Antique chests
When it came out in 1976, "Rocky" was a somewhat awkward proposition for your average guy.
You were sitting in the theater with your date and your so-so physique, and there, up on the screen, was this impossibly ripped specimen in boxing trunks. Sylvester Stallone (inset, with Talia Shire) knew his acting wasn't going to make anyone forget Laurence Olivier, so he made sure to spend as much time as possible shirtless (or in a muscle-baring sleeveless T-shirt). The upshot was that if Joe Average didn't enter the movie theater with an inferiority complex back in 1976, he was certain to leave with one.
Ah, but now it's three decades later. Stallone has resurrected his meal ticket for one last hurrah with the new "Rocky Balboa." And you know what? Chances are Joe Average is feeling a bit better about himself.
It's not that the Italian Stallion has deteriorated into a spavined nag. He hasn't. In fact, Stallone looks pretty good for his age (60). It's just that, with images of the original film still so fresh, it's a small jolt when Rocky climbs into the ring against the reigning world heavyweight champion in "Rocky Balboa." The night before the fight, a friend of Rocky's tells him: "Tomorrow, you're going to prove that the last thing to age on somebody is their heart." That cannot be said for the rest of him: The once-sculpted pecs have a bit of sag, the shoulders are knotted with veins, and there is the unsettling sight of loose flesh whenever Rocky launches a roundhouse.
So what's with all the old guys taking off their shirts in the movies? It's as if Hollywood's senior citizens are vying for membership in the L Street Brownies. And frankly it's not a sight for the squeamish. Did we learn nothing from "Cocoon"?
Pop! blames Charles Bronson. In 1975, at age 54, Bronson bared his chest for long stretches of "Hard Times." By 2002, Clint Eastwood thought nothing of putting his 72-year-old body on display in "Blood Work." And Harrison Ford, 64, has proven all too ready to peel off his shirt in recent years.
When "What Lies Beneath" came out in 2000, Joe Queenan wrote in the Guardian of London that "many of the people in the theatre where I saw ' What Lies Beneath ' aughed hysterically at the sight of a bare-chested Harrison Ford sitting up with his laptop in bed trying to solve one of the great mysteries of science. It should be noted that Ford has opted for the bare-chested look in his last three movies (he also doffs his T-shirt in ' Six Days Seven Nights ' and ' Random Hearts ' ), and I for one wish he would stop. He is no longer a heart-throb, he is well past the point that anyone, male or female, would actually want to see his chest, and scientists don't do things like that anyway."
In Pop!'s view, all this garment shedding is yet another illustration of Hollywood's double standard. It's bad enough that the careers of many actresses come to a screeching halt when they hit 40 while aging actors go on and on (and on). Now those same actresses have to watch while their male counterparts strut their superannuated stuff onscreen.
As for the rest of us, if we avert our eyes often enough, we just might find a silver lining. Hey, here's one: As governor of California, 59-year-old Arnold Schwarzenegger is required to keep his clothes on.
DON AUCOIN 
