Everything an Action Movie should be, times 2!

Rating: 9/10 (13 August 2010)

Get ready to cheer. Be ready to laugh. Be ready to be amazed with wonderful, live action fighting scenes using everything from fists, to blades, to guns. I don't know how this movie avoided being cheesy, but darn it, it did! Mindless explosions? Not really. Excessive? Again, not really. I hate the sort of climax usually seen in an action movie where the pyrotechnics are the show. I want to see the actors/stunt-men doing their thing. I want to see people. I can see fireworks on the Fourth of July. (Though, trust me, there ARE fireworks in this movie, too.) The balancing of this many stars is incredible and pulled off remarkably well. When Sylvester Stallone made his final Rocky movie (Rocky Balboa), he said he did it as a "thank you" to the fans. Maybe that was the idea behind this one, too, though I heard a quote from somewhere that after seeing wimpy Tobey Maguire as "Spiderman" full of CGI and a stuffed/padded suit, he realized action heroes like himself were, well, expendable.
This is fantasy baseball and fantasy rock-n-roll camp for adults all rolled into a wonderful action flick with enough of a plot to give the characters motivation for their action. A deep plot? Heck no. A predictable plot? Certainly. But trust me, if you thought you've seen it all before, you have yet to see "The Expendables." Thank you Mr. Stallone!