Wesley Snipes when you hear the name and think of roles, you think of Blade, Nino Brown (New Jack City), or Sidney Dean (White Men Can't Jump). He has had a long 40 year career that still is quite underrated, and he is also is one of the most underrated action stars ever. When you think of action stars particularly during the 90's Arnold Schwarzenegger, Sylvester Stallone, Jean Claude Van damme, Bruce Willis and Steven Seagal are probably the top names you think of. However Wesley Snipes was no slouch in the action genre, in fact he had a good quiet 6 year run as a action hero you may not remember. Let's take a trip down memory lane.
After a star making role as drug lord Nino Brown and then following up with the comedy classic White Men Can't Jump, Snipes showed he was a martial arts master with Passenger 57 in 1992. In the film he plays a former Secret Service agent who is a security consultant, and must save the day when a plane is hijacked in a ploy to release a notorious criminal. The film is probably known for one of his more famous lines.
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He followed up in '93 with Boiling Point and Rising Sun, starring alongside film legends Sean Connery and Dennis Hopper respectively. While those films were more thrillers than straight up action films, he did get to show off his action skills in both films. Then he took a turn in '93 playing one of my favorite film villains ever Simon Phoenix complete with a blonde fade in Demolition man facing off against Sylvester Stallone.
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'94 he was back on the side of a hero in the oft-forgotten film Drop Zone as a U.S. Marshal who get's involved in the skydiving culture to catch some crooks. Then in '95 with Woody Harrelson and Jennifer Lopez he was a New York City transit cop caught up in the era of the Money Train. '97 he stepped into the D.C. political corruption and cover-up scene with Murder At 1600 alongside Diane Lane.
The spring of '98 he starred in U.S. Marshals a sequel to The Fugitive, on the run from Tommy Lee Jone's character Sam Gerard and company. In the film Wesley's character Mark Sheridan show's off his action skills as he tries to clear his name within a government scandal. That film was just a teaser for fan's and what was to come in the summer of 1998 when Blade debuted in theaters. The half-human, half-vampire character essentially set Marvel up on the filmmaking trajectory that would kick off the MCU 10 years later with Iron Man.
With his trademark sunglasses, high powered guns, and katana Blade is arguably the role most synonymous with Wesley Snipes. Just look at how excited fans were when he appeared in Deadpool and Wolverine last summer. It also capped off his run of action films during the 90's and was not a bad way to end that decade. He spent the 2000's and 2010's in mostly B-movie action films, but for the 1990's he was one of the top action stars out there and should start getting his flowers for that.
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