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It’s the summer, and that means big-budget action movies. One such movie (though perhaps not with the biggest budget) comes out this week and is yet another reboot of a famous 1980s franchise. It’s called Predators, and continues the Predator franchise, which stretches back to 1987, when Arnold Schwarzenegger and Jesse Ventura were obscenely strong actors, not politicians. This time around, the film is coming to us from producer Robert Rodriguez, director Nimrod Antal (still the winner of the Most Unfortunate Name in Show Business award), and stars such famed action-movie stars as Adrien Brody and Topher Grace. Yeah. The guy from The Pianist and the lead of That '70s Show are facing off against the bloodthirsty Predator. What is going on here?

I’m not advocating a rush back to the time of stars like Schwarzenegger, Sylvester Stallone, and Bruce Willis. Hell, I can just wait until August for The Expendables if I want that. However, it’d be nice if the folks in Hollywood could cast their action movies with more believable heroes. I like Adrien Brody as an actor, and I think that Topher Grace is charming and charismatic. And I think that the Predator would eat them in five seconds, combined. I’m sure they’ll do their best to pull off being tough guys who can wield guns and get beat up without whimpering. But if you told me that there would be a new Predator movie, these two guys would be at the bottom of my dream casting list. This week’s A-List looks at a few other unlikely action heroes from years past, successful and unsuccessful; hopefully, Brody and Grace will be on the side that doesn’t proverbially get destroyed by the Predator.

Tobey Maguire

Sometimes, an actor gets a part that catapults him to megastardom; they may not seem to fit the role, but by the time the film comes out, they’ve grown into the role. I’m not sure Tobey Maguire has ever really fit the role that made him something close to a household name. What’s more, I’m fascinated to see what kind of career Maguire has now that his time as Spider-Man is over. The big recent news was that the reboot of the Spider-Man series, coming out in July 2012, had found its title character in young British actor Andrew Garfield. Garfield and Maguire are similar in one major respect: they both look like they could barely hurt a fly. Now, granted, Spider-Man is also Peter Parker, and meant to be an ostracized little nerd. That said, even in the most recent Spider-Man film, Maguire’s gawkiness was played up for laughs; can you explain the atrocious dance sequence in any other way?

Before Tobey Maguire became Peter Parker, he was an indie darling, appearing in such films as Wonder Boys and The Ice Storm (directed by Ang Lee, who’d get involved in the Marvel world in 2003 with Hulk). These days, the biggest indie name who might have fit would be Jesse Eisenberg; still, an upcoming indie film, The Kids Are All Right, co-stars one of the would-be Spider-Man auditioners, Josh Hutcherson. All of this is to say that, yes, Peter Parker isn’t meant to be a tough guy, but you’d think that years of bulking up to sling web would make you look fierce and imposing. The suit did all the intimidating work for Tobey Maguire, because he’s never, ever looked like he could kick the asses of Willem Dafoe, Alfred Molina, Thomas Haden Church, and - hey! - Topher Grace.

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