Stallone's Action Epic, Shallow but Fun

Rating: 7/10 (30 November 2010)

Sylvester Stallone has written and directed the most testosterone-loaded film in years. He has brought together action film icons, both young and old, into one big exploding mess, and that's the main draw of the whole film. The story itself is nothing special that we haven't seen before: a team of mercenaries are hired by a mysterious "Agency" to infiltrate a Central American island nation and remove a general and his American benefactor from power. Cue the Expendables into action: Barney Ross (Stallone), Lee Christmas (Jason Statham), Yin Yang (Jet Li), Hale Caesar (Terry Crews), and Toll Road (Randy Couture). With names like that, you know the focus of this film isn't the characters...it's the explosions.
This isn't necessarily a problem. Some movies are just the type where you don't feel like following a story and want to watch Stallone take off a guy's head with one swipe of his knife. The action in this film is pretty wicked, particularly a scene where Ross and Christmas are escaping the island in their cargo plane and Christmas pops out through a front hatch to gun down soldiers from the air. Still, even with creative action moments like this, I don't think this movie pushed the limits enough for me. Sure, it was rated R but it didn't always feel like it. It might've been because the majority of the blood spatter in the film was CGI. Whatever happened to practical effects and blood squibs? It helps give an action film a little extra realism rather than using CGI to create blood that just does not look right in any case. There is some graphic violence in the film, but it's never too crazy (with the exception of Dolph Lundgren's warning shot to a group of Somali pirates in the opening).
No worries though because the CG blood isn't enough to ruin the film. It's still a blast, with the mercs trading one-liners while gunning through hundreds of soldiers. The dialogue is cheesy but the action keeps coming and doesn't stop until the Expendables have done their job. I do wish Mickey Rourke had been given a meatier role in the film. I thought he awesome in IRON MAN 2 and was looking forward to seeing him kick some butt here, but he's only given a handful of scenes away from the action. His character, Tool, is one of the most interesting and I hope he has a bigger role in the inevitable sequel (because, let's face it...with $100+ million box office, we're getting another). If Bruce Willis (who has a short, but sweet cameo with Arnold Schwarzenegger in the film) has a clear enough schedule, I'm hoping he returns to further inflate the awesomeness of the cast.
Stallone had a moment of genius when he decided to bring all of these action icons together and with some minor fixes, he could have a real action masterpiece. He's off to a good start here and I'm hoping the eventual sequel will be even stronger. If you're in the mood for some mindless explosions at the hands of some of the best action heroes to grace the screen, this is it. Just don't look too deep, or you'll see just how shallow the whole ordeal really is.