The ultimate action movie... the best of the best!

Rating: 10/10 (17 August 2012)

I remember in 2010 being really, really excited about upcoming release The Expendables. I've been a fan of all the big action stars since I was a child, and seeing the trailer for EX1 had me buzzing in anticipation. I DID love the movie when I saw it but was left kinda underwhelmed due to Eric Roberts being a pretty lame bad guy and Terry Crews, Randy Couture and Dolph not being involved with the team enough. Fast forward two years and they have righted those wrongs and also added way more bang for your bucks. Pretty much every scene features Couture, Crews, Statham, Dolph and Sly killing bad guys and making wise cracks together, plus way more fantastic screen time for Bruce Willis and Arnold Schwarzenegger. They are joined by new sniper Billy The Kid (Liam Hensworth) as Jet Li has had enough of the mercenary lifestyle and gone home. On a mission to rescue a Chinese kidnapping hostage in Nepal, the mercs encounter their old friend Trent (Schwarzenegger) and save the day. Trying to relax after their latest mission, they are thrown in to the deep end by Mr Church (Willis), who isn't happy that they took his money and didn't follow his orders in the first movie. He is sending them on a secret mission in Eastern Europe to retrieve a computer program used for creating bombs from plutonium. The problem is they are beaten to the device by the evil Jean Villain (Jean Claude Van Damme, at his glorious OTT evil best) and a member of the team is killed. Church isn't impressed and warns them they have to recover this device at all costs, and the crew are out for revenge and gunning for Villain and his henchmen. Throw in some wise-cracking ass-kicking from action legend Chuck Norris to the mayhem being dished out by Sly, Arnie and the gang and you have the greatest action movie ever to grace the big screen. This is shameless manliness at its best, highlighted by a shootout where Dolph and Sly happily high five after blowing away dozens of bad guys. I have just seen this movie in an advanced preview tonight (16 Aug) and I can safely say I have never left a movie theatre so entertained in all my life. I've been to comedies that didn't get as many laughs as this movie, with so many classic one-liners and gags added to almost all of the action. Seeing Chuck Norris pull one of his own internet 'Chuck Norris jokes' was worth the admission alone, and the climax of the movie gave me goosebumps- nothing will top seeing Chuck Norris, Bruce Willis, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sylvester Stallone join forces and dispatch hundreds of bad guys in all their glory. If you want big stars, one-liners, guns, explosions, entertainment and a barrel of laughs then this is the movie for you. An absolute epic action movie!!! Only Expendables III can top this now...