Ok folks, our good friend Beki gave us the lowdown on the Expendables the other day from a ladies perspective. Now, it’s my turn to give you the ins and outs on The Expendables aka Manfest circa 2010. So, is Sly Stallones nostalgic gathering of 80’s and 90’s action heroes all it’s cracked up to be? Well… yes and no.
Ok, shall we start off with the plot? Well, I think it’s safe to say that audiences aren’t attending The Expendables for the latest on Dostoyevsky’s breakdown of existentialism, nope – we’re here to watch shit blow up. So, it’s safe to say that you could honestly write the plot on the back of a postage stamp. The Expendables have been hired to overthrow a dictator and somewhere along the line save the girl. That’s it – plot covered! Dialog, on the other hand… well, is a mixed bag, some of the lines are just plain cheesey… I don’t know if this was intentional or not… considering its supposed to be a throwback to the 1980’s - but they were plenty of collective groans in the audience.
However that said, when the dialog works, it literally runs off these guys tongues. Stallone, Statham, Jet Li and Lundgren were born to play these type of roles. They embellish it like they should, there’s a gung ho camaraderie at play. You feel like these guys eat, piss and shit war. Everyone of them, has a reservation at the hotel of death. Which brings us to why audiences are here in the first place… to watch these big action stars in action. Sylvester Stallone is just awesome and shows no sign of slowing down; his scenes with Statham are great. The pair have great chemistry together and Statham… well, I couldn’t have imagined this film without him.
Jet Li, Terry Crews, Steve Austin all get there little moments, but the guy that stole the film for me… is Dolph Lundgren. The guy is great, Lundgren relishes the role of ‘burnt out’ sniper ex-expendable and he plays it, well… the only the way Lundgren ‘can’ play it… an unhinged maniac it harkens back to Universal Soldiers Sergeant Scott all over again (what’s not to love?). Hopefully, by the time The Expendables is done at the box office, Dolph Lundgren will be headlining films in the theatre again rather than being relegated straight to DVD.
The action again, is rather a mixed bag, well… I’d say 60% good 40% not so good. I’ll try and be a little more specific, the car chases aren’t too hot and some of the shootouts are a little confusing. Stallone has employed the shaky cam, normally I’m a fan of the shaky cam but sometimes when the geography of the scene isn’t clear – it gets a little confusing. I’m not sure if this was to do with the budget or Stallone’s style of directing? However I will say this, the hand to hand combat in this flick is just plain awesome. Stallone stated during filming, Statham had his hands permanently in ice and Stallone nearly broke his neck filming scenes with Steve Austin. It’s rare these days you get to feel every punch, kick and slam. We’ve all been nurtured in well choreographed action scenes like The Matrix and the Bourne films.
The Expendables is a nice love letter to all those action films in the 80’s and 90’s, unfortunately though, those films were never perfect either. The Expendables promises a brainless action packed ride… just don’t count on it for anything else.
*** (3 out of 5)
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