging. Despite flirtations with both the prestige and the populist, Ayer has found a niche for himself with movies like A Working Man (2025) which offer enough B-movie thrills and non-nonsense pathos to be completely entertaining.

Although the premise of “A Working Man” is almost identical to that of “The Beekeeper,” the last collaboration between Ayer and Jason Statham, the film was actually...

John Rambo, as portrayed by actor Sylvester Stallone, is a controversial character. When he first appeared in 1982's "First Blood," an adaptation of David Morrell's 1972 novel of the same name, the character was fairly close to how he appeared in the book: a Vietnam War veteran suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder who is mistreated by his fellow countrymen. That all changed with 1985's "Rambo: First Blood Part II," a movie wherein Rambo, through the act of being deployed back into Vietnam to rescue prisoners of war, symbolically gets to "win" the war that America lost. From there, the rest of the franchise saw Rambo being called upon for assistance by other underdogs involved in impossible or hard-odds conflicts around the world, turning him into a sort of morally-motivated mercenary. While the character eventually stopped resembling the resentful, broken soldier of Morrell's book as he became stronger and more traditionally heroic,...

Upon first glance, A Working Man appears to be cut from the same cloth that bore 2008’s Taken. But, whereas Pierre Morel’s film was more of a cathartic release for a parent wronged by kidnappers, A Working Man finds its heart in the soul of a man who is simply trying to protect the family that was there for him when no one else was.

The film begins with a brief introduction to the character of Levon Cade (Jason Statham) as he is seen working on a construction site as a foreman of sorts. His previous career within military black ops is hinted at during the opening credit montage and then suggested at further when a co-worker of his is accosted by gang members attempting to collect a debt and Cade thwarts their attempt. However, when the daughter of Cade’s boss (Michael Peña) is kidnapped to be sold into slavery,...

If you've paid any kind of attention to Sylvester Stallone's film career for any amount of time, you know he's made some absolutely terrible movies. To be fair, some were out of necessity. Prior to becoming a big screen superstar in 1976 with "Rocky," a briefly homeless Stallone starred in a quickie pornographic romance called "The Party at Kitty and Stud's" (which was rereleased post-stardom as "The Italian Stallion"). Around the same time, he also appeared in the low-budget terrorism thriller "No Place to Hide," which was recut as a comedy and dumped into video stores in 1990 with the title "A Man Called... Rainbo."

For the most part, however, Stallone has been the author of his own cinematic misery. After the wild critical and commercial success of "Rocky", the star went on a decade-plus tear during which he could get anything greenlit. At first, he put his newfound box office...

There's a moment in season 3 of "Reacher" where the titular ex-military policeman seems genuinely vulnerable in a way that he hasn't thus far in Prime Video's massively popular streaming series. The latest season of the show is based on the best Jack Reacher book, "Persuader," and sees Alan Ritchson's hero going undercover at the mansion of businessman Zachary Beck, whose business isn't exactly on the level. There, he encounters what might be his biggest challenge yet — "biggest" being the operative word.

Paulie, played by 7-foot 2-inch Dutch bodybuilder Olivier Richters, is the bodyguard who mans the front gate at Beck's mansion, and he's about as physically intimidating as they come. The hulking henchman somehow makes the already-massive Ritchson look small, and throughout season 3 of "Reacher," we're teased with an impending showdown between the two bruisers. But at one point prior to this ultimate clash, Paulie slaps Reacher and sends...

Sylvester Stallone's "Judge Dredd" is not remembered as one of the best sci-fi movies ever, to say the least. Lambasted by critics and disliked by audiences, the 1995 film earned a disappointing $113.5 million at the global box office against a $90 million budget and remains conspicuously absent from lists of Stallone's finest films.

To his credit, Stallone hasn't attempted to bury his futuristic flop. Instead, he's been known to discuss the film when the opportunity calls for it. In 2006, the star addressed some of the issues "Judge Dredd" had while answering fan questions for Ain't It Cool News:

"I think, from what I recall, the whole project was troubled from the beginning. The philosophy of the film was not set in stone – by that I mean 'Is this going to be a serious drama or with comic overtones' like other science fiction films that were successful? So a lotta pieces just didn't fit smoothly.

John Lithgow is no stranger to playing villains. The actor has played a number of standout roles over the course of his fifty-plus-year career, particularly excelling and gaining notoriety for his memorable supporting characters. In addition to providing the voice of the villainous Lord Farquad in Shrek (2001), Lithgow played villain characters in Ricochet (1991), Bombshell (2019), Blow Out (1981), Raising Cane (1992), and the Dexter TV show. He also appeared as a larger-than-life villain in a 1993 movie starring Sylvester Stallone.

Stallone has been a fixture of the action genre for decades, getting his start with Rocky in 1976 and continuing to play the iconic boxer in a handful of sequels. He's also known for playing tortured veteran Rambo, of course, a role that dates back to 1982's First Blood. Since then, Stallone has appeared in action movies like Cobra (1986), Demolition Man (1993), Judge Dredd (1995), The Expendables (2014), Bullet to the Head (2012) and Escape Plan (2013). His 1993 collaboration with Lithgow,...

Over the course of his acting career, Sylvester Stallonehas not only become a household name himself, but so have his iconic characters. From his breakout role as the titular boxer in the sports drama Rocky back in 1976 to his more recent hits in the mercenary actioner series The Expendables, audiences flock to theaters to watch the onscreen heroes' death-defying exploits again and again. But there was one famous role that not only spurred a five-movie franchise, but also cemented Stallone as an action star for nearly 50 years: John Rambo in Ted Kotcheff's 1982 warfare-thriller First Blood.

The film was based on David Morrell's novel of the same name, and follows the heart-wrenching story of John Rambo, a troubled Vietnam War veteran who must fight to survive a brutal manhunt by local police and military members after trying to get reintegrated into civilian life. Despite Morrell only writing one book about John Rambo,...

This post contains spoilers for "Reacher" season 3 episode 6.

Jack Reacher doesn't need to prove himself as a hero at this point. Across 29 books and what is now almost three seasons of Prime Video's "Reacher" series, the character has proven he is every bit the archetypal American action hero, dispatching armies of enemies with ease and weathering the kind of beatings that would snuff out lesser heroes. He's an itinerant former military policeman with an unwavering commitment to justice and chivalry who is always one step ahead of those that dare to cross him. Fans know the formula and Reacher delivers, time and time again.

But there's no doubt this particular American hero is indebted to those that came before him. While he clearly shares a lot in common with other contemporary characters, such as the similarly unstoppable John Wick, he is also quite clearly the modern equivalent of the muscle-bound...

Rarely has a decade been as closely tied to a film genre in pop culture as the 1980s are to ridiculous action movies. The era of Sylvester Stallone, Arnold Schwarzenegger, and others of their stripe certainly blend well into the '90s, but the '80s is where the big, beefy, sweaty, machine-gun-toting hero became a staple of cinema. Of course, as with any genre, there were better and worse attempts at hitting the mark with this particular brand of action film. Titles like "The Terminator" and "First Blood" gave credibility to their respective muscular stars, eschewing the camp and absurdity for high-concept sci-fi and gritty political character drama, respectively. But then there were the less artistically sophisticated films -- features like Schwarzenegger's "Commando" and Stallone's "Cobra," which came out back-to-back in 1985 and 1986.

"Cobra," specifically, has become something of a cult classic, in large part because of its cartoonish protagonist.

Although long-running franchises have become a seemingly permanent part of our current cinematic landscape, there's an argument to be made that even the most consistently high-quality series are subject to diminishing returns. The question of whether a sequel can match or surpass an original is still a topic of debate, and it's one that reaches all the way back to an era when sequels were hardly as common as they are now. While the debate makes sense on the surface — after all, on paper, how can any sequel be as fresh and unique as an original? — it's perhaps based on the wrong question. Maybe, despite all the constant franchise rankings and the like, we shouldn't be asking whether a sequel surpasses its predecessor, but rather what new depths and richness are brought to the material that enhances the franchise as a whole.

It's through that lens that I view 1975's "French Connection II,...

When director Ted Kotcheff introduced moviegoers to the character of John Rambo in the 1982 action classic "First Blood," Rambo was recognizably human, a tragic figure who was trained to be an elite killing machine in a pointless war that could not be won in a conventional manner. Home from Vietnam for less than a decade, he's found it difficult to reintegrate himself into a society that wants to forget everything for which he risked his life. This is fine by Rambo. He just wants to reconnect with old war buddies and find a safe harbor where he can hopefully get his bearings back. He's not looking for a fight. That part of his life is over -- until a sadistic, power-tripping small-town sheriff decides to mess with Rambo because he can.

Though Rambo is portrayed as an exceptionally lethal man who can outwit a law enforcement hunting party while surviving a series of perilous spills,...

Harrison Ford's first feature film was an uncredited role as a bellhop in the 1966 James Coburn crime thriller "Dead Heat on a Merry-Go-Round." He was 24. It's wild to think that Ford, when he was 80, also starred in the 2023 blockbuster "Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny," which was set in 1969. The elderly Indiana Jones, if he was a movie fan, could have seen the film debut of Harrison Ford.

Sylvester Stallone's first feature film came in 1969, when he was 23. He played an uncredited extra in a film called "The Square Root." Indeed, for the first three years of his career, Stallone mostly played uncredited roles, turning up in films like "What's Up, Doc?," "Bananas," and "Klute." Stallone doesn't have a career wraparound like Ford's above, but he was recently the subject of "Sly," a documentary about his career.  

Both Stallone and Ford appeared in one film together: 2014's "The Expendables 3,...

One of my favorite Sylvester Stallone interviews is his 1977 conversation with Barry Norman. In the interview, Stallone comes across as thoughtful, articulate, and perceptive in a way that may surprise casual fans of the star who know him for his action movie prowess. No doubt influenced by Norman's phlegmatic Britishness, Stallone is reserved yet sharp in his observations about his own success following the release of "Rocky" in 1976. In fact, he's so remarkably self-possessed in the clip that it almost seems like an entirely different person to the man we came to know as the very embodiment of '80s action bombast.

In truth, Stallone has always been one of Hollywood's smartest and most perceptive stars. But his record hasn't always reflected that. The time he got tricked into starring in the 1992 flop "Stop! Or my Mom will Shoot" by his longtime rival Arnold Schwarzenegger, for example, is one of the most infamous examples,...

Two action titans throwing down both on screen and seemingly off in front of thousands of reporters; a director now known for tentpole disaster flicks working with a big budget for the first time; Replacing another director who couldn’t make it work; a script that dips its toes into at least four different genres; multiple required shots of Jean Claude Van Damme’s naked body; bullets, bombs, and a whole lotta killin’. This is what happened to Universal Soldier.

If you were a fan of action movies with a darker, sci-fi edge to their storylines in the 80s and 90s, Carolco Pictures was likely behind some of your favorites. By the time Universal Soldier darkened their desks around February of 1990, the company had already been involved with films like First Blood and They Live. This even before Terminator 2 and Total Recall. If you had a dark action flick,...

Given the sad news that Gene Hackman, the most legendary of all actors, has passed away, tributes will (appropriately) be coming in non-stop. After all, he was the greatest of the greats, and the fact that he retired relatively early (back in 2004) adds to his mystique, as he went out at the top of his game. Given his rich legacy of work, everyone will no doubt be offering tributes to his best movies, like Unforgiven, The French Connection, The Royal Tenenbaums, and many more. Here at JoBlo, we’re gonna do something a little different and pay tribute to the star by singling out some of his lesser-seen films, hoping that maybe fans of his find something on this list they haven’t seen before and can enjoy for the first time!

The French Connection II:

While everyone will (rightly) be raving about William Friedkin’s The French Connection and...

In the Top 10 on Netflix recently was the 2008 action flick calledRambo. Sometimes called Rambo IV, Rambo: The Fight Continues, or simply John Rambo, the film was the first sequel to the franchise in 20 years, as the title character (played masterfully by Sylvester Stallone) is thrust back into action when a group of Christian missionaries in Burma are kidnapped by a military group. The film itself is incredibly engaging, showing Rambo as a man aimlessly wandering the world in search of peace, only to find himself constantly at war. Of course, even more impressive is that the praises of Rambo were sung by none other than David Morrell, the author of the original First Blood novel, on which the whole franchise is based.

Ryan Gosling has taken on a variety of roles throughout his career, from romantic leads and action-packed heroes to intense characters that have left a lasting impact. But after participating in Only God Forgives following Drive, he realized there was something about these darker roles he didn’t want to revisit. The reason behind this decision?

Ryan Gosling in Only God Forgives | Credits: Lionsgate Entertainment

It wasn’t just about the challenges of the role itself. Gosling explained that it was more about how it affected him mentally, and how that spilled over into his personal life.

How did only Only God Forgives change the way Ryan Gosling chooses roles?

Ryan Gosling has always been the kind of actor who can do just about anything. Whether it’s a heart-wrenching love story, a fast-paced action movie, or a musical that has everyone singing along, he has never let himself be...

Sylvester Stallone has had a diverse career which includes acting, writing, producing, and directing. With a series of hit roles, he has two career-defining roles: Rambo and Rocky.

Both roles have spawned successful franchises that have added new installments decades after its first installment. The Rambo franchise kicked off in 1982 with First Blood, and the last film was released in 2019, Rambo: Last Blood, which has also become a hit on Netflix,Tudum reports. For the week between Feb. 10 and 16, Rambo: Last Blood debuted in the Top 10 charts in the U.S. on the sixth spot.

RelatedSylvester Stallone Shares The Godfather Reboot Concept Art of Himself as Don Corleone

Fans react after Sylvester Stallone shares an image of himself in a Godfather reboot, leading to speculation about the possibility.

Netflix doesn't reveal viewership numbers for territory-specific titles, but it beat other films like the French rom-com Honeymoon Crasher, the dark comedy The Menu,...