Of all of the retcon criticisms levelled by hardcore “Star Trek” fans against the J.J. Abrams reboot, the most contentious doesn’t relate to a change in style or tone. It has to do with the recalibrated personality of one Captain James Tiberius Kirk: though in the original series Kirk always had a smirk and an ace up his sleeve, the 2009 model leaned decidedly brasher, a few degrees closer to smarmy than Shatner could have ever pulled off. He became a quintessentially modern hero, updated for a more cynical hero: gallantry exchanged for quips, nobility traded in for a touch of sleaze, an air of total confidence upgraded to outright-arrogant cool. In the Abrams “Star Trek” films, in other words, Captain Kirk is kind of a jerk. A lovable jerk, of course, but a jerk nonetheless—an unabashed cheater, philanderer, and cocksure braggart, crashing headlong into danger with alarmingly little regard for his personal safety.

Fans bemoaned the change from the original vision (as fans are wont to do), but we ought to remember that the modern Kirk is proudly joining a long, substantive tradition of action hero assholes. And so, in honor of Kirk’s new outing this weekend, we’ve rounded up the great jerks of cinematic history.

- Errol Flynn as Robin Hood in “The Adventures of Robin Hood” (1938)

“The Adventures of Robin Hood” turns 75 this week, incidentally, which is as good a reminder as any that Errol Flynn basically birthed the action-hero braggart. It wasn’t enough for him to simply steal from the rich: early on the film finds him waltzing casually into the grand dining hall of the King to steal a chicken wing and basically mock his tormentors (from whom he escapes with ease, naturally). It’s proof positive that the merry men were also pretty badass.

- Harrison Ford as Han Solo in “Star Wars” (1979)

Though he was hardly the first brash charmer in cinema history, Harrison Ford’s take on everyone’s favorite space smuggler was so instantly iconic that it essentially set the template for the style going forward. No smarmy action heroes, sidekicks or otherwise, could ever emerge unindebted in his wake.

- Bruce Willis in John McClane “Die Hard With A Vengeance” (1995)

Though McClane was introduced to the world as a well-meaning family man with one-liners only for the villains, the second sequel in the “Die Hard” franchise made a show of seriously deglamorizing Bruce Willis’s beloved everyman schlub routine. Here McClane’s a hungover jerk dragged in off suspension, forced to save the town while enduring a day-long headache. It’s the reluctant hero as ne'er-do-well, a curmudgeon with a heart of gold.

- Humphrey Bogart as Rick Blaine in “Casablanca” (1942)

Rick Blaine was always more anti-hero than the regular kind, but, much like Kirk, his poor temperament came solely from a deeply felt loss. By the end of the picture it’s hard to feel anything but bad about Rick’s lot in life, even if he does make a show of fixing bets (for nice people) and lying to just about anyone (for a good cause).

- Orson Welles as Charles Foster Kane in “Citizen Kane” (1942)

Welles was always a theater man, and it shows in the grandiosity of his aging and tormented Kane. But it’s as the young, fresh-faced Kane—taking over a newspaper for a lark, being treated to a song and dance number, or generally evading the queries of his family lawyer—that Welles most naturally embodied Kane-as-lovable-scamp, annoying old money as he put his inheritance to work like a kid in a candy store.

- Elliott Gould as Philip Marlowe in “The Long Goodbye” (1973)

Philip Marlowe, as imagined by Raymond Chandler, was tough-as-nails and coolly professional, throwing out one-liners to cops and hired goons without a hint of a wink. But Gould’s take, as Robert Altman wrote it, was sort of the opposite: effortless cool with an emphasis on the “effortless”, gliding around a seedy Los Angeles lackadaisically, mumbling out witticisms instead of firing barbs.

- Guy Pearce as Snow in “Lockout” (2012)

“Lockout” wasn’t received with much enthusiasm when it came and when from theaters early last year, but the oversight was a real shame: Guy Pearce delivered one of his most appealing performances to date as an extended riff on the film noir anti-hero, his verbal sparring with the feds and heavies practically worthy of Dashiell Hammett. What’s not to love?