Zac Efron has been for the most part the alpha male in a lot of roles since he seems to take that persona and run with it quite often. Audiences don’t get to see him in a lot of weak roles where he’s simply blubbering over himself and unable to do much, though at times the macho act does seem to wear a little thin. Thankfully throughout his movies he does tend to learn a lesson every now and then and he does get knocked down a few dozen pegs in the process just so that he can learn something. In so many ways he’s kind of top dog in anything he does but it’s kind of a guilty pleasure to see him struggle every now and then. Still, being that he’s that big of a star and he does have those classic good looks and a chiseled form it’s not too surprising to see him in the role of the big buff guy on a regular basis.
Here are some of his roles that you might feel are among his best.
5. Baywatch
There are a lot of people that somehow argue that this movie just flat out bombed when it came out, stating that it wasn’t anything like the original and that even the cameos from two of the original actors from the show didn’t help. Apparently they missed the news flash that it wasn’t SUPPOSED to be true to the show and was going off a formula that was all its own while still paying homage to the popular TV show in some ways. Zac’s role was that of a pretty boy and former Olympian that thought he was hot stuff because he was fast in the water. The best part was that he had to realize that saving lives doesn’t just mean swimming as fast as one can.
4. 17 Again
What would you do if you were 17 again? Would you still be the bully, or would you wise up and realize just where you went wrong and what you could do better this time around? His part in this movie was fun because it raises those questions in all of us and makes light of the things we did in the past by reminding us that while they did matter at the time, a lot of the things we thought were so important back then seem awfully trivial now. What makes you cool in high school kind of makes you well behind the times and in desperate need of growing up by the time you hit adulthood. But of course we can’t really see it back then.
3. Charlie St. Cloud
Sometimes the guilt of letting someone go is what holds us back, and in order to move forward we have to make peace and simply put one foot in front of the other. When Charlie loses his younger brother Sam he begins to see his spirit in the woods, but when he sees the spirit of a woman it would seem that he’s allowing Sam to slip away just a little more each day. When Sam finally tells his brother he’s at peace however Charlie rushes to save the woman and finds her alive, wounded and in need of medical care, but still capable of being saved. From that point on it becomes evident that Sam has been helping his brother to move on.
2. Dirty Grandpa
Nobody’s family is perfect no matter how much one wants to boast about it, but Efron’s grandpa, played by Robert De Niro in this film, is something else. This film didn’t exactly get the best reviews but quite honestly it’s as funny as it gets and just about as raunchy in some places as well. De Niro and Efron both put in stellar performances as a grandpa wanting to get a little more out of life and a grandson that desperately needs to get a life, respectively. Their antics throughout the film would be enough to land most people in jail a dozen times over but as a comedy it definitely works on more than one level.
1. Neighbors
Everyone’s had the kind of neighbors they wish they could trade at one point in their lives and living next to a fraternity would most definitely qualify. Without even considering how property values would plummet it seems safe to say that the kind of education one’s kids would get from living next to a frat house would be something that would have a lot of parents moving as quickly as they could in order to avoid the part about Sex Ed. While the sequel didn’t get a lot of great reviews the original was pretty funny and even kind of disturbing in some ways since there weren’t a lot of punches that got pulled throughout the movie.
Zac Efron is talented, but he’s got to play something besides an alpha male to show it.
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