Better with age

It's fortunate if a person gets better with age, and particularly so for an actor when physical appearance is such a big part of the job.

Liam Neeson is one such lucky sod. After remaking himself with Taken and its sequel, The A-Team, Unknown and The Grey, he has yet another new action flick hitting our screens.

Non-Stop is about an air marshall (Neeson) who gets an SMS while on a flight, warning that one passenger will be killed every 20 minutes until US$150 million is placed in the baddie's bank account.

Trouble is, the bank account ends up being under his name!

Someone is trying to frame him!

Neeson looks absolutely dashing in Non-Stop, his once-bland good looks having had a wolfy, rugged makeover by the ravages of age.

He's 61 years old now, a point at which most white dudes start taking on a wraith-ish aspect, but this guy's body still appears powerfully muscular and even his hair looks great.

Funnily enough, Julianne Moore, his co-star in Non-Stop, is another example of a star who has aged into her hotness.

Rather plain-looking in her younger years, the ginger cuts a striking figure at 53.

Of course, most stars, like most normal human beings, aren't quite so lucky.

This planet can be cruel.

NOT EVERYONE IS BLESSED

Having just seen the new film Winter's Tale in which Russell Crowe plays the bad guy, I can tell you that he is very far from being the stud he was in Gladiator.

At 49, he looks like an ill-tempered potato.

Mel Gibson, 58, who appeared in the atrocious Machete Kills last year, is another sad example.

In his younger years, he was one of the sexiest men on the planet - The Road Warrior, OMG - but now, he looks like a guy who has just escaped from jail.

His hair is gone, his jaw is gone, his eyes look CRAZY.

George Orwell famously said: "At 50, everyone has the face he deserves."

Looking at the stars, it kind of makes sense.

Neeson seems like a kind fellow and has become more beautiful; Gibson is a nut and now he looks like a nut.

There are lovely old guys like Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellen who are genuine stunners.

Then there are those miserable old types like Clint Eastwood and Robert De Niro who look practically demonic.

That old grump Tommy Lee Jones looks like a mess, while the lovable Jeff Bridges has just got cuddlier.

One can spend decades being an old codger and I pray I end up like Neeson rather than Mad Mel.

Time will tell.

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