Stallone does it again!

Rating: 10/10 (15 August 2010)

After nearly a decade of disappointments Stallone shocked the movie world by making a 6th emotionally charged Rocky, he then went on to please fans by taking Rambo into a visceral brutally realistic war movie, now for his hat trick Stallone gave us something old and something new 'The Expendables' the type of movie kids dreamed about the early 90's, what if this guy & that guy and him where all in a film together. A little too late? Hell no! Never has this film been more needed. In a land of watered down PG-13 wire work action movies real action fans where desperate for some real old school action. (Cobra, Commando, Delta Force, Last Boy Scout..) The great thing about this film is even if it didn't have the cast it still would be a great action movie, the fact it has such a jaw dropping cast just makes it all the better. Stallone is growing as an action director, he brought some of his tense brutal techniques from Rambo but was smart enough to go a little old school for other scenes. Their are some very kinetic action sequences but not Parkinson's suffering cameraman techniques like the Bourn films.
The main focus of the team are Stallone & Statham, they really have a good Old Dog, New Dog friendship. Lundgren (My favourite character) gets a an interesting sub plot. Unfortunately Li, Couture & Crews get pushed to the background but they do get some great scenes to shine. (Hopefully they can get some more development in the sequel.
Roberts and his Henchman Stone Cold Steve Austin shine as the brutal villains. Gary Danials however was really underused I was expecting some Bennet style lines. At least he got one of the best fights of the movies.
Of coarse the scene everyone was talking about was the Stallone, Schwarzenegger & Willis scene. Which was one of the funniest parts of the movie. Their attempt to put each other down while out manning each other worked brilliantly and Willis threatening Stallone alone is worth the ticket price.
A slight nag about the film is at the very end some CGI did crop up, in the form of fire. After all the practical stunts throughout the movie including one great Truck chase I was a little disappointed not to see a stuntman in a fire suit.
If this had just been Stallone's baby with a few unknown actors I'd give this film 8/10 BUT the fact we get to see Stallone, Statham, Li, Lundgren, Couture, Crews, Roberts, Rourke, Danials with Willis & Schwarzenegger punch, kick, stab, mouth off and blow up each other cranks it up to a 9.5/10 for me.
Bring on Expendables II