That's a lot of action stars, and a lot of blowy-uppy stuff, but a surprisingly small-time plot. Stallone (who also directed, yikes!) leads a team called The Expendables, and is hired by Bruce Willis (after Schwarzenegger makes a cameo to turn down the job) to assassinate the ruler of a made-up Caribbean island that's run by the drug trade. Of course, there's a twist, there's a girl (actually, El Presidente's daughter), there's the real power behind the thrown, and there's a lot of blowy-uppy shit.
There's quite a bit of tongue-in-cheek, but for the most part everyone seems to be taking this pretty seriously (minor exceptions being Willis and Schwarzenegger, who seem to know how unseriously to take it, and the major exception being Jet Li, who still kicks ass even when he's kind of comic relief).
Mostly I felt a vague sense of nostalgia for 80's action flicks--not just for these kinds of movies (which honestly, I was never that hugely into), but for the kind of world where these movies seemed relevant.
Running Time: 103 minutes
My Total Minutes: 193,316
Well, I have a soft spot for this kind of film, and as bonecrunching-bloodspurting-blowingstuffup films go, it was the most satisfying one I've seen in ages.
ReplyDeleteI do have a few minor quibbles...
The banter in the scene with Stallone, Willis, & Ahnold seems forced. I suspect they filmed it in too much of a hurry.
And The extended fight scenes suffer just a bit from the over-use of quick cuts and "shaky-cam." This happens in too many films, lately. When I go to an action film, I want to SEE the action, not sit there wondering "Whose blood was that--wait, did a character I care about just get snuffed?"
Just watched this today. Definitely lots of blowey-up stuff...but very (and I do mean very) short on plot. The writing was sub-par. My favorite thing...El Presidente was played by one of my favorite actors from Dexter (David Zayas who playsAngel Batista). And of course, the good guys are great shots and the bad guys can't hit the side of a barn.
ReplyDeleteI don't understand the comments about the plot. This movie is a pure action movie and being that, it delivers in the aspects that matter
ReplyDelete