THE EXPENDABLES (includes trailer)
September 6th 2010 14:12
The Expendables - now in cinemas
What are you supposed to make of a film like The Expendables, a steroid ridden muscle fest of explosions, guns and knives, boasting every big block buster action star of yester year. Can you take it seriously? How should you manage your expectations (or lack there of) for a film that includes Sylvester Stallone, Jason Statham, Dolph Lundgren, Bruce Willis, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Eric Roberts, Terry Crews and Jet Li. The inclusion of a pro wrestler and a pro-fighter in the cast, Steve Austin and Randy Couture, put me off initially, as I hesitated to take the bate of this all star line up (you have to be concerned about a film who’s built in audience are wrestling fans, right?). In the end, the inclusion of my man, Mickey Rourke (Angel Heart, Year Of The Dragon, The Pope Of Greenwich Village) won me over and I took the plunge.
Turning my phone off and leaving my brain at the door, I entered the theatre. The film began, I never once stopped to think about it’s shortcomings or wondered if these men who had such an emotional attachment to their weapons of mass destruction had ever checked into a therapists office. As drool rolled down my chin in my temporarily dumbed down state, I had to admit, I was impressed. The Expendables delivers and for male audiences who seek nothing but wall to wall action and violence, this film delivers through and through, giving it’s intended audience exactly what they came for. The Expendables never tries to cater to everyone, it’s simply tough guys killing the bad guys and blowing shit up - and it’s done pretty well for the most part. While The Expendables is no stroke of brilliance, it’s ability to stick to what it knows best leaves me with a strange respect for it’s narrow limitations and convictions.
Sylvester Stallone is Barney Ross, Jason Statham is Lee Christmas, together they lead a mercenary team, who’s other members are played by Crews, Li, Couture and Lundgren, they all hang around at a tattoo parlour with their ex-mercenary buddy played by Mickey Rourke. These ripped, oversized, tattooed behemoth’s (with the exception of Jet Li) have been going into missions together for years, standing for nothing except the money that drives a mercenary to stampede towards uncertain danger. These Mercenaries are sent in to a small country by the CIA to overthrow a dictator (Eric Roberts) and his army. This dictator was once a member of the CIA but turned rogue. It’s pretty straight forward from then on, there are the usual ‘some friends become enemies’, ‘some enemies become friends, the characters learn that the heroes journey didn’t take them where they expected’ etc, with all that usual stuff sprinkled in, but The Expendables sticks to being a strict action film, ‘a bunch of guys on a mission’ genre film and generally never deviates from that.
Directed by Sylvester Stallone, who in the past has made mediocre attempts at directing drama (Staying Alive, Paradise Alley) proves here that he has a knack for directing action. When Stallone makes sly attempts at broadening the film’s horizons, it very quickly falls on it’s face. Attempts at wit, hackneyed one liners and stabs at humour consistently fall flat, character and comedy are some of the films weakest points, but I have to give credit where credit is due, there where a few unexpected surprises here which lifted the film up a notch or two to make it work well at times.
While the film is essentially a one trick pony ie the biggest and baddest tough guys in the world kicking ass, there is a method to it’s madness. The casting in this has a sound logic to it after all, despite my luke warm first impression towards the whole thing. Stallone keeps a leash on the cast of athletes (Austin and Couture) who appear in the film, making sure they don’t do anything too terrible. It’s clear that a few of these ‘actors’ have been cast on physique alone and the film suffers terribly for it, fortunately it’s all delivered tongue in cheek. And while the humour and constant jokes are botched due most of the cast members not having any real talent, The Expendables comes armed with a decent amount of charm to it which you can’t help but find likeable.
Stallone delivers his lines with under played, (and in his case monotonous) low energy which along with some of the weaker actors saves them from sticking out too badly. This works to varying results, both under whelming, sometimes terrible and sometimes impressive. Eric Roberts is terrible as the villain here, giving the most boring, dull, flavourless performance in the entire film (which by that standard, equates to enormously awful). Arnold Schwarzenegger makes a brief appearance that is so awkward it ruins the entire scene, Bruce Willis seems to be the most disinterested here as he recites his lines through his teeth (it feels like he’s about to roll his eyes at any second), but there are some fetching qualities to The Expendable which triumphs over it’s fatty flaws.
The Expendables is directed and delivered with Mucho Grande Cojones and confidence. It’s a solid effort with top notch production work in the film’s look and tone which are all consistent and as solid as the brawny cast. Statham radiates appeal, Mickey Rourke steals the show in the two or three scenes he’s in as The Expendable wisely manages to make the most of Rourke’s talent. That’s what I liked about this film, it seemed that even if the cast members were often top heavy, they still had a purpose, fitting into the grand scheme appropriately even if the results were patchy. One actor that gave a surprising performance here was Dolph Lundgren (Rocky IV, Universal Soldier), it’s not Oscar calibre work by any means but he brings unexpected charisma to the role and makes a whole hearted attempt to build a character.
After these men (who mostly resemble a bunch of condoms filled with walnuts) have been taken to acting school by Mickey Rourke, Lundgren is the next best thing. I was disappointed to see Jet Li under used here, aside from him coming across like a spare part he has one fight scene only, which is like a dull blade compared to his best work, but still momentarily satisfies.
Then finally we have the stylised action scenes which chew up most of the film’s running time and here is where The Expendable knocks one out the park. Stallone, as a director, really has a talent for filming and creating on screen action (as we saw in the ludicrously violent 4th Rambo film), he brings it all on with a swift, strong hand delivering a big gutsy violent pop corn flick with caviar quality action scenes that do exactly what they need to – blow the bad guys and the audience away.
There’s not much to this film. The Expendables resembles a dinosaur, a massively oversized, pre-historic beast with a pea sized brain that roars and destroys everything in it’s way. It’s not Shakespeare, we can be fortunate for that given most of the cast’s limited acting abilities, but it looks like these blokes really had a lot of fun making The Expendables, just like I had watching it.
| 89 |
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Comment by David O'Connell
Screen Fanatic
Comment by ShaunK
Screen Adventure
Glad to see Rourke wasnt left on the bench like in Iron Man 2. I thought there was definitely a method to the casting's madness and the film had some qualities of merit to it
Comment by JohnDoe
Film & TV on DVD
i just watched this last night and think you got it right in this review.
Will write up my own critique shortly where detailed opinions will be shared.