A bloody enjoyable film

Rating: 7/10 (8 September 2010)

Sylvester Stallone had a major comeback when he wrote and directed Rocky Balboa and Rambo, both being popular hits. With his career back on track he set out to make pretty much the ultimate action film with a cast of 80s, 90s and 00s action stars like Jason Statham, Jet Li, Dolph Lundgren, Mickey Rourke and Eric Roberts. The Expendables is set out to be a deliberate throwback to the 80s and is a unashameably enjoyable.
After rescuing a ship crew from Somali pirates, Barney Ross (Stallone) and his team of mercenaries are offered a tough mission to assassin a military dictator of a small island by Mr. Church (Bruce Willis). When exploring the island with Lee Christmas (Statham) the team believe the mission is a suicide mission to kill a rogue CIA agent James Munroe (Roberts). But when their contact Sandra (Gisele Itie) is captured Barney feels compelled to save her. His team, Christmas, Yin Yang (Li), Hale Caesar (Terry Crews) and Toll Road (Randy Couture) go to save the woman and complete the mission.
The Expendables does have problems: some of the acting is bad, particularly Itie and David Zayas who are both wooden, terrible dialogue and plot was a minor inconvenience. But The Expendables was never set out to be a Shakespeare: 80s films are not known for being heavy on plot. Stallone is a skilled action director and with The Expendables there were many delicious sequences, from fall blown gun battles to material arts fights. Many moments are over-the-top, like the use of plane and the final battle scene: but that is part of the fun. The film is very violence and enjoyable: Stallone does not hold back but I don't know why The Expendables got a 15 rating in the UK but Rambo was an 18. Both were as violence as each other.
The film felt like that it had 80 minutes of material and that Stallone had to find way to stretch it: such as the fight seen between Lee Christmas and a group of men at a basketball court and the chase scene in the city. Many of the characters lack depth, with moments involving Christmas and his girlfriend (Charisma Carpenter) felt forced and we do not really understand why Barney gets a conscience to go to save a woman. There are moments of humour which are fun, but some other moments were funny when Stallone set it out to be serious.
The Expendables sets out what it is meant to do: be an old-skool actioneer. It is a fun filled action film, with a lot of blood and a great film for men to watch together.