The Expendables: movie review
In another comeback move, Sylvester Stallone directed, co-wrote, and stars in "The Expendables," a band-of-mercenaries flick that鈥檚 not much different (in form) from this year鈥檚 鈥淭he Losers鈥� or 鈥淭he A Team.鈥�
The plot is straight from the same template: A mysterious stranger (Bruce Willis) hires our heroes to disrupt the drug operation of a rogue CIA agent (Eric Roberts) on a small Caribbean island. The distinguishing feature here is the cast. Stallone鈥檚 team includes representatives of several generations of action veterans 鈥� Jason Statham (37), Jet Li (46), Dolph Lundgren (52), Mickey Rourke (57), and Stallone himself (63). Willis and Arnold Schwarzenegger show up for one scene. (The people of California shouldn鈥檛 feel cheated; Arnold needn鈥檛 have skipped more than a half-day鈥檚 work to film this.)
The opening action sequence, unrelated to the main story, is nicely done, but after that it鈥檚 all downhill. Li is barely used 鈥� he has one good fight against Lundgren (choreographed by Hong Kong great Corey Yuen) 鈥� but the rest of the mayhem is simply ultraviolent, nonstop, and numbing. Better jokes might have helped. Grade: C- (Rated R for strong action and bloody violence throughout, and for some language.)
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