Norris. Schwarzenegger. Willis. Van Damme. Adkins.

Rating: 8/10 (13 August 2014)

Two years after Sylvester Stallone brought us the first Expendables film, he is back at it once again. This time with even more action legends like Chuck Norris and bigger roles for Bruce Willis and Arnold Schwarzenegger, and also action legend Jean-Claude Van Damme. While the action overall isn't much as the first film, when the action picks up it is just like watching all of these stars back in the 80s and 90s again. This is my review of The Expendables 2.
In addition to Stallone writing once again, he also adds Richard Wenk, Ken Kaufman, and David Agosto to the mix. While Agosto only has previous experience with one prior film, a short film, Wenk worked with one of the actors in this, Jason Staham, on the popular movie The Mechanic, as well as the Bruce Willis film 16 Blocks. Kaufman has much less experience but, has some more well known films under his belt like The Missing and Space Cowboys. This film overall has more down time than the previous film, and the writing takes a step downward in my opinion. Thankfully the action and the amazing actors are enough to hold our attention for the duration of this film. The characters are mostly written loosely and that is to be expected in this genre. This new writing team gets a barely passable grade.
On to direct this sequel is Simon West, who takes over for Sylvester Stallone. In my opinion Stallone laid out a better overall action inspired film but, that is not to say West did a bad job. Simon West is no slouch either when it comes to action films. He directed the action classic from the 90s, Con-Air. While the overall action is much less than the first movie, the film literally starts and finishes with amazing and fun action scenes. West really holds his own, and proves to everyone that he can still direct an action film. The casting is much bigger this time. Not only do Schwarzenegger and Willis have bigger roles but, the legend himself, Chuck Norris is in the film. Sure he doesn't have much screen time but, he is a joy to see on the big screen again. He also delivers some hilarious lines. Speaking of which, real quick I want to speak on that. The cheesy lines in this movie is a giant step up over the previous film, which is fantastic. Now back to the actors. Also in the film, and playing a very good bad guy is Jean-Claude Van Damme. While he mostly played the good guy over the course of his career, he has shown he can play the bad guy as well. He does it once again in this film. Also in this film is Scott Adkins. He has worked in the past with Van Damme and he does a nice job in this film, and even has a fantastic hand to hand combat fighting scene. With returning cast members like Stallone, Statham, Lundgren, Crews, and Couture, this is one amazing action film with outstanding legends gracing the big screen. While I thought the amount of action was less in this film, this film is still so much fun, and re-watching this film again made me so much more excited for the future of this franchise. Simon West gets a big thumbs up in my opinion and so do these action legends.
Brian Tyler is back to compose this sequel. As I mentioned in my review for the previous film, Tyler really didn't impress me all that much in that film. However, this time around I really enjoyed what he did. I still cannot say his effort was great or perfect but, I did feel it was a step in the right direction, and cannot wait to hear what he has in store for the future films. Brain Tyler gets a good rating in my book for his efforts in this film.
Overall, just like the previous film, hardcore action fans like myself will love this movie even though the amount of action is less than the previous film. For those on the fence, this is simply a great time to start watching because this film features one of the greatest action stars of all time, Chuck Norris. This film feels more funny with some better one liners, and in my opinion most should really have a blast watching this film.
8/10