You definitely won't be disappointed this time around!

Rating: 8/10 (3 September 2013)

When I reviewed "The Expendables" back in 2010, I cited it as proof that Sylvester Stallone is truly getting better with age - just like that old saying about aged wine - because it seems (in my opinion, at least), that some of the films he's made in the last seven years are much better than anything he did at the height of his fame in the '80s and '90s. "The Expendables" is setting out to be a full-fledged all-star action series, featuring pros young and old - mostly old - sharing major screen-time together.
Stallone has bowed out of directing 2012's "The Expendables 2" - turning things over to "Con Air" Simon West - though he still remains the star and co-screenwriter. This sequel, as I expected, is bigger and better than the first film, with a bigger cast of pros young and old. The story here is pretty simple and can be summed up as follows. It basically concerns old-school mercenary Barney Ross (Stallone) and his team looking to take down an international arms dealer named Villain (Jean-Claude Van Damme, turning in one of the most menacing villain performances in recent memory) and his small private army as they look for weapons-grade plutonium in Albania left over from the Cold War by the former Soviet Union.
The whole gang is here, too - Lee Christmas (Jason Statham), Yin Yang (Jet Li), Gunnar Jansen (Dolph Lundgren), Hale Caesar (Terry Crews), Toll Road (Randy Couture), and newcomers Billy the Kid (Liam Hemsworth) and Maggie (Yu Nan); plus there's Church (Bruce Willis), Trench (Arnold Schwarzenegger), and Booker (the almighty Chuck Norris!).
The action scenes are incredibly intense and bloody and over-the-top, but are almost comical. The real show, here (for me, at least), was watching Jean-Claude Van Damme playing a bad guy for once, and a truly vile villain at that. He does, by far, turn in the film's best performance and gets into a truly brutal, if anti-climatic, showdown against Stallone's Barney Ross in the film's explosive finale.
"The Expendables 2" was a long time coming, but it is one of the most worthwhile action films in recent years, from a group of old-school action pros who know their way around how to make a truly a**-kicking action film.
8/10