The Expendables

Rating: 6/10 (27 December 2010)

Sylvester Stallone, Jason Statham(who, truth be told, is the real star of the movie), Jet Li, Dolph Lundgren(the best role he's had in over a decade or so), Randy Couture, and Terry Crews are commandos/mercenaries paid to do the dirty work that goes unreported in the news or media. We see in the opening that they wipe out a bunch of Somalian pirates who were demanding ransom for kidnapped refugees. Eric Roberts slides comfortably into his drug-lord-in-a-fine-tailored-suit role(with a viper grin) with Stone Cold Steve Austin his heavy duty muscle(let's be honest he kicks Stallone's ass in their hand-to-hand combat sequence). David Zayas is the military leader of a "country in the Gulf" named Vilena who has joined forces(it's a bumpy partnership, however)with Roberts in operating a drug trade using their army to terrorize the locals so that they submit to working in the cocaine fields. Mickey Rourke(who is part of the film just because he's cool)is a former member of Stallone's Expendables group. A subplot has Stallone having to excommunicate Lundgren because he's a junkie who has lost his edge, almost lynching one of the Somalian pirates. Stallone will be enlisted by CIA man Bruce Willis(Arnold Schwartzenegger turns down the job; himself a leader, it seems, of some sort of mercenary group..perhaps a homage to "Predator", maybe?)to assassinate dictator Zayas(the true target is ex-CIA Roberts)and cripple his army rule. I have two words for this movie:Missed Opportunities. Because Stallone insists on shooting action scenes mostly darkly lit in a jerky camera method, we miss out on what could've been an epic battle between Lundgren and Li. And Austin's fight with Stallone is murky as well because it's shot in a darkened tunnel..what's frustrating here is that Stallone endured severe punishment with Austin while filming the scene. Even more aggravating is the fact that most of the violence with guns and knives are shot in the black of night and shadow or off screen completely--an absolute no-no for blood thirsty action fans who expected RAMBO with a collection of muscleheads. One thing Stallone delivers in spades are plenty of explosions and pyrotechnics at the end. There's also a bad ass sequence where Stallone is flying their fighter plane as Statham fires from the hole of the nose of said plane(later Stallone drops gasoline which Statham ignites a river ramp with plenty of Zayas and Roberts' army sent up in flames). There is a pretty decent car chase as Lundgren(who has betrayed his men in a moment of weakness, paid by Roberts to alleviate his serious threat)attempts to crash Stallone with Li in the back of the truck with a machine gun trying to thwart his efforts. The "blow sh%t up" mantra is one I often embrace, but in this movie that's all Stallone is successful at. Machine guns fire as does Crews' big ass missile launcher which explodes giant huts with ease sending men hurling in the air. I guess that might be a reason to recommend the movie, what I just mentioned. But you don't get the best out of Li by a long shot, not to mention, Crews or Couture have very little to do until the end. A good portion of the film has Stallone hanging out with Rourke in his bar or Sly and Statham scouting out Vilena. Statham, though, does get to show his stuff on more than one occasion such as when he and Sly must eliminate several soldiers in order to save Zayas' daughter, Giselle Itié, or beating the crap out of the abusive boyfriend(and his basketball buddies)of his former girlfriend, Charisma Carpenter(underused). And Statham's work with Rourke is fun, particularly their knife-to-dart-board duels. Rourke even has one of those emotional scenes where he comments on losing his humanity when he didn't save a suicide victim who leaped from a bridge, mentioning how the "blood and guts" mercenary business had taken something from him. Maybe a sequel will be in the works which could rectify the mistakes made in this movie..I don't see why not since this flick brought in a bucket load. A fight between Austin and Couture could've been a major highlight(especially since one of them goes up in flames)if you could see the damn thing. Sigh.