The Expendables

The much touted return of the old-school action flick by Sylvester Stallone had action-fans drooling all over themselves at the prospects being off... read more

The much touted return of the old-school action flick by Sylvester Stallone had action-fans drooling all over themselves at the prospects being offered. This was an itch most had been waiting to scratch since the 1980s passed us by. After the brutal fourth installment of Rambo that came out in 2007, Stallone suddenly seemed to be making a comeback into territory that he had once claimed as his own; action flicks. Unfortunately all the hoopla and expectations fall flat upon viewing the final product.

The Expendables are six soldiers of fortune lead by Barney (Sylvester Stallone). The team includes;

1.Lee Christmas (Jason Statham) Barneys right hand man and an expert knife thrower.
2.Yin (Jet Li) The hand-to-hand combat expert
3.Hale Caesar (Terry Crews) The heavy-gunner
4.Toll Road (Randy Couture) The demolitions expert
5.Gunner Jensen (Dolph Lundgren) The slightly crazy sniper

The team is offered a job by the mysterious Mr. Church (Bruce Willis) to assassinate the dictator of the fictional country of Vilena. Barney takes up the job as just another paycheck offer but begins to slowly believe in the service this would do to the country of Vilena and his own fractured soul. Thus what was professional once turns personal with the rest of the team following him like a loyal dirty half-dozen.

The movies main USP, its action itself is found lacking in several departments. The fast-cut edits and unorthodox camera placements make the action incomprehensible at times. Plus during the night scenes its far too dark to clearly make out what is going on. The fist-fight between Gunner & Yin promises a lot but delivers nothing but a huge disappointment. Even the climax though has a few Damn! moments; never really shines. The only action sequence worth the price of the admission is the strafing run Barney & Lee perform in a plane on a port; ultimately blowing it up.

The writing is a let-down but movies like this never claim to have a strong plot. The one thing sorely lacking is an availability of quotable one-liners like maybe, Ill be back or something like those we had back in the day. This reminds of the one bright spot in the movie, a five minute scene involving Stallone, Bruce Willis & Arnold Schwarzenegger; easily one of the best things in the movie with some pretty funny banter between the leads.

Like any decent action movie this one too needed worthy adversaries and heroes we can root for; no such luck here. You have seen these guys play the same role a million times before & most do not even get an opportunity to make this one memorable.

The Expendables has little or nothing to recommend other than one solid action sequence and one five minute action-star reunion cameo. The action is an incomprehensible and boring mess most of the time, the plot is unintelligible and the actings just about passable. If you really dying to watch this movie, then my advice to you is wait for it to arrive on DVD.view less

Who wants to see a bunch of elderly action heroes, supposedly "The Toughest crew ever" in a movie that resembles a First Person Shooter game? Defin... read more

Who wants to see a bunch of elderly action heroes, supposedly "The Toughest crew ever" in a movie that resembles a First Person Shooter game? Definitely not me, unless you market it as a hilarious comedy.

Yes friends, I laughed till I cried in this one, at the utter stupidity of these old fogeys who can put our desi Mithunda to shame with their ridiculous onscreen antics. Tailor-made for an audience with an IQ below 10, this movie is an utter waste of time and money. The first half is dedicated to making Sylvester Stallone and his bunch of 'dangerous mercenaries' sensitize the audience with their acting, while the second half seriously resembles Quake, or Doom (both highly popular FPS games where the player shoots, slices and chops enemies with gay abandon) being played in the 'Beginner mode'. It looks as if these enemies have been bred like chickens in a farmhouse meant to be slaughtered at a ripe age - they put up zero resistance. Only, I would have enjoyed it more if I was playing myself - here Stal has all the fun, while I sat in a corner sulking.

The story goes like this - A team of trained mercenaries are sent to a small Island in South America to kill a ruthless dictator. That's it. Throw in one cute chick, a small airplane, a mini truck and some cruiser bikes, and we have all the props required to execute this wonderfully detailed screenplay. Oh yes, we need some guns and knives too, but the primary condition is that one bullet should blast away the entire torso of the chickens (farm bred, remember), and a knife should be able to slice off heads and hands like butter.

The action sequences are also ill timed and highly illogical - the movie starts off okay with one decent wham-baam sequence, but tapers off into some sentimental nonsense after that, leaving the initial adrenaline rush dry away. There is another heady action sequence involving Jason Statham popping up from an opening in the airplane (imagine the air pressure, and lack of oxygen - try doing it in a car first) to decimate an entire shipping dock. Impressive, but comes after 25 minutes of boredom, which include the paunchy Mickey Rourke having philosophical conversations with old buddy Stallu. And the second half mindlessly tries to make up for the lack of action in the first - Stallone realizes that he has paid 10 actors, and wants all of them to kick butt together. It all happens in such a daze that you cannot appreciate any of it.

1 star for the effort put in to gather all the great people of yore. And deducting 4 for bringing in Arnie and Bruce so early in the movie, and raising our hopes.

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The poster of this film reads Stallone, Statham, Li, Lundgren, Couture, Austin, Crews, Rourke, and Willis. Now, that reads like a Multistarrer, eve... read more

The poster of this film reads Stallone, Statham, Li, Lundgren, Couture, Austin, Crews, Rourke, and Willis. Now, that reads like a Multistarrer, every minute packed with action. This poster & the trailer is one of the most misleading marketing pitches to have come out of Hollywood.

The last time Stallone visited a war torn Burma as John Rambo, this time he goes to a fictional South American island called Vilena. A google search for Vilena gave me a far interesting story about it than this film. For an action film the opening action sequence is very important coz it sets the tone for what lies ahead but this film opens like a phuski bomb. Except say one action sequence when Stallone & Statham visit Vilena for the first time the rest of the film is an exercise in wasted bullets and blown up bodies. Mickey Rourke has nothing else to do in the film but tattoo Stallonne and talk, talk, talk. Statham is in his usual transporter mode. Sly didnt even write in a good cameo for Arnold & Willis. The scene between the three of them is another phuski bomb except that it has the best lines of the film. It felt as if the screenplay was written for certain actors but they were then replaced by someone else. Sly along with Dave Callaham couldnt figure out a way to justify the final cast assembled. They also forgot that were working on a thin premise in which all the actors were forced in but none fit in and the end result is what we see.

Final Few words: do a Google search for Vilena & watch the trailer again. If you have to step into a theatre there are lot of options at the movies this week.

Rating: * (dont even think of watching it)

Ticket Meter: Rs 70 (what a waste!)
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When Dev Anand used to do action scenes in his 90s movies , the scenes looked convincing to him alone. On similar lines director Sylvestor Stalone ... read more

When Dev Anand used to do action scenes in his 90s movies , the scenes looked convincing to him alone. On similar lines director Sylvestor Stalone has managed to bring some old fellas together in this action movie who try their best to give audience a visual treatbut fail miserably. Their mission has nothing new to offer

There is not even a single scene in the movie which is worth mentioning. The Expendables are tough, but they lack content , they have the brawns, but they are dumb. Otherwise, who would make a movie where the number of gunfights, fist fights, bomb blasts are more than number of dialogues. Dont expect edge of the seat action sequences , theres nothing original in this movie.

Time for some story telling now : a group of mercenaries are sent on a mission to free hostages. Mission goes bust but Ross (Sylvester Stallone) decides to go back to save and rescue Sandra (Gisele Itie) who earlier helped them during their mission. Ross is accompanied by Lee Christmas (Jason Statham), Yin Yang (Jet Li) & Hale Caesar (Terry Crews). Heavy action follows, mindless bloodbath, too many close up fight scenesCan the expendables accomplish this task..?? No prizes for guessing what happens in the end.

Jason Stathams stunts stand out in this action-war film, but it can be given a miss even on a DVD
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Oh.yeaaah! What was that? Exhausation?Hold your breath, guys! You are going to watch something from Sly Stallone. What could you expect? Let me tel... read more

Oh.yeaaah! What was that? Exhausation?

Hold your breath, guys! You are going to watch something from Sly Stallone. What could you expect? Let me tell you, yours expectation is sure to be fulfilled.
Really, Stallone gives his full for what he is meant to be. But, wait! Did you notice that you could hardly watch what Barney feels? Stallones expressions are hardly visible in the film. Is that a sincere effort to hide the fact that he cannot act?
The script? Oh, dont bother me by asking about it. How do you distinguish several English action movies? Most of them have nothing new to offer except that clichd actions and firings. The Expendable is not an exception. Unfortunately, not only the story is poorly made but also the actions are quite old-fashioned. Why should you watch such stuffs? I really dont know.
Stallone is terribly awful in this movie. Only Jason Statham is worth-watching. He is no doubt one of the most remarkable action heroes of this age. And he proves to be the right one in this place. The cinematography is unbecoming of Hollywood. Jet Li fails to give his best and he is average. The music of Brian Tayler could not hold your attention at all except in the climax.
If you want story, dont go. If you want techniques do not go. If you want acting or story never go. Accept The Expendables for what it stands for.
Watch it at your own risk.

Rating(out of 5)

Acting-2
Script-1
Direc-1.5
Script-1
Tech-2.5
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