Brainless action fun at its finest

Rating: 10/10 (8 October 2013)

Let's get one thing out of the way immediately; if you look at a blu ray cover and see Sly Stallone, Jason Statham and Steve Austin on it, it's a sure-fire thing you know exactly what you are getting when you stick the disk in.
This is not Pride & Prejudice, nor is it Blade Runner. What it is is exactly what it suggests on the cover; a cracking hour and a half of explosions, fisticuffs and shoot-outs featuring an amazing ensemble of many of the 80s finest action heroes plus more recent ones like Jet Li and aforementioned Statham.
While nowhere near as prolific a director as he is actor, Sylvester Stallone has nevertheless proved himself many times as extremely effective shouting 'action' as he is likewise saying 'Adrian'.
With previous credits including 3 of the Rocky movies, plus the Rambo remake, Stallone is no slouch when it comes to having an eye for a good action movie. He has made a career of pretending to be quite dim when the man is clearly a lot brighter than many give him credit for, and that is evident again in Expendables.
The story, a flimsy load of nonsense, is just a vehicle in this movie to travel from one explosive action scene to another, and quite simply it works brilliantly. The fights are bone-crunchingly satisfying, the shootouts crazily hectic and the explosions so over the top you'll smile and giggle like a kid reliving these kinds of moments from Hollywood's past.
What IS surprising is the level of acting and characterisation - while in places the voice clarity is very poor, nevertheless the narrative in terms of the protagonists is actually half decent, and the viewer genuinely wants Sly and his chums to succeed. A little touch of class was casting Mickey Rourke and his brief monologue in the middle works because you buy him - we saw him in the Wrestler as a hopeless case and he achieves it here too. Mainly because while the words are fake, the emotion is real given Rourke has hardly had an easy ride.
But getting back to why we watch it, the explosions, the fights, and the shootouts - they're compelling, engaging, well staged and the humour which punctuates them is used perfectly. The one-liners here, including the multitude of in-jokes and nostalgic references are delivered with aplomb.
With Stallone's fun-filled direction and an excellent cast who do their jobs very well indeed, this is a very enjoyable piece of brainless entertainment.
I do agree with another review which pointed out the one flaw which was the unconvincing CGI sequences which were obviously digital. They did rather blot some shots. That aside there's really little to complain about here.
Just don't expect The Shawshank Redemption.