Expendable, No Tough Guy Punch

Rating: 3/10 (8 December 2010)

This could have been one of the ultimate guy movies. If so, Sly Stallone should have given up his director's and screenwriter's job...what was he thinking? It's as if Rocky Balboa himself wrote the script and directed...maybe with help from Mike Tyson. That is to say, it's written on a junior high school level. Considering the sophistication of action movies today, this film attempts to be a bit of an anachronism, a throwback to the 1980s to a Rambo/Commando tough dumb guy movie but in many ways, this film is worst.
The saving grace is having the presence of Statham, Li, Couture and Austin. Jason probably has the best script and role. He shines as the gunner from the plane and as a tough boyfriend on the bike. Jet Li is the butt of sad, stereotype jokes with a silly name like Yin Yang and is badly utilized. It's a throwback to racist stereotypes from old Hollywood movies. Coulture has a nice fight scene at the end. And Austin was quite credible and fun as a baddie. To note, Terry Crews doesn't have a great role but his shoot 'em up is one of the fun parts of the film. Mickey Rourke does a great job acting as he plays a role similar to his Iron Man 2 role (as Ivan Vanko) but I wonder if his philosophical rambling makes any sense in this kind of film. For Mickey, it is one of his best character roles (with Iron Man 2). Lundgren just can't act and his role doesn't make much sense. Eric Roberts is overly played as the bad guy. As many point out, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Bruce Willis are very underused; I can understand Arnold might be too busy as governor to lend much more.
Not only is the script really poor but the plot hardly makes sense. And although the action is very good, the camera work was mediocre. Back to the script: David Zayas plays a ridiculous role of dictator on an island that seems totally unrealistic. The connection between Sandra (played by Giselle Itie), the daughter of the dictator and Barney Ross (Sly) is awkward and out of the blue nonsense. Perhaps a few extra minutes connecting the two more emotionally might have made the film more credit. Otherwise the mission made no sense.
OK to have an old-fashion movie and use no CGI, but at least have a credible plot and script. I would give this film a 3 if it had only 2-3 of the stars. But due to the fun part of seeing all these dumb muscles, it's a 4.5 but there's no category so 4...or 5 depending on my mood. That is, your average movie...but a waste of a cast. A decent movie to see on a rerun on a rainy day with nothing to do and you feel brain-dead.