Adding negatives don't make a positive!

Rating: 6/10 (15 September 2010)

I'm a big fan of action movies.
I grew up in the eighties where both Arnie and Stallone were a staple diet so naturally I was excited about the Expendables. After coming out of the Cinema I felt my heroes had let me down a bit.
I keep seeing the same type of postings as I did for Transformers 2 and other similar disappointing action films, all along the lines of "What did you expect, this is all about the action baby".
Errr, no not really. People don't watch Gladiator and say "it's all about the swords and the tigers man". No good film is all about action, there has to be some kind of emotional content to make the action count so that we actually care about what happens to the characters. Aside from caring about what happens to the careers of the legendary cast (which I do), I didn't really feel for anyone in this film nor care what the outcome was.
********************************** Spoiler Alert ************************************************
The side story about Stathams character and his girlfriend was more than welcome. A bit hammy maybe but more than welcome. In the context of the film, without other character side stories it seemed a bit random though. I think from seeing this Statham bit in the Trailer, I was disappointed not to have seen similar side stories on the other guys who seriously lacked screen time.
Mickey Rourke was great as always. The (possibly improvised) banter with Statham about the tattoo on his head was great and the emotional scene about the woman on the bridge was nice but maybe just not quite enough to instigate Sly's character to revisit a South American island and fight an army to rescue a woman who he only met for 5 minutes. Mmmm The whole friendship thing, we're coming with you whether you like it or not. Didn't buy it! Maybe... a big argument, they go separate ways, then they all show up at the end and work together? Formulaic maybe but would have probably worked better I think (It needed a major rewrite in other words, probably not by me).
Some of the fight scenes were good although maybe a bit too close and frenetic, suffering from Transformers Syndrome. Some great one off moves but maybe a little too much phony CGI blood and guts as in the latest Rambo instalment (which was a better film).
The scene with Arnie, Sly and Willis Didn't work well. Willis doing his kind of Tarantinoesque B movie cameo could have worked but Sly and Arnie weren't there. Did Arnie not looked genuinely offended? The whole scene seemed completely contrived just to get the three together so they could put the names in the credits.
Back in the eighties I really believed that John Matrix would go through all he did to rescue his daughter. I was right there with Rocky to avenge Apollo's death from Ivan Drago. I even felt the glass on my feet when John Maclaine didn't have any other way to go. Was I with the Expendables? Nope.
Overall a Disappointment. The reason being, is that it could have been great. There could have been a lot of things said about friendship, warrior code, getting older in a young mans job. All sadly missed!
On the other hand, definitely worth a watch. That AA-12 Shotgun at the end is pretty cool!