THE EXPENDABLES (2010)
Reviewed By Jerry Saravia
It is too late for me to give career advice to Sylvester Stallone, and why would I? He made a gentle, noble, awe-inspiring move when he brought back Rocky Balboa in 2006, and it did some solid box-office business. He also brought back Rambo in 2008, and that move was ill-advised. "The Expendables" is Stallone in full action-movie splendor with enough explosions and occasionally one-liners crossed with killer machismo to keep most action fans happy. It is not great nor is it a good movie, but it is just a slap-happy, delirious picture with plenty of violence and no real brains.
Giving the plot away of movie like this is counterproductive since there are no big twists or revelations. A group of buddy-buddy mercenaries led by Stallone get a 5 million dollar offer to overthrow a Latin American dictator (from the island of Vilena) who is actually controlled by an ex-CIA agent played by Eric Roberts. That is it, the plot hanging by a rusty fingernail in a mortar shell.
Stallone, who wrote and directed, assembles this movie like a throwback to the old Golan-Globus action pics of the 1980's. Veteran Dolph Lundgren is surprisingly solid as one drug-addled mercenary who has more than a few screws loose. There are also brief cameos by Bruce Willis and Arnold Schwarzenegger who are so vividly exciting to watch that you wish the movie had more of them (they do appear in the sequel). Mickey Rourke is on hand as Tool, the tattoo artist, who has one very gripping scene that is at odds with the level of EXTREME machismo of these musclebound heroes. Other than these old reliable pros, we get newbies like Terry Crews (playing a character named Hale Caesar), Jet Li, Jason Statham and more. Statham is the real breakout star of the new bunch - he's got style, panache and cunning wit.
Stallone sometimes looks bored out of his mind or just simply indifferent to the chaos around him. Other times, his energy level rises to 11 when he fires a weapon. I will give him credit for imbuing this film with political urgency in regards to waterboarding and Somali pirates - he has always tried to be relevant to the times. Overall, "The Expendables" is big, loud and extremely violent with many long bareknuckle fight scenes and lots of machine gun fire. Explosions are always delivered on cue, the fight scenes deliver every ounce of Digitally Magnified Thud Sounds when someone falls on their back or are thrown against a wall, and the arsenal of one-liners never wanes. These guys are strong cartoonish personalities that give the audience what they want. Oddly, these mercenaries are also lovesick puppies who are lonely and miserable - at least a couple of them seem to love women and want them to stand by. Deep down, though, they are more in love with sticking lustrous knives into the necks of their bloodsoaked enemies than making love. Sounds about right.
