A team of mercenaries head to South America on a mission to overthrow a dictator.
Review
Sylvester Stallone appears to be tying up loose ends to his career, lets take a look at the evidence.
Firstly he brought us a respectful and honourable end to the Rocky Balboa saga. Secondly he tried to do the same with John Rambo but never really got it to work. Thirdly he now brings us his homage, his love letter if you will, to the eighties/nineties action movies that made him.
The Expendables is exactly what an eighties action movie was, mindless violence, cheesy dialogue, over-the-top villains and a central hero. These were the correct ingredients to make your ultimate action film, some combined well, others didn't. The Expendables would have sat nicely in the 'better' action films of that time and in that respect it succeeds at what it is.
You have to remember that action films of the eighties and early nineties were never that well respected critically at the time. They were products that studios would churn out each and every year as throw away movies. Something mindless for your entertainment but never anything that would be taken seriously. It's only thanks to age and nostalgia that they resonate with people now, and is one of the reasons why The Expendables is so much fun. It reminds of you that time when violence and heroism in movies was much more fictional and counterfeit rather than the realism portrayed in action movies today. The Bourne Identity franchise being a classic example.
So onto the film itself. You can tell Stallone enjoyed making it right from the casting process. You don't get a cast list that includes a host of major action stars without knowing that it's going to be mindless. Statham, Lundgren, Jet Li, Steve Austin and Terry Crews aren't renowned for being Oscar contenders with acting muscles to match their physiques. They are hard boiled action stars there for one purpose, to be mean and hard ass. And they succeed. Mickey Rourke has a Oscar nomination under his belt but is only used sparingly and has little screen time. The Schwarzenegger and Willis cameos are a nice addition and well executed. Eric Roberts hams it to the max playing the uber villain with Steve Austin basically playing Mr Joshua from Lethal Weapon but without the blond hair piece.
The storyline and plot is by the numbers action. Band of heroes take on army with head villain being super evil to everyone. The script, or should I say list of one-liners, is cobbled together with glee. Back in the day you would have had the kids reciting lines like "Who sent you? Your Hairdresser! POW!" and "Next time, I'll deflate all your balls, friend!". Like I said, everyone's having fun here.
The action scenes are just ludicrous. Ludicrous good fun. Evil henchman are blown in two by guns that appear from nowhere with the fire power of a missiles. In fact talking of missiles The Expendables are so hard they can actually throw missiles at things rather then use guns! It gets so out of hand toward the end that they start blowing things up even when there isn't an enemy to be seen. Why waste ammo when you can blow up another shed or a helicopter for no reason. Its outrageous but it is what it is. The film works based on it's principles that sit happily in eighties and early nineties action philosophy and if you accept this then you'll enjoy the ride.
You can tell that this is directed by an assured action aficionado and with Stallone you have that. He knows what he wants and gets the job done with clinical precision. You really can't fault him, he's making a film, in a way, that says "thank you" to the genre that really made his name. Rocky aside its normally action that Stallone gets attributed with when he's got serious acting chops that are rarely used (see Copland for evidence).
So taking all this into account, did I enjoy Stallone's homage? The answer is yes, but only as much as I liked those type of films back when I was a bit of a kid. It was entertaining, a fun watch but was also disposable. Like many of the actions films I poured over back in my youth, I found that I enjoyed it but quickly want to move onto my next action fix. I didn't think it was brilliant, I didn't think I need to watch it again, again and again like the Schwarzenegger movies I love, I simply thought that it was a good, solid reflective of action films of old.
0 Comments
