Good old school action movie but with a room for improvemet

Rating: 6/10 (26 December 2014)

"Expendables" earned much money thanks to the big names and nostalgia. This is not a movie that lives to the incredibly high expectations of action fans. I still would rather watch "Commando" or "Tango and Cash". There are some flaws here that stop it from being great. Yet it's a good movie.
Stallone is not a bad director , but here he doesn't always do good job. The movie drags at times , especially in the first half . "Expendables" also feels too serious and too dark for it's own good. The moral dilemmas are very heavy handed . It feels like Stallone wanted to do his version of "Seven samurai" at places. Yikes. Thankfully there is some great macho dialogues and jokes here .
The action scenes themselves are well done."Expendables" is a movie that truly lives only during action scenes. The action scenes are done in modern way with a lot of quick cut editing , CGI blood and explosions. I have to say I was hoping for more old school approach. The CGI looks horrible at places. The editing is sometimes too quick , but overall the action scenes are quite powerful. The mayhem at the end is something you just don't see in modern action movies.
The plot is both simple and underdeveloped. The story was told before and is very overused by now. Stallone and Statham have the most screen time , while other characters struggle to find their place in the story. Arnold Schwarzenegger and Bruce Willis appear for 5 minutes and only talk. They don't take part in any of the action. What a waste ! Mickey Rourke seems like a pointless character . He makes one important , but terribly lame speech that made my head hurt. Thankfully Dolph Lundgren and Jet Li are entertaining as the crazy drug addict and always complaining karate fighter. The movie lacks good main villain. Eric Roberts or the general Mendoza don't seem really menacing or interesting.
Brian Tyler provides an energetic soundtrack. There is plenty of one-liners and in jokes references. The movie is rated R and makes a good use of it - a massive body count, loads of bone crunching action, explosions, bad guys getting gruesome payback.
Hollywood just doesn't make them like this anymore. I like the sequel slightly better , even if it wasn't perfect too. Thanks to Stallone and others for some good old school feven if it's not as good as it could be). I give it 6/10.