Movie Review: The Expendables (2010)
The pinnacle of action movies occurred in the 1980′s with movies such as Die Hard (1988), Predator (1987), Commando (1985), Terminator (1984) and Rambo (1982) taking the world by storm and altering the genre forever. Sylvester Stallone’s The Expendables attempts to capitalize on that nostalgic feeling one gets when watching those but fails to capture their essence. Instead, we are only left with feelings of sadness after being reminded that this era is long behind us.
The main failure of The Expendables is that it gathers most of the bad elements of the movies it is trying to replicate while lacking on the “cool” aspects of those 80′s actioners. From the first instant, the film has a very heavy B-movie feel even though it was made on a budget of $70 million. We get heavy doses of absolutely atrocious acting, a non-stop string of one-liners that passes as “dialogue”, jumbled and extraneous sub-plots, poor cinematography and editing as well as completely choppy action scenes.
The plot revolves around a team of mercenaries led by Barney Ross (Sly Stallone) which is commissioned to take out the ruthless dictator of a small South American island. The team scouts the location and discovers the extent of the problems there. They are confronted with the option of forgetting about the mission or attempt a suicidal mission to rescue the islanders.
Going into the movie, I was expecting a heavy B-movie feel however, the execution was very poor even for a movie of this type. The Expendables did not need a convoluted plot. Anyone would have been satisfied with a Barney-style story especially if it spared us from watching Jason Statham actually trying to act out an absolutely excruciating and incredibly sexist “romance” or watching Mickey Rourke mumble a lengthy and ridiculously out-of-place monologue. The action scenes are entertaining and fun but there isn’t nearly enough of them to cancel out the empty voids in between. Additionally, the editing was sloppy and took away from the action scenes. Why bother getting Jet Li, or Jason Statham or all those WWE guys if you are going to cut scenes to an average length of 1 second? Anyone can go and watch Rush Hour on cable and see better choreographed and edited action scenes!
The cast is full of big names but isn’t nearly as impressive as it was initially made out to be. Arnie and Bruce Willis show up for about 1 minutes of screen time and all you will have instead are guys like Terry Crews, or Randy Couture battling it out while Sylvester Stallone and Jason Statham attempt to create some kind of chemistry that never comes. The characters are not developed at all and there is no camaraderie whatsoever between the members of the team. The dialogue between them is completely nonexistent except for a juxtaposition of one-liners that aren’t “cool” at all.
A relatively dull action flick that doesn’t come remotely close to being as cool as the 80′s movies it tried to emulate.
C
(5/10)
Notes: Rated R for strong action and bloody violence throughout, and for some language, 103 minutes.
27 Comments
Looks like I wasn’t far off with my 2.75 huh Castor? Also looks like we agree on pretty much everything:) It didn’t deserve to take to box office imo. It was fun in parts but all that bad kept me from liking it even with a nostalgic grain of salt. It could have been so much better but oh well, maybe it’ll be more fun on Blu Ray when watch with a group of friends.
Basically I liked this better when it was called Navy Seals…but that’s just me:P
Indeed Marc. It was entertaining but quite disappointing at the same time. The bad acting really got to me, I don’t think I ever remember being so stunned by the quality of acting and dialogue in a movie since I saw Hayden Christensen romancing Natalie Portman in those Star Wars movies a decade ago. I know this is an action B-movie but it could have been at least semi-competent and it clearly wasn’t here.
Christensen and Portman aren’t bad actors. No one in those movies could have made the lines in George Lucas’s dreadful script sound any good. His script and lack of direction made everyone in those movies look like an amateur, even established and credible performers like McGregor and Portman. Just my $.02.
I think Christensen is terrible while Portman is usually a good performer. I do agree that George Lucas should never be allowed near a pen ever again.
I don’t know – I think the dialogue in the original trilogy can be just as corny, but the performers there made it work.
I don’t really know how to respond. All your points on the movie’s faults are right but I still love the movie. Nothing anyone can say or do can make me not love this movie. But I do know that the film has a lot of problems editing and otherwise but I still love the film. I also loved Predators so maybe that tells ya something…=/
I agree Travis. I guess it depends on your point of view.
I feel like Castor, and some of the other dudes out here in the blogsphere are taking it too seriously. Criticizing the plot is a disservice the entire point of the movie, but then this isn’t a a straight action movie, this is a gregarious over exaggeration of a plethora of action heros and explosions. For me this is okay, for other people, I get it’s not their cup of tea.
The only parts I would personally change?
Dump the Carpenter/Statham love-line and fill it with more explosions and fighting.
I’m not criticizing the plot Heather (well I am), I actually want it to be even simpler. Why have the ridiculous Statham/Carpenter love subplot (if anyone thought that was cool, there is something terribly wrong with them, seriously), why the daughter/general subplot, the Mickey Rourke monologue? Focus the story on the Expendables and their mission, make it totally action-focused. In my view, there was too little action and too much mumbling around that exposed terrible writing and acting.
Finally, they are called The Expendables, and not one of them dies? Weak sauce…
Yep – it was more the melodrama which grated with me than the mindless action. I love mindless action. Give me more of it.
This film was just a poor man’s Rambo (the new one).
I miss JCVD.
Well JCVD was asked to be in this but declined due to er, lack of character development. So maybe he’s got a point after all
Statham in absolutely excruciating and incredibly sexist “romance”… well has he ever done any other kind? This guy can’t do romance, he sort of was ok with Saffron Burrows in The Bank Job, but barely. I kinda expected the bad acting, but heck I wasn’t thinking it’d be as bad as Hayden/Natalie… I mean, there’s bad, and then there’s BAD. Looks like this one makes RED look like an Oscar contender
I read some where that JCVD turned it down because he was to lose a fight against Jet Li.
He said on record that regrets not doing the movie now and hopefully this means he’ll come back for the sequel.
Fundamentally this wasn’t a great film but I had fun watching it. And isn’t that were supposed to do while watching a film? Have fun? Or at least with summer blockbusters?
This may be just my 80′s brain playing what if while watching it, but I’m convinced the JCVD role would have been one of Eric Robert’s henchmen…the one who wasn’t Stone Cold. He was the guy who had the most awesome death scene (his head was knocked clean straight back in the tunnels under the palace)…not that would have been a proper end to JCVD if you ask me:P
Yes Ruth, it went to that BAD level and beyond!
Which is silly. Have we seen some of his movies? I mean seriously.
And no there was no character development. It was, this guy is a knife guy, this guy is a gun guy, here’s the leader, here’s the kung fu guy, here’s the druggy giant………….etc. I was fine with that.
Hahaha…I loved this movie. All I wanted was explosions…I got em. You gotta go into the movie knowing it’s going to have a crappy story line and sub par acting. I got exactly what I wanted out of it.
EXPLOSIONS!!!!!!!!!!
Duuude – the entire third act of the film makes up for the rest of the horribleness of the film. Plus, Eric Roberts was looking pretty hot.
I know I would.
Yep, he looks better than his sister these days. (That’s not a dig on her, just on how unlikely his fine ageing has been.)
The action is over-the-top, loud and ridiculous, but it’s quite entertaining. Sadly, no one outside of Stallone and Statham really gets a chance to really make something of their characters, outside of the one-dimensional archetypes that set their characters up.
Barney Ross? His name is Barney Ross? That’s the worst Action Hero Name I’ve ever heard! It sounds like the same old Sly kinda screenplay. I really wish he would stop “writing”.
I might be beating a dead horse, but Carl Weathers would have saved this film. Where or where was Apollo Creed?
Wow Castor, I thought you would like the movie (at least enough to give it 7+/10)considering your “I’m a real man” bravado on my blog. I guess you prefer romantic comedies, after all. Too bad…
Ahaha yea maybe you are right Magnum
I was expecting more from this. This is nowhere near as awesome as Predator, Die Hard or any of the 80′s actioners we look back with fondness. Not sure what you refer to as “bravado” on your blog, I don’t need to prove my “manliness” on the internet.
Saw the film yesterday, finally. Granted, it did not end up being the film ever as I thought, but it still was one great big blast. Naturally, it has flaws (mainly, too big of a cast in too little of runtime), but in all fairness, when all the destruction and mayhem started I totally forgot about everything else and just reveled in the awesome manliness of “The Expendables”. I felt happy and refreshed. Plus, all these legends in one place, even if for a brief cameo… I dunno, I was simply speechless.
So, yeah, I love “The Expendables”, and I always will. But, I’ve no doubt – if this wasn’t the best film ever, the sequel WILL BE!
Agreed. This film lacked everything that made those ’80s action films great. Who even needs the plot in this film? Just give us competent action and memorable characters. The film couldn’t even do that and ended up being one of the worst action movies I’ve seen in a while.
What we get is pure, unadulterated B-movie stuff, with an A-budget. And although it should have been so much better, I still had a great time, watching things, and people explode, like it’s the 80s all over again. Check out my review when you can, nice review!!
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