This movie is... expendable.

Rating: 6/10 (1 September 2010)

I believe that the most notable characteristic of this movie can be summarized by the poster on the left: a list of 'big' names and known faces, all mixed up together regardless of their actual role and its (ir)relevance to the 'story'. To be more clear, Willis plays an insignificant cameo of some minutes, Rourke has a very minor role, "Stone Cold" has a minor role AND is a 'bad guy', almost same thing for Lundgren, etc, etc. You could also see this as an example of deceptive advertising, in a sense: throwing in big names to have some people say "wow! what a cast! I gotta watch this!". Of course, having big names in a movie would be a good thing, if only the actors that bear those names were given a meaningful role and the chance(/ability?) to play it. Of all the actors cited in that list, only Stallone, Statham an (oddly enough) Li play what one might call 'main' roles, and the first two are the ones who actually have some lines of dialog too. Yes, this is an action movie, not a drama, but I don't believe this can be a justification for ridiculously ill developed plot and characters (e.g. the 'apex' of character development this movie reaches is well exemplified by two ludicrously sketchy sequences that involve Statham and Mrs. Carpenter), and for fast paced action that sadly doesn't 'connect' in order to form a linear and accomplished plot sequence. How are Stallone and 'his squad' organized? Who are they, and what's their background? What's the deal with the bad guys? What are they doing? Who the hell is Willis supposed to be and why/how does he contract these guys? And so on, and on. (Incidentally, the scene with Willis and *won't spoil this 'surprise'* is for some reason one of the most self-indulging and 'least-funny-while-trying-too-hard-to-be' I've seen recently)
The movie does almost nothing in order to create a sense of 'perspective' and purpose to help the viewer relate to what's going on and feel intrigued by it. It's all about martial arts, weapons and explosions, but if this is all one is entitled to expect from an action movie, then, hell, we already have dozens of Seagal and Van Damme's flicks out there that do exactly the same things without all the 'glittering stars' Stallone could draw upon.
As the saying goes: All that glitters...
6/10