Let Us Have Our Fun!

Rating: 7/10 (24 August 2010)

Seems like everyone has their own perception of what a "good movie" is and even furthermore what a "good time" is. The Expendables IMO has succeeded in many aspects of molding the two together.
I went to see this movie twice already and both times I've walked out feeling fulfilled. Perhaps it might be because I knew how to approach it.
The first time, I admit I felt a bit of conflicted angst mainly because I didn't know how Stallone can almost single-handedly create a decent product w/ all of that established star power. Too many times I've seen movies w/ big ensemble casts fall flat simply because there simply isn't enough space and time to get the most out of each performer. This movie has every right to be a big "abortion" mainly because Stallone runs the risk of having chemistry issues among a diverse cast of action stars from different generations nonetheless. But I was pleasantly surprised to see that he managed to pull it off! Was it as good as the first two X-Men movies? No, but Bryan Singer only had the one director role to play in that franchise while Stallone has to don several hats (writer, director, star, etc). I can only recall one other time I've seen anyone come close and that was Eddie Murphy's "Harlem Nights" project which IMO was mediocre at best. To me, the Expendables was a display of many multi-faceted stars w/ one common goal to produce an entertaining piece of film and that I can fully appreciate.
I guess the second time I went to see it was to ingest each actor's character contribution and to get a better appreciation of the actual story and once again I was not disappointed. Although this is a "man's movie" there's quite a bit of substantial entertainment to be had by all types of viewers. I guess my own biased criticisms is that there was not more involvement by Bruce Willis' "Mr. Church" character but that's cool because the path may have been laid out for that in the announced sequel(s)which many people have seemingly forgotten about or chose to ignore. I also really enjoyed seeing the more philosophical side of Mickey Rourke's performance in his portrayal of "Tool". I'm not going to give an individual synopsis as I've taken up too much space as it is but I'll just summarize by saying that everyone played their parts to the hilt w/ not much more to be desired.
I just have to laugh at the harsh criticisms and at times almost feel sorry for the cynics who seemingly don't know what to look for in these types of films.