Action-Men: The Movie !!

Rating: 7/10 (11 August 2014)

I remember reading about this in Total Film a few years back that after Sly revived Rocky & Rambo he was looking to recruit a squad of tough guys for what was being tagged as the ultimate action movie, and to say I was excited was understatement. Names were being thrown around left, right & centre on who would be in it. If the latest Rambo(2008) was anything to go by I knew this was going to be ace, or so I thought, well almost.
I reviewing this with the run up to EX3 just days away from release, and thought I'd start at the start. So watching this back (with Sly both behind, and in front of the camera) its a real throwback to everyone's favourite 80's flicks, there is real sense that Sly is trying to give us a real insight into the guys in the film (especially with Sly/Mickey/Jason's character) it worked more with Rambo as Sly is the only big name in the film, where as with all the names here even the poster was struggling to fit them in, but then again non-one is watching this for an Oscar nomination as its an action fest, just how it should be.
The action scenes are thick, fast and brutal but arrive in batches more towards that latter part of the film. In all honestly I did like Rambo more as action was its main driving force, Sly really want to deliver some plot and it does slow the film down at times, but I think he knows that as come the second film he steps down as Director and the balance of EX2 has way more laughs, even bigger names and action. So to sum up its great start to what could be a great franchise The one distracting factor throughout this and the 2nd film is the CGI is pretty poor and Rambo for that matter I notice that Lionsgate is behind these films so makes me question if its down to them) One more thing is Ex is rated at 18, EX2 at 15 and EX3 at 12A which sounds to me the violence is going to be pretty toned down but allows more bums on the seats so only time will tell.