"The Expendables" is old school with both good and the bad

Rating: 7/10 (5 September 2010)

In this new action film directed by Sylvester Stallone, Barney Ross (Stallone) leads a gang of highly skilled mercenaries, which includes knife-expert Lee Christmas (Jason Statham), martial artist Yin Yang (Jet Li), heavy weapons specialist Hale Caesar (Terry Crews), demolitionist Toll Road (Randy Couture) and sniper Gunner Jensen (Dolph Lundgren). They are hired by Mr. Church (Bruce Willis) to assassinate a dictator General Garza (David Zayas) on a South American Island called Vilena. While there, Barney befriends local rebel Sandra (Giselle Itié), whom he takes it upon himself to rescue from the dictator and his pal, the rogue ex-CIA operative James Munroe (Eric Roberts).
As of late, I had found Sylvester Stallone-directed films to be a good vacation from all the colorful, CG-fied, bloodless, MTV-style dizzying action flicks out there (I'm looking at you, A-Team). I enjoyed both his Rocky Balboa and the new Rambo. They're great guy films with guys who look like guys. They're also meaner and unsophisticated. And, that's okay—action heroes don't have to be sensitive, domesticated and "whipped" men.
Now that I have seen the film, I got mostly what I expected and wanted, yet, I did wish there was more to it. The Expendables is a great idea on paper, having all the old-school 80's action stars together to go on a mission to take on some big baddie. Now, the hard part is to make it all work together as a whole, and that's where the film falters a bit. It's unevenly balanced as certain side characters became more simplified than others and the central plot regarding the dictator gets lost occasionally. Sylvester Stallone is in good form as his usual action hero self, with good-natured banter and lots of tattoos. Jason Statham gets good screen time, and Jet Li gets some action in. Dolph Lundgren is in great form, looking more dangerous and meaner this time around. Eric Roberts bring a lot of fun energy as the well-dressed, quick-talking villain, James Munroe. Bruce Willis and Arnold Schwarzenegger make brief appearances. Mickey Rourke is engaging in his brief moments of dialogue.
This film truly soars when there is action. They're often bloody and very messy. I found the lack of CG, the plethora of explosions (and people jumping from it) and chopped limbs falling off unrealistically pretty fun to watch. It's messy in that hard-action 80's sort of way. At the same time, some of the action scenes were hard to follow due to many quick cuts in the editing. I would have preferred to see long takes when Jet Li is doing his scenes, personally. Sylvester Stallone still seems quite fit for his role, using everything from guns to bone-cracking hand-to-hand combat.
The film's pacing feels rather stagnant outside the action scenes. The dialogue, for the most part, is cheesy 80's macho stuff, but fun. They are not very descriptive, but the delivery is good. There are no references to modern pop culture, which is a plus. Most of the character focus is on Barney (Stallone) and Lee Christmas (Statham), while the others became more two-dimensional. The story meanders from the central plot with a change of scenery with a side plot regarding Lee Christmas' love life and an altercation with Gunner Jensen. The scenes are a lot of fun in themselves, but do not particularly mesh too well with the whole.
This film is essentially a celebration of the 80's action film—the macho flick with explosions and tough talk. There are certainly plenty of that here, despite some unevenness. I think the story could've been more focused and I may've preferred if the whole story took place at Vilena instead of going back and forth. Admittedly, with the all-star cast, my overall expectation may have been a tad high. I did enjoy it more than The A-Team, though.
For more of my reviews you can follow me on http://twitter.com/d_art