The Expendables Review
by Homer Yen (homeryen88 AT gmail DOT com)August 16th, 2010
"The Expendables" - Lights, Camera, Action, Action, Action by Homer Yen
(c) 2010
Some things get better with age. Wine. Wisdom. Sylvester Stallone at age 64. Seriously! And, if you're looking for some bare-knuckle, testosterone-infused, life-begins-at-50-years-old entertainment...well, there's nothing rocky about "The Expendables". The film is as lean as the action stars that populate it. It's old school, bare-knuckle, action-packed fun.
The film features many aging action stars that have defined the 80s and 90s. You'll likely know who they all are. But, if Statham or Li or Austin or Stallone are names that you are unfamiliar with, then may you go somewhere else to eat, pray, and love. Certainly, if there was a Hall of Fame for Tough Guys, these guys would all be on the ballot. And, there is something surreal about seeing Sylvester Stallone, Bruce Willis, and Arnold Schwarzenegger all together (even if it is for just a few minutes).
With the amount of brawn and beef on screen, I'm glad that Stallone didn't cop out and go for the PG-13 rating. It's the good-guy Americans versus the bad-guys-from-another-country and Ross and his boys are going to squish them like bugs! Every action they take ends with three exclamation marks. Shoot!!! Stab!!! Kill!!! When people get thrown into walls, they hit it with a resounding thud. When people get shot, the force of impact from the bullet blows a hole through their bodies. When people get stabbed, generous amounts of blood gets splattered. In fact, Stallone broke his neck during the filming sequence in which he does battle against Steve Austin.
Stallone plays a mercenary named Barney Ross who is contracted by (what we assume) the CIA to do their dirty work. That's all you need to know. No one is trying to construct a dream within a dream within a dream here. I like the philosophy of carnage and destruction in somebody else's backyard - especially when the other backyard is some 2nd world country. There's less risk of imprisonment there. These guys will just shoot everyone up and blow up the jail while they're at it. If the studio had approved a greater budget, I'm sure that we would've seen a train trestle destroyed WITH the entire train plummeting over and/or even a naval destroyer sunk.
Some people do make the most of their moments, especially Jason Statham who gives an unforgettable lesson to a misogynist and Micky Rourke who unexpectedly waxes philosophic. Some of the characters, like Jet Li, aren't given enough to do (why do you give a martial arts expert a machine gun?). Regardless, "The Expendables" is somewhat of a vanity project for Stallone. And as such, it's completely over-the-top and yet such a hoot to watch. Despite the overall level of brutality, the film is campy and funny and is an old-school celebration of the action genre.
Grade: B
S: 0 out of 3
L: 3 out of 3
V: 3 out of 3
Originally posted in the rec.arts.movies.reviews newsgroup. Copyright belongs to original author unless otherwise stated. We take no responsibilities nor do we endorse the contents of this review.
