Stallone's nostalgic touch makes for a fairly well done action picture

Rating: 7/10 (12 August 2010)

After undoubtedly helping kick-start the current fascination with bringing the 1980s back to the big screen, Sylvester Stallone has fairly successfully continued the trend with The Expendables. The film, an obvious action movie throwback, follows a group of mercenaries hired to take down a dictator in South America. But, as any action movie fan should know, there is a bit more to their plight than what the group initially expected.
Seeing both The Losers and The A-Team, I was a little apprehensive about what to expect from The Expendables. On one hand, it was a similar film about a rather eclectic group of guys killing everything that stands in their way (albeit, with an added R-rating). But on the other, it was the only one that was merely inspired by other works, instead of outright based on something that had come before it. As well, there is thankfully no revenge subplot to speak of, something the former films followed each other a bit too closely on. With those ideas in mind, it is a bit hard seeing The Expendables as its own distinctive film on the outset. Each film has its own set of balls-to-the-wall action sequences, wise-ass one-liners and quips, and gigantic explosions.
But what sets The Expendables apart, and what is likely its biggest selling point, is the nostalgia factor. Sure, The A-Team was about a group from a beloved TV series. But a few of its original stars merely had cameos in the film. In The Expendables, it is a wild mix of who's who of action stars. 80s stars like Stallone, Dolph Lundgren, Eric Roberts and Mickey Rourke are mixing it up with current action stars like Jason Statham and Jet Li, not to mention "athletes" like Randy Couture and Steve Austin. And for added measure, two huge action stars from the decade show up in what may be the greatest cameo appearances ever conceived. It is just a shame that the trailers and press coverage ruined what is essentially, the best scene in the entire film (to think it could have been as well hidden as the zany cameo in last year's Zombieland). This cast alone is reason enough to check the film out for the sheer enjoyment of seeing them all mixing it up on-screen.
But sadly, no one outside of Stallone and Statham really gets a chance to really make something of their characters, outside of the one-dimensional archetypes that set their characters up. Li gets at least two great fighting scenes, but is otherwise to crack a few jokes and be made fun of for his Asian heritage. Roberts makes for a great villain, but gets not nearly enough time to truly feel dastardly. Lundgren gets a real dramatic sequence that could have truly made something of his character, but the performance is almost entirely relegated to happening off-screen. Rourke merely has an extended cameo, and looks like he shot all of his scenes in less than a week after wandering off the set of Iron Man 2, makeup and all. You have to expect that not everyone will get a chance to really do a lot with such a big cast list, but it felt like a bit of a copout having so many recognizable people cast in the film, only to do much too little with any of them.
If there is any benefit in having such a huge cast, it is in Stallone's performance. His character is for all intents and purposes, an offshoot of John Rambo. The film plays much closer to his last outing as that legendary character than it does the other mercenary-based films from this year. But instead of being the timid introvert confusing audiences with his "depth", he is actually quite great in the leader role here. He plays off everyone well, and the added interactions allow for him to pull off a much more enjoyable performance as a result. Statham on the other hand, is the clear standout of the film, alternating between the comic relief and the genuine bad-ass of the whole film. He steers his role well (even with the needless subplot involving an ex-girlfriend played by Charisma Carpenter), and holds his own against everyone, including Stallone. He has a lot of fun in his role, and he is obviously the best thing about the film.
What I really disliked was the rather horrendous looking special effects used for anything outside of stunts and fighting sequences (all of which are rather vicious, but fairly epic to watch given the fighters). The majority of explosions look horribly CG'ed, and any scene with an extended shot of fire looks like it was painted in as an afterthought. With much of the final battle taking place in and around fires and explosions, you can immediately tell how irritating this quickly became. Much the same goes for the blood, which looks like was all added in after the fact. There is nowhere near the same amount of bloodshed as in Rambo, and even less gritty realism. It just looks all too sloppy on Stallone's part, and seems rather careless. This could easily be chocked up to Stallone making the film seem closer to its 80s brethren than it should, but is still a pretty weak excuse for something that easily could have looked a lot better.
The Expendables is an exciting and explosion filled action romp, but it makes clumsy mistakes that easily could have been fixed during production or even afterwards. This is a hard hitting film that hits so many marks, but falls short of a few too. It is Stallone's best work in the past few years, but it also proves that he is much stronger when acting as part of a heavily emphasized ensemble, as opposed to primarily on his own. Here's hoping we are done with mercenaries for a while.
7/10.
(This review also appeared on http://www.geekspeakmagazine.com).