Could have been better

Rating: 7/10 (24 September 2013)

Expendables was not exactly my favorite but I would have to say that for the most part it was a decent action movie. With the amount of actors that were cast in this movie that had huge success in other franchises it was a little bit of a disappointment for me to see this movie at the level it was. I would have expected better.
That being said, there are a few scenes that I found pretty good. Incidentally these are the most action packed scenes of the entire movie. Go figure.
The first scene I liked was when Barney Ross (Sylvester Stallone) and Lee Christmas (Jason Statham) fly down to Vilena, an island in the Gulf of Mexico (fictional, of course). They are doing reconnaissance for a job to take out the dictator of the island. Ross and Christmas witness local soldiers terrorizing the citizens of the island and being directed by James Munroe (Eric Roberts) and Paine (Steve Austin). The best part of the whole scene is when Ross and Christmas escape the island, but end up taking out the dock area they landed their plane. The do this, Christmas first fires Browning M2 Aircraft machine guns quad-mounted into the nose of the plane. Then fuel is dumped on the dock, dousing the remaining soldiers and Munroe and Paine, Christmas then fires a M8 Flare Pistol at the dock to ignite the fuel.
The next scene I liked was when Christmas gets home he goes over to his girlfriend's house only to find that she, Lacy (Charisma Carpenter) is seeing another guy. Lacy explains that she only moved on because even when Christmas was home he wasn't really home, and that she really didn't know him. But the best scene for this little triangle is when Christmas goes to Lacy's house and discovers that her boyfriend, Paul (Hank Amos), has hit Lacy. Christmas and Lacy get on his motorcycle to go have a chat with Paul. Paul is playing basketball with a five or six other guys when Lacy and Christmas show up. Christmas takes out every single one of them, leaving them alive, but tells Paul that the next time he comes near Lacy and lays a hand on her he will deflate all of Paul's balls.
The best scene by far is the scene in which Ross and Christmas, along with the other members of their mercenary force, storm the President's Palace on Vilena. They are doing this to take out the dictator, General Garza (David Zayas), as well as Munroe and Paine. They are also trying to rescue Sandra (Giselle Itie'), General Garza's daughter. Near the end of the scene Munroe has a gun pointed at Sandra and he asks Ross why he was coming after him; Ross answers that he was coming for the girl not him, and then shoots Munroe several times before Christmas throws a knife through his chest.
Another great scene is the chase scene through the city the Expendables live in. I hate that the 1955 Ford 100 truck that Barney Ross was driving got destroyed, I like older vehicles like that one. The fight between Yin Yang (Jet Li) and Gunner Jensen (Dolph Lundgren) at the end of this chase scene was pretty cool.
I think I named all the headliners. Oh wait! I forgot Bruce Willis as Church and Arnold Schwarzenegger as Trench, they weren't in the movie for very long, a total of about 7 or 8 minutes.
Anyway, this could have been a hell of a lot better. The graphics, especially the blood splatter from gun shot wounds, was exaggerated; probably to allow for better visual effect, but it looked fake. I guess that was the point. A lot of the weapons were pretty cool. I like the weapon that Hale Caesar (Terry Crews) used. Sorry, I forgot a headliner.
The script was OK. Tool's (Mickey Rourke) story of being in Bosnia (?) was touching, especially when he started to get choked up.
Anyway, I give this movie a 7 out of 10 stars. It could have been way better.