A huge disappointment

Rating: 4/10 (23 August 2010)

The latest Rambo movie was one of the best theater experiences I've ever had. It was everything I expected of it and I left the theater with a huge grin on my face. The Expendables, unfortunately, was the exact opposite. It was an attempt to be everything that an action movie fan could ask for, but it failed on almost all accounts. The script was utter rubbish, especially the humor failed to deliver. All the one liners were tired, unimaginative and delivered without feeling. The acting was bad, but this was naturally a given, and it didn't bother me. The worst part, by a mile, was the action. Everything that is wrong in action scenes produced in Hollywood today was there, and it was there in pounds. Angles changing every 0.5 seconds, shaking, nothing but close-ups, confusing angles... All the tricks you can pull to hide the fact that these old men weren't really up for the physical part of their roles, or that they just wanted to take the easy way out. The only saving grace of the film was the last 20 or so minutes, which were filled with nothing but action, some of it decent.
On paper it was a great thing that some of my favorite actions stars made a film together, but after having seen the end result, I wish this movie had never been made.