Pro-Celebrity Golf for the Modern Age

Rating: 6/10 (1 September 2012)

Some of us of a certain age may remember the days of pro-celebrity golf, where past-it stars would invite members of the public to pay to see them knock a few golf balls around paired with actual golf pros; Bob Hope with Seve Ballesteros, Sean Connery with Gary Player, that sort of thing, Bruce Forsythe, Ronnie Corbett, a kind of Stella Street scenario.
The Expendables 2 is a bit like that, you get to see Sly and Arnie back again, but young guns like Jason Stratham lend a bit of credibility in the action stakes. Also this film reminded me of Sinatra's Ocean's 11, with really was rather turgid for the most part, lots of tired banter and the sense it's made to give them all something to do.
It has a bravaura opening scene, and it's easy to overlook that some of the background shots seem painted in. It's let down by the awful, clunky banter, delivered with no sense of timing or expertise. Is it meant to be bad? Is it ironic? Who knows. It maybe comes from Sly's enablers and hangers-on laughing at his jokes for the last two decades, making him think he's funny, a bit like McCartney making Give My Regards to Broad Street all those years ago, imagining his day to day life is really interesting.
But this does seem interesting, it works on different parts of your brain. It's for folk who think the Lethal Weapon films were too Ivy League, too clever, too witty, too Waspish maybe. Maybe that kind of wit and cerebral activity creates a kind of mental malaise, who knows. It reminds me of the Tea Party kind of thinking, if you can call it thinking. Reject the rational, reject discernment, it only makes your head hurt. Or maybe this is like WWF, and I'm missing the point, in that with those wrestling bouts, it's actually meant to be fixed, it's not for real. It's a real different mindset - but this film is for those who rated Tango & Cash over Riggs and Murtagh.