The Expendables

What do you expect from The Expendables?  Lots of action, guns blazing, explosions, big names, and probably not a whole lot else.  Well I have good news, your expectations were right on!

There are some great action sequences in this film.  While some are not necessarily well done, most are pretty good.  The movie really keeps going without much down time throughout, with the exception of some story telling early on.  While the action is great, I will admit it gets a little tired toward the end.  Fortunately this isn't an overly lengthy film so while the action does get old, I think it ends right about where it should.

The story, as I think most would expect, is generally pretty weak.  I would compare it to a Rambo movie on HGH.  There is your generic bad guy and a heroine both of which have basically no back story and no real motivation to be who they are.  They story isn't terrible but it's nothing special.

The actors are some great ones but most are way past their prime.  The cast list includes, Sylvester Stallone, Bruce Willis, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Jason Statham, Jet Li, Mickey Rourke, Dolph Lungren, Steve Austin, Randy Cotoure, and Terry Crews.  Most are decent but some are really misused, specifically Jet Li.  His character tries to do comedy and it doesn't really work at all.  I am a Jet Li fan but his overall style doesn't really fit in this movie and they probably should have done without him.

This was a fun action movie but not my favorite.  In many ways I would compare this movie to The Losers, but that movie had a MUCH better story and more fleshed out characters.  See it, just don't expect much from it.

Posted on December 10, 2010