Review of The Expendables (2010) by Anthony G — 05 Jan 2018

This film does not deliver. It is not necessarily bad but a film that wanted to be a throwback to the classic action films of the 80s and early 90s lacks the fun and entertainment.

The film is trying too hard to be cool. From the biker gang mercenaries to a trench-coat wearing Schwarzenegger cameo.

The film is bogged down with average stunts, average dialogue and a cast that other than Stallone and Statham is average.

That being said Stallone and Statham are solid and Jet Li stands out from the crowd for his fight with the man-mountain that is Dolph.

Its watchable but certainly not the classic we were promised and most disappointing...it is not that fun.The film has a stop start feel and keeps going back and forth while trying to be taken seriously. Stallone, being a kind director or promising everyone screen time, tries to give his cast screen time in equal measure. This leads to a script written around the cast and what they can offer in a fight instead of round a story.

A perfect example of how to do this style of film better is the original Predator. The first 10-15 mins sets up a mission and we are introduced to the crew/gang very quickly. It gets the boring stuff out of the way and gets them all in the jungle quick as possible with a very straight forward plot and then it slowly cranks up the tension.

This film could have benefited from that approach. Pick a mission and have the characters introduced on the drop, then when something goes wrong we get to know the cast over the length of the movie and start to root for them.