“Bullets are faster than blades!” – Sylvester Stallone.
Tattoos, cigars, guns, knives, and demolition. The Expendables are a team of me that are capable of being sacrificed in order to accomplish a military objective.
Sylvester Stallone gave rise to a brand new franchise of badass heroes, way after he made a name for himself in the abundance of Rocky and Rambo movies. This time, instead of being a solo antagonist, this franchise has an ensemble cast with all of those hardcore veteran action stars we grew up idolizing in the 1970s, 80s and 90s. It really feel a lot of joy watching these guys working together in one film, as these are the guys I worshiped since early childhood.
In the first outing, the CIA hires the Expendables to eliminate a Latin dictator and renegade CIA agent.
Sylvester Stallone shines as Barney Ross, the stone cold leader of the Expendables. Unlike in John Rambo (which came out 2 years earlier to this movie), where Rambo gets a minor flesh wound from a cut shot, his character in this movie actually gets captured, injured and beaten in a fight by Steve Austin’s character. His main weapons are two Beretta 9FS pistols.
I consider Jason Statham is the real star of the film. Lee Christman, the man who is savant with anything that has a blade. There is one scene where he kicks the crap out of about 7 to 10 guys on a basketball court, which was pure magic. Charisma Carpenter plays his hot girlfriend!
Jet Li plays the martial artist Ying Yang and delivers great charm in his role, having an uneasy relationship wit Dolph Lundgren’s character.
Dolph Lungren plays the Swedish sniper Gunner Jensen. He becomes the rogue of the team in this movie. A self-exile. There’s something special about him when he calls lesser thugs “cockroach” or “insect”.
Former wrestler Randy Couture plays Toll Road, the demolitions expert of the team and the proclaimed intellectual. He delivers some good dialogue in this movie and performs a hardcore “wrestling match” to the death of Steve Austin’s character.
Terry Crews also does a good job as the token black guy Hail Caesar, the long barrel weans specialists.
There is one scene near the end where the Expendables are fighting for their lives against the overwhelming odds of Munroe’s men and Hail Caesar comes in and destroys the entire squadron with a massive AA-12 shotgun. The sound and the power of that shotgun gets me personally excited.
Mickey Rourke plays Tool, a friend of the Expendables who runs a tattoo parlor. Although his role is small, he has something to deliver. Rourke was filming Iron Man 2 at the same time, and retains his character’s look from that movie, with the gold in his teeth and the grey streaks in his long hair.
David Zayas and Eric Roberts plays the two antagonists, respectively. Zayas does a good job as the Latin dictator General Gaza and Roberts plays the rogue CIA Agent Munroe. When Eric Roberts plays a villain, the entire screen is “dripping with goo and green slime.”
Steve Austin plays the thuggish henchman in this movie, code name Paine, who gives Stallone quite a workout.
Gisele Itie plays Sandra, General Garza’s daughter who befriends Barney.
We get too fun cameos from action movie veterans Bruce Willis as Mr. Church and Arnold Schwarzenegger as Trench Mauser, Barney’s “oldest worst friend”. Willis provides some vulgar, foul-mouthed one liners and Arnold’s performance is charming as always, having some playful banter with Stallone’s character.
While the screenplay and story is simplistic, I didn’t like Stallone’s direction. While I think that the performances are solid, there is a lot of cheesiness in the movie, and there is one seen where the female lead is getting tortured by Paine and his cohorts, which I really didn’t like.
There is also a car chase scene with Stallone and Jet Li escaping some thugs, and the scene was poorly filmed.
I must say, there are a lot hardcore, exciting and bloody action and fight scenes which I thoroughly enjoyed. I love that all these actors could get together, and kick a lot of ass. Also, the chemistry and wordplay between Barney Ross and Lee Christmas is also a lot of fun and very entertaining.
Lastly, this isn’t just about a gang of military experts kicking evil ass, it also about brothers who get together for drinks and jokes and reminiscing about old times. It also focuses on themes such as friendship, brotherhood and loyalty. I’d really love to go out for a pint with these guys. There’s also a scene where Jason Statham’s character and Mickey Rourke’s character are having a knife throwing contest, and Statham’s character delivers some well spoken poetry.
This is not an Oscar-worthy movie and it has a lot of flaws, but seeing this veteran actors kicking a lot of ass and having playful banter.
Pros:
⦁ Great ensemble cast of veteran action movie stars.
⦁ Jason Statham is the star of the movie in my opinion.
⦁ Playful banter between the main protagonists.
⦁ Exciting, hardcore and bloody action scenes.
⦁ Simplistic screenplay.
⦁ Themes such as friendship, brotherhood and loyalty.
⦁ Cameos by Bruce Willis and Arnold Schwarzenegger (who was still Governor of California during filming).
Cons:
⦁ Cheesiness.
⦁ Weak villains.
⦁ Poorly filmed car chase scene.
⦁ Stallone’s direction.
⦁ Weak CGI.
I am going to give The Expendables a B-.
RCCollectibles 