Sylvester Stallone's cameo-filled action film starring himself, Jason Statham, Jet Li, Mickey Rourke, Bruce Willis, Eric Roberts, Dolph Lundgren, 'Stone Cold' Steve Austin and Arnold Schwarzenegger. What a line up.
The Expendables - a team of hardened war veterans lead by Barney Ross (Stallone) - take on what appears to be a routine assignment: a covert, CIA-funded operation to infiltrate the South American country of Vilena and overthrow its ruthless dictator General Garza. But when their job is revealed to be a suicide mission, the men are faced with a deadly choice that threatens their brotherhood.
Like a too-hearty slap on the back from someone you haven't seen for ages and don’t really like, Stallone's latest retro folly is unironic, uncalled for and loaded with false bonhomie – but it still hits home at the very last minute.
Don't believe the hype though. Rather than the all-star bonanza promised, most of The Expendables are just that – Rourke (acting everyone else off the screen), Lundgren and Li are bit-parters, Willis and Schwarzenegger make hasty cameos, and the lion's share of the movie is a quip-trading, dick-swinging contest between Stallone (looking like a pig chewing a nettle) and Statham – think Tango And (Petty) Cash.
Despite the casting agents' sterling efforts, the script could have been written by John Rambo himself ("We’re both the same," says Eric Roberts as if reading from the 'Rogue CIA' Agent handbook, "we're both mercenaries and we're both dead inside."), the plot's insultingly facile (there are 'two' unconvincing romantic subplots and a waterboarding scene that plays out like a wet T-shirt contest) and Stallone's direction is as unconvincing as his face. Where's John McTiernan when you need him?
In compensation for this mess of chances missed, the entertaining action scenes – one of which lasts the entire last half hour – are as weighty and gnarly as the actors' grizzled mugs. As heads and vehicles explode against the strobing lights of semi-automatic muzzle flare, it's just possible to squint your eyes and pretend the 1980s never ended, something most of these guys have been doing for decades. Of course, whether this is a grudging recommendation or a dire warning depends on your tolerance for lobotomised Friday night fight flicks.
By Matt Glasby, Flicks.co.nz
Wrinklies and grave dodgers unite to bring a very, very 80's throwback to the likes of RAMBO 2 to the screen. Predictable, silly and surprisingly violent (once it gets going!). Stallone writes and directs and stars - and the whole cast are clearly having a ball - all of them: Jason Statham, Mickey Rourke, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Jet Li, Dolph Lundgren, Eric Roberts, Steve Austin, Bruce Willis, Terry Crews... Blimey! It's fun to watch them all creak and groan through the motions. But to say it's all old is not just an intended pun - it really is well-worn territory. All that's missing is Jean Claude Van Damme and Chuck Norris... Still, there's always next time (and with Stallone there always are six or seven sequels to every action hero franchise - from FIRST BLOOD's John Rambo to ROCKY's, er, Rocky... Boom!
Bigger let-down than the "reveal" in the Crying Game
This is just a mindless action film nothing more nothing less. Thats the way you should go into this film. If you go into it hopefully for a great story then just forget it. The cast is great Sly, Stone Cold Steve Austin, Jason Statham, Mickey Rourke, Arnie for a few seconds and the list goes on. It's a fun testorone filled action film and that's all its trying to be. Every now and then you need one of those
This is indeed Sex and the City for dudes, with the film being equal to the sum of its faulty parts. The plot has more holes in it than a machine-gunned Columbian. The script would be laughable if it wasn’t so painfully unfunny. But perhaps worst of all, it’s dull. If your movie makes me yawn during an explosion, you messed up. You can see me shoot this film down in 100 words at 100wordmoviereviews.blogspot.com/
Waste of everyones time. You have to be mental to like this.
At one point Rourke delivers a monologue about his time in Bosnia, and the conviction the actor brings to the occasion throws the movie completely out of whack. What's actual acting doing in a movie like this?
The cast list for this fun, formulaic film, reads like a roll call of old school action heroes - Stallone, Statham, Lundgren, Li, Rourke, Austen, Roberts, Couture, Crews, Willis, Schwarzenegger
More The Wild Geese than The Wild Bunch, The Expendables is not a wasted opportunity, but more one not fully exploited.
An effective mix of lean and over-the-top, The Expendables is often preposterous, but it achieves the immediacy of a graphic novel without the overdone mythology.
Might more aptly be described as Bad Kurosawa, Bad Peckinpah or Bad Leone. Which might be a way of saying that it's better-than-average Stallone. I can't quite say that it's not bad: it is bad! But not entirely in a bad way.
We've been told the NZ release date for this flick is Thursday, 2nd Sep 2010.
Release date: September 2nd 2010.
We haven't received times for this movie in this location yet. However these are updated as cinemas announce them, so check back soon. Hopefully the lovely cinemas in your location will choose to play it shortly. ~Ed.
