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Karen: The other day I read a fun and engaging article on Grantland.com by Bill Simmons called "The Action Hero Championship Belt." Simmons sets up some rules and then goes through chronologically from 1968 (when Steve McQueen's Bullitt premiered) and selects the top action hero for a particular time period. All the usual suspects are there -Sylvester Stallone, Chuck Norris, Bruce Willis -but Arnold Schwarzenegger comes away with more years on top than anyone else. Looking back, I'd say that's about right too. He was a believable butt-kicker in every role he played.
Here are Simmons' rules, so you can answer today's question:
Rule No. 1: Over everything else, I need to believe our hero can kick everyone’s ass, in any conceivable situation, at any given time. And he needs to believe this, too.
Rule No. 2: During our hero’s apex, I would have seen his action movie no matter what the plot was, and no matter how lukewarm the reviews were.
Rule No. 3: The body of work from a particular run matters more than a single movie.
Karen: Based on this criteria, and whatever else you care to use, what do you say -is Arnold the Man?