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This weekend heralds the arrival of two highly anticipated movies. No, wait, sorry, I wrote that wrong; this weekend heralds the arrival of a remake (A Nightmare on Elm Street, which, despite having Jackie Earle Haley as Freddy Krueger, looks like something I’d always avoid) and a hideous new entry into the genre of “Animals are funny, right?” movies. That film, starring Brendan Fraser, Brooke Shields, and Ken Jeong, is Furry Vengeance. This movie, a pro-environment movie that manages to make the wildlife look not only unreal but demonic, looks pretty awful, even with the usually affable and charming Fraser at the lead. In pondering Fraser’s career (only for a minute or two, mind you), I realized that his starring here is the continuation of an odd trend: action stars in family movies.

Now, I grant you, of the many action stars who’ve been in family movies, Brendan Fraser is low on the list. He, for better or worse, is more believable as a city developer than, say, Bruce Willis or Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson. Still, over the past decade, Fraser’s biggest movies have been action movies, specifically the trilogy of Mummy movies he made between 1999 and 2008. Since that first Mummy movie, Fraser’s been seen as something of a poor man’s Indiana Jones. By appearing in Furry Vengeance, Fraser continues his streak of appearing in movies that not only look pretty crappy, but are meant to capitalize on his effusive nature, enthusiasm, and weirdly giddy charm; admit it, as silly as it was, we all laughed at Fraser’s strange on-camera clap during the Golden Globes.

Fraser, at least, enjoys what he does; let’s take a look at this week’s list of action stars to see if it’s the same for them.

Arnold Schwarzenegger

In some ways, the trend of action stars being the leads in family movies can all be traced to the current governor of California and then-popular director Ivan Reitman. Though their first film collaboration was Twins, it was Kindergarten Cop that solidified Schwarzenegger as the first action star who was able to blow up bad guys and coddle children, all in the same movie. Kindergarten Cop, since its release, has reached something of a cult status; at the very least, some of the film’s lines have. Who among us has not heard or said, in their best or worst Schwarzenegger impression, “It’s NOT a tumor!” Who among us has not laughed at this line: “Who is your daddy, and what does he do?” Schwarzenegger hit something of a peak during this time, even in the second Terminator film, where he’s a kindhearted murderous cyborg.

That said, sometimes, Schwarzenegger’s nose for family movies has failed him. I have suffered, more than once, through the atrocity that is Jingle All The Way. In the same way that Brendan Fraser can be believed as a regular citizen in Furry Vengeance (if not a regular citizen beset upon by local flora and fauna), Arnold Schwarzenegger cannot be believed as a henpecked mattress-store owner who’s also a workaholic. If you haven’t seen Jingle All The Way, it’s worth missing at any time of year, not just at Christmas, and also proves before the fact that George Lucas really has no eye for actors anymore; Jake Lloyd, soon to be young Anakin Skywalker, is just as bad here as he was in The Phantom Menace. Schwarzenegger hasn’t done a lead family-film vehicle since, but Kindergarten Cop alone makes him an icon in the genre.

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