If you know anything about Arnold Schwarzenegger, or even if you’ve just seen “Pumping Iron,” you’ll know that the man is used to winning. This is a guy who left his small Austrian town to become arguably the greatest bodybuilder in history, before transitioning to Hollywood where he became the biggest star in the world, only to then become governor of California.
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Within all those accomplishments, there are countless other achievements that nobody, let alone a kid from the small village of Thal, Austria, could hope to match. Taking just his acting career, he starred in one of two sci-fi movies to be considered “perfect” by Rotten Tomatoes before fronting a sequel that today is revered as perhaps the finest action movie ever made with “Terminator 2: Judgment Day.” Schwarzenegger also proved he could be just as entertaining in family-friendly fare, from “Kindergarten Cop” to his 1996 Christmas movie “Jingle All The Way,” which proved its standing as a perennial festive classic by becoming a Prime Video hit in December 2024.
The Austrian Oak’s unwavering self-belief, which was on full display in “Pumping Iron,” is surely what has propelled such a diverse and successful film career … which is why there’s something kind of funny about a Schwarzenegger flop. The man who seemingly cannot fail has failed multiple times, and when it comes to his movies, those failures have occasionally been nothing short of spectacular. Take “Hercules in New York,” for example, a film that currently resides in the bottom 100 movies of all time on IMDb.
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