Revenge-actioner and graphic novel adaptation about members of a CIA 'black' (meaning 'unacknowledged') ops team – Clay, Jensen, Roque, Pooch and Cougar – who, after being betrayed and left for dead, root out those who targeted them for assassination. They are joined by the mysterious Aisha (Zoe Saldana - Star Trek, Neytiri in Avatar), a hot CIA agent with her own agenda.
Also stars Watchmen's Jeffrey Dean Morgan and The Wire's Idris Elba.
The Losers is an old-school action film – a tough-guy, pyrotechnic extravaganza where the evil guy’s minions miss every shot and the good guys always hit. Logic and the pesky plot never get in the way of a good dust up or an explosion.
Comic book origins are proudly on display with hammy one-liners and characters that are the definition of two-dimensional. Watchmen’s Jeffery Dead Morgan, however, has the goods to carry the film and smoking Zoe Saldana (Avatar), an agent with mysterious motives, will more than please her burgeoning fan base. Jason Patric has a ball as an Evil Nemesis who clearly loves his work.
Dampening the fun is the M-rating. There’s very little gore and sex, making it fine for teens but also blunting the edges.
It’s a credit to director Sylvain White (Stomp the Yard) that, despite the thin plot, The Losers entertains to the end. The non-stop action sequences are souped up with today’s fast cuts and flashy camera work, but – like the best ‘80s actioners – they are clean, uncluttered and all hit the spot.
The Losers knows what it is and doesn’t try to be anything else. You’d have to be in the mood for this kind of thing, but if you are it delivers enough fun.
By Paul Scantlebury, Flicks.co.nz
I have big ears and I soiled my pants..., oops
I think this was meant for Female Action Lovers** Which i liked this Movie** I got the Humour loved the ending as it looks like a sequal coming soon. Hot Guys,Hot Chick.
It's a decent movie if you find Jeffrey Dean Morgan attractive
OK - I'll admit 'The Losers' was a very formulaic shoot 'em up movie - but at least it was fun to watch. It was prefaced by the trailer for the new Stallone version of the A-Team/mercenaries against the world - which looks absolutely dire. How many tired has-beens can they find? At least after Watchmen and Losers,Jeff Dean Morgan has finally shed his image as a soppy small-screen dead guy.
I enjoyed the graphic original and like the actors (The bad guys made me anticipate their painful demise) but this movie may as well have been the "A-Team". The makers clearly opted for the opportunity to make a sequel rather than making a good Losers movie.
The movie gets the job done, and the actors show a lot of confidence in occupying that tricky middle ground between controlled satire and comic overkill. It's fun.
The film never is boring, but it's never engaging, either, because its heroes hit every target in sight, while the villains, despite holstering much greater weaponry, never hit anybody. So forget about suspense.
There are enough clever bits, in that exploding-bodies kind of way, to inject some fun into the party. White and director of photography Scott Kevan, who collaborated on "Stomp the Yard," have some seriously inventive visuals, which at times are smash-cut fabulous.
About the only thing that distinguishes this iteration from those of yore is that the violence is more explicit, the edits are faster, and no one has a stogie stuck in his kisser.
A comic book adaptation completely packed with a vast array of weaponry and acted out by a great cast – I had high hopes for this.
We've been told the NZ release date for this flick is Thursday, 20th May 2010.
Release date: May 20th 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.
