Geriaction heroes

Having assumed the identity of the US president, compulsive evildoer Zartan threatens to decimate the population of Earth. A crack covert mission team must call on the only man who can save the day: General Joseph Colton, the original GI Joe. Why a 58-year-old Bruce Willis might be better equipped to bring down a terrorist ringleader than walking WMD Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson is never made clear during the 110 minutes of GI Joe: Retaliation, but right now it seems that action heroes – like the cheeses with which many of them share an acting style – get better with age. Ever since The Expendables grossed $274m worldwide - a figure almost as high as its cast's combined ages - the geriaction subgenre has exploded, making born-again stars out of 1980s icons such as Sylvester Stallone and Mickey Rourke, long thought to have hung up their assault rifles. In times gone by, the Hollywood action hero was perhaps the definitive example of shelf-life celebrity, rarely managing to map out a career beyond the point of their inevitable physical decline. But now, thanks to an absence of a new generation of gun-toting, explosion-happy brutes, old timers are getting more work than ever.
 So where are the Jean Claude Van-Dammes of tomorrow?