Great Action That Lives Up to the Hype

Rating: Null/10 (13 August 2010)

Expendables, The (2010)
*** (out of 4)
There's no question this here was the most anticipated action film in quite sometime due to all the legends of the 80s teaming back up. If you're looking for some sort of heartfelt or dramatic story then you can pretty much look elsewhere but if you just want mindless action then Stallone has delivered yet another good one. The limited story focuses on a group known as the Expendables who go on secret missions to kick as much ass as possible. This time they're paid to go to a small island where a drug lord (Eric Roberts) has taken over the military and killing innocent people who try to fight his ways. Stallone, Jason Stratham, Jet Li, Dolph Lundgren, Randy Couture, Terry Crews and Mickey Rourke round out the good guys with Steven Austin playing the sidekick to Roberts. As the trailers have ruined, we even get Bruce Willis and Arnold Schwarzenegger in a brief scene with Stallone. Again, if you're looking for some sort of drama then just forget about it but if you like action then you're not going to be disappointed here. I think you can't blame the story for being somewhat one note because they had to find a way to put all these famous names in one movie and that's really not as easy as some might think. All of these personalities need their space and each of them get it with the countless action scenes. I was really surprised by Roberts since he hasn't been mentioned in any of the trailers but he delivers the good as makes for a terrific villain and there wasn't any problem loving to hate the guy. Austin also made for a great villain and his fight with Stallone certainly lived up to the hype. As for the rest of the film, it's simply a lot of fun. We are treated to some terrific, over-the-top and extremely violent action scenes with one of the best coming when Stallone and Stratham take off in a plane and decide to go back and treat the bad guys to a little action. The scene is a very memorable one as is the final giant battle, which lasts a good fifteen-minutes with God knows how many dead bodies and bullets flying around. We even get some very good, smaller action scenes including one where Stratham goes after a man who punched his ex-girlfriend. This is one of the scenes where Stallone lets each actor do their thing and it makes for a good time. The now somewhat legendary teaming of the big three from the 80s only lasts for about four-minutes but it lives up to the hype. We get a few good one-liners and it was just a nice thrill seeing all three together even if this was one of the few scenes without anyone getting hurt or killed. There are a few major problems with the film with the biggest being some extremely bad CGI effects including an embarrassing one where a building gets blown up and eventually falls down. This sequence is so fake looking that it almost takes you out of the film. I'm sure some might be disappointed that not everyone gets equal time on screen but I think Stallone did the best he could getting so many people into the film. Fans of the 80s action are going to have a good time with this one but you really shouldn't take it too serious. Everything here is just meant for fun and on that level it works.