Packed with Action from Start to Finish

Rating: 6/10 (9 January 2016)

This movie begins with pirates seizing a ship in the Gulf of Aden and a couple of months later televising their intent to kill one of the hostages due to the failure of the ship's main company to meet their demands. Just prior to actually killing the hostage a small group of mercenaries appear and the leader named "Barney Ross" (Sylvester Stallone) throws a bag full of money to the pirates. However, the leader of the pirates now demands more money and a firefight erupts which ends up with the death of all of the pirates along with the release of the hostages. None of the mercenaries are hurt either. Not long afterward the leader of this elite squad of mercenaries is approached by a CIA operative who goes by the name of "Mr. Church" (Bruce Willis) and offered an assignment to kill the military leader of a small island in the Gulf of Mexico. After talking briefly with his team Barney and another member by the name of "Lee Christmas" (Jason Statham) decide to go to the island to do a little reconnaissance first. They soon discover that this assignment won't be very easy at all. Now rather than reveal any more of this movie I will just say that it is packed with action from start to finish. So those who enjoy fast-paced action movies will probably like this film quite a bit. On the other hand, those who prefer a certain amount of realism are bound to be somewhat disappointed. Additionally, while Sylvester Stallone, Jason Statham and Jet Li (as "Yin Yang") certainly had adequate screen time, others like Arnold Schwarzenegger ("Trench Mauser"), Mickey Rourke ("Tool") and the aforementioned Bruce Willis made only cursory appearances which didn't affect the movie one way or the other. What a shame. In any case, although this movie was definitely unrealistic and lacked any depth, it was still entertaining and I have rated it accordingly. Slightly above average.