A great homage to 80's action films. Objectively it was not as good as Scott Pilgrim, but the action and screen chemistry of an all-star cast gave the movie great shallow entertainment value. It's getting way too much by critics though (I think it's at 47% approval rating on Rottentomatoes). I do not like the shaky cam and rapid close ups at the end though. The fact that the mission took place at dark made it hard to distinguish what was going on at times.

Out all of the Expendables, Lee Christmas (Jason Statham) had the coolest kills. His adroit skills with throwing knives and slashing people was art itself. Jet Li felt under utilized though to be honest.

7/10

O YES?

I was just about to make a thread about this.

Overall, the plot was lacking pretty badly. I'm not even really sure what the bad guys were trying to do. I'm not sure why Stallone wanted to go back and help other than he met that chick and... well he just met some chick who didn't even really want his help, she just knew where her dad's fortress was and that's about it. I mean, there's something hinted at about how the bad guys are trying to make cocaine or something and that's about it. We know they're bad because Eric Roberts is Eric Roberts and he's always bad, and Steve Austin likes to hit women and torture them. We know the general is bad because we're told he killed a bunch of people, but he doesn't really do anything bad in the movie. We just know he's a bad guy.

Why the hell does Dolph Lundgren switch sides other than the fact that he had a drug problem and Stallone kicked him off the team? What's his motivation really? I mean, they were gonna get paid like 5 million to do the job. 5 million split between 6 guys is a lot better than the 50 thousand he asked from Eric Roberts.

Jet Li has a little screen time, and doesn't get to do a whole lot with his character. He's just the short asian guy on the team. Similar to how Stallone is the gruff leader, Statham is the pissed off guy who just wants someone to love him, Dolph is the raving lunatic, Terry Crews is the explosives expert, and Randy Coutoure is just... well a guy who likes to body slam people. Mickey Rourke is pretty alright as Tool, the wise sage sort of leader of the group who now spends his time falling in love with chicks who's names he can't remember and smashing guitars he was going to give them when he's not putting skull and raven tattoos on the guys on the team, or weirdly ad-libbing tattoo ides for Jason Statham's skull.

All in all, it's a pretty big failure at being anything resembling a good movie.



That said, The Expendables is an awesome ****ing movie. There are bad guys. They must die. Bodies are blown apart, blown to bits, caught on fire, smashed to oblivion etc... If you're on the bad guy side, you're going to die a horrific death. If you're on the good guy side, don't worry, bullets don't even hurt you.

The shaky cam complaint that I've heard from a few people is totally unjustified. There was barely any shaky cam in this movie at all. Not to mention 99% of the action was clearly shown on screen. If you had a hard time telling what was going on, I suggest maybe getting a cat scan or something.

It's a badass manly movie with a badass manly cast and a badass manly soundtrack and badass manly kills. Every line is meant to be badass, and most times it comes off as corny as hell. The cast doesn't interact all that well together apart from Statham and Stallone; these guys really own this movie. Between Stallone, Statham, and Crews, this movie has some truly classic kills.

The best comparison I can make is imagine if the first 20 minutes of Predator were made into a full length film. It's flat out awesome, but holds no real value as a story at all. It's terrible, but it's totally great.

If you like movies like Commando, etc.. You'll like The Expendables. It's not a 80's action movie. It's a modern day iteration of an 80's action movie. The plot doesn't matter. All that matters is the good guys all live, and the bad guys all die horrific deaths.

Also:

Damn, aimed a little low.

Honestly, I haven't seen this movie yet. But if anyone was expecting anything else from the trailers...well. That's all I hope this film is. Because you know what? That'd entertain me for two hours.

I am with you 100% on that LividDK. Like I said, it's not a good movie in any way, but I haven't enjoyed myself this much at the movies in a long long time.

now i haven't seen either but judging from previews they are 2 very different types of movie

it's like comparing death metal to hipster music

I must wait for DVD. For this AND Inception.

Silly baby, eating all my spare time. <_<

Antony pretty much nailed what the movie was about. However, I still don't like the use of the shaky cam towards the end of the movie when everyone was fighting inside the house (specifically the Gary Daniels battle).

Oh and yes, movies can always be compared even if they're different types. If that weren't the case, we would have a best picture category for every genre of movie at the Academy Awards.

still why even bring it up?

also how can an opinion be even remotely objective?

I loved it. Definitely not an epic historic film, but highly entertaining. Just like an over-the-top action flick should be.

Should have traded statham for Bruce, Statham had like no place in that movie and his accent is annoying.

The governator wa only in the movie for like 30 seconds, and that kinds of pissed me off. He could have wailed on at least one bad guy.