Part old school, part modern noisy action blockbuster.

Rating: 7/10 (29 August 2010)

The Expendables starts as Barney Ross (co-writer & director Sylvester Stallone), the leader & brains behind a gang of mercenaries, is hired by a Mr. Church (Bruce Willis) to overthrow General Garza (David Zayas) the vicious drug growing & trafficking dictator of the Island of Vilena in South America. Ross assembles his team, from weapons to explosive to martial arts experts who are highly trained. On a scouting mission to Vilena Ross meets local island girl Sandra (Giselle Itié) who puts her own life at risk to help Ross escape, moved by the act of bravery the mission becomes personal for Ross as he wants to help Sandra & the locals who live in fear of General Garza & his men but it seems the real enemy lies closer to home as General Gaza is controlled & used by an ex-CIA agent named James Munroe (Eric Roberts) for his own ends...
Co-written & directed by Sylvester Stallone who also starred in the thing I'm guessing that The Expendables is meant as some sort of homage to the over the top action films of the 80' & 90's that many of the cast appeared in including Stallone & while not entirely successful anyone who holds that type of film in high regard & long for the days of the likes of Die Hard (1988), Cliffhanger (1993) & True Lies (1994) to name but three then The Expendables will satisfy your need for violence, big guns, cool weapons & huge explosions. The script is typical 80' action fare with almost superhuman action heroes taking on entire armies & winning while blowing lots of things up the process, maybe I'm easily pleased but I really don't see anything wrong with that all! The actual story & character's are less impressive, with so many recognisable faces in the cast it was going to be impossible to give everyone sizable roles & only really Stallone & Statham get any sort of character development. The plot is a little weak, again US Government agencies turn out to be the real villains but not much time is devoted to the plot. At a little under one hour & forty minutes long the pace is good even though there are one or two moments that it does drag but the final third is none stop shoot-outs, fights, explosions & death defying action set-pieces so all is not lost & there's plenty to look forward to as you sit through one or two of the slower moments.
There hasn't been a film like The Expendables for ages & it's great to see an action film that uses proper stunt-men, proper explosions rather than CGI computer effects although there still is CGI here. From a cool plane with front mounted guns that Statham sticks his head out of to aim to huge knives to massive guns that literally blow people apart The expendables is quite macho & any guy looking for senseless action & violence is onto a winner. There's also a great car chase with a really cool looking black truck & numerous fights. While Stallone & Statham get sizable roles Jet Li is disappointingly left behind somewhat & he never really gets to show off his martial arts skills which surely is a waste of a great athlete & talent. Dolph Lundgren gives an odd performance as a junkie & it's great to see him & Li fight it out with contrasting styles. A word of warning though, The Expendables is very violence with a lot of knife play including slashed throats, chopped off hands & one straight through a bad guy's neck in gory detail while the bad guy's are also literally blown to bits with some serious fire power but in my book that's a definite plus.
With a supposed budget of about $80,000,000 no expense has been spared with the action set-pieces from exploding palaces that collapse to armies of bad guy's shot down to some great locations in Rio de Janeiro. The cast is brilliant, from Stallone & Statham & Li (The Expendables is the third film that Statham & Li have starred in together after The One (2001) & War (2007)) to Lundgren & Eric Roberts to Steve Austin & Gary Daniels to Terry Crewes & Mickey Rourke to the cameos from Bruce Willis & Arnold Schwarzenegger. If only that had managed to get Chuck Norris, Steven Seagal & Jean-Claude Van Damme the entire 80's & 90's action star roster would have been here. I can dream I suppose.
The Expendables is a throwback to the old school action flicks of the 80's & 90's while some modern filmmaking annoyances creep in occasionally like CGI, quick cut editing & shaky hand-held camcorder photography they are few & far between. I liked it for what it is & I loved the cast & the huge explosions & weapons on show, so sue me.