As Good as the First, and an Incredible Action Flick

Rating: 10/10 (27 April 2020)

Though it's difficult for me to pick a favorite, I'd say that this is the best film in the series. The Expendables 2 rocks.
Opening on a bombastic note, The Expendables 2 hits the ground running and never really stops.
I think Simon West, while a bit of a risk, ended up being a great directorial choice. He knows action (the dude did Con Air (1997)) and he is great with action scenes and movie structure. It's sad that his career kind of fizzled out, as he obviously has the gift.
The main cast is back, this time with more people you love. Stallone is great as usual, as are Statham, Crews, and Lundgren. Couture is ok, but once again not given enough to do, which I'm ok with, as the other stars are more interesting. Arnold and Bruce Willis are back, and both get a good amount of screen time and actually get do participate in the action. Unfortunately, Jet Li is only present in the opening, and ducks out after that (apparently there were scheduling conflicts with another movie he was doing). The movie's biggest aces in its sleeve though, are Jean-Claude Van Damme, and Chuck Norris. Jean-Claude is a great villain, and a vast improvement over the villain from the first film. He's obviously having fun with the role. Chuck Norris gets a bit of screen time and is hilarious, since it's the meme version of Chuck Norris. He even makes a Chuck Norris joke, in case you wondering how seriously the movie takes itself (warning, it doesn't). Liam Hemsworth is here too. That's cool, I guess.
The action is explosive, violent, and abundant. The opening battle scene is long and joyous. Vehicles crash and explode, people are shredded by bullets, there's a boat chase and battle that actually felt almost like an homage to From Russia with Love, just on a much larger scale. There are many shootouts and battles throughout the movie, and Jason Statham kills a bunch of dudes with knives in a church, and that's awesome. The airport shootout is a fist-pumping moment, and a highlight for sure. Seeing all of the protagonists onscreen together killing bad guys was great, and seeing Sly, Arnie, and Willis shooting people side-by-side almost made me wet my pants. The final fight is brutal and great, and pretty well-choreographed too.
As bloodily, almost sadistically violent, loud, and fun as the first, arguably more so, The Expendables 2 is as good a time with an action movie as you can have.