Re: The Expendables (Stallone, 2010) — The Reviews Thread
 

If there's anything worse than The Expendables, it's the Crank series.

Re: The Expendables (Stallone, 2010) — The Reviews Thread
 

Lies! Complaints that the second is sort of a rehash I can accept, but they're so gloriously over-amped and indulgently schlocky, and at least they deliver, unlike this movie. They're not nearly as gory, but in spirit, they're still two of my favorite big-budget studio-produced Troma pictures ever.

Re: The Expendables (Stallone, 2010) — The Reviews Thread
 

They come off as stupid and juvenile to me, not anarchically fun like they should be.

Re: The Expendables (Stallone, 2010) — The Reviews Thread
 

The Crank films..are pretty boring to me. I like Statham but.....I just don't give a damn about the Crank films themselves.

Re: The Expendables (Stallone, 2010) — The Reviews Thread
 

I thought The Expendables was WAY better than Regeneration - which granted was good for DTV, but I didn't think it was anything special. Van Damme phoned it in and Lundgren was barely in it.

I usually hate CG blood (Ninja Assassin anyone?) but thought it was mostly alright here. Rourke was great, the Willis/Arnold scene was worth the price of admission and the action delivered. Sure the story was meh but with so many explosions, who gives a shit. I came for action, I got action. Satisfied. I really do hope that the next one they work a bit harder on the script, shoot for an R rating and recruit Kurt Russell and Steven Seagal to be a part of the team. Here's hoping. 4/5

Re: The Expendables (Stallone, 2010) — The Reviews Thread
 

Okay, saw this tonight. The acting, characters, humor, one-liners were all fine. Roberts is suitable sleazy as the villain, Stallone was fine, Statham is a decent actor and definitely has screen presence, Li was fine and Lundgren and Roarke were excellent.

But those were the worst edited action sequences I've ever seen. I started to count during the finale, and there was hardly one shot over 1 second long. This isn't just a "style" of editing, imo, it's bad filmmaking. During the car chase, I had no idea what the order or orientation of the cars were, or who passed who, and when. Same thing during every action scene. And because you couldn't clearly see any long shots in the fight scenes, it completely disconnected you from the characters. You dont really get to see any of their trademark moves, quirks, etc. I think back to Magnificent Seven, where you had skinny Coburn as the knife master, Vaughn as the debonair quick-draw---their actions scenes were influenced by their characters. Similarly in DieHard, we get working class schmuck Willis, in a tank top and barefoot, heck--name any great action movie, and in most of them the action is tied to the personality of the character. Absolutley none of that came across in this movie, because you could only see very brief. lightning-fast snippets of what any of them were doing.

When the action scenes actually disconnect you from the characters and the physical environment they're supposed to be in, I can't see how that makes for a satisfying film. I would guess that the fight choreoraphers and stunt coordinators of this film would like to have five minutes alone with the editor to beat the crap out of him.

Re: The Expendables (Stallone, 2010) — The Reviews Thread
 

I noticed in the end credits that Corey Yuen was the fight choreographer for Jet Li's fights

Re: The Expendables (Stallone, 2010) — The Reviews Thread
 

For better action than The Expendables, see the episode of Spaced where they have the fake gun fights.

Re: The Expendables (Stallone, 2010) — The Reviews Thread
 

I thought this was perfectly fine for a big, dumb action picture. The type of action film we haven't had for years now. The only thing that bothered me was the CGI, which was really cheap in places. Otherwise, I laughed at it, I laughed with it, I had a good time. Voted 4 stars.

Re: The Expendables (Stallone, 2010) — The Reviews Thread
 

The part that had me on the floor laughing was

Re: The Expendables (Stallone, 2010) — The Reviews Thread
 

Thanks, I love the Crank movies, so I should enjoy this.

Re: The Expendables (Stallone, 2010) — The Reviews Thread
 

Re: The Expendables (Stallone, 2010) — The Reviews Thread
 

way to go Stallone. Now make me a sequel which is better and bigger. And much less CG blood. Also...get Arnold and Trejo to be in it as major characters.

Re: The Expendables (Stallone, 2010) — The Reviews Thread
 

With so many beloved action movie stars in this movie, you pretty much know what you're in for when you go see it, and on that level, the film doesn't disappoint, though it takes a while to get going, and only a few of the characters get much in terms of backstory or even current day personal details, but when it comes to delivering a framework where this stable of action heroes/villains can do what they do best, mainly bring the high-energy hand-to-hand combat, combine that with an insane amount of guns, bullets and firepower on display.

The plot is simple enough, a rag-tag group of mercenaries headed by Sylvester Stallone's character gets a job to take out a military dictator in the South American side of the world. The bad guy characterizations are mainly paper-thin, though Eric Roberts does what he can with what he's given in the script. The film takes a while to get to the big action sequences in the end, but the script peppers action bits all throughout the first half of the film as well, in case the audience is nodding off from all the character build-up of sad, lonely mercenaries and bad guys while setting the table for the theater of conflict later on. The script is okay, with a few decent one-liners that most action heroes get to chew on in their own movies. It's a delicate balancing act to get so many characters involved with their own purpose and motivations, can't say it was entirely successful, but it's decent enough to push the movie along without losing audience sympathy for the mercenaries.

There were bits of digital blood splatter that detracted from all the violence and gunfire in the film, but the violence does pull its weight in
bringing about some good ol' fashion brutal killings when it's call for in the stand-off situations, very much in-line with the carnage shown in "Rambo" a few years ago, perhaps a little more stylized, though.

So if you're in the mood for some violent, messy, action pr0n, and can sit through some of the slower parts, this is the movie for you.

I give it 2.75 stars, or a grade of B-.

Re: The Expendables (Stallone, 2010) — The Reviews Thread
 

Posted in the weekend thread, but why not here:

Re: The Expendables (Stallone, 2010) — The Reviews Thread
 

5 decades? damn...yeah late 70s, 80s for sure, 90s, 00s for sure, and this one..yeah..that's right.

Re: The Expendables (Stallone, 2010) — The Reviews Thread
 

Liked it enough. I thought Dolph was awesome. Glad to see him get a good part. :)

Re: The Expendables (Stallone, 2010) — The Reviews Thread
 

movie was so badass

the Terry Crews running up in there with the shotty scene alone was worth admission

Re: The Expendables (Stallone, 2010) — The Reviews Thread
 

You mean the one where from Austin aka Paine's POV of Crews from the other end of the underground hallway? Yeah..that was hilarious.

Re: The Expendables (Stallone, 2010) — The Reviews Thread
 

i dunno just the part where he blows everyone away with nonstop bullets

whole theatre went crazy

Re: The Expendables (Stallone, 2010) — The Reviews Thread
 

ah..that whole scene...yeah...that was awesome.

Re: The Expendables (Stallone, 2010) — The Reviews Thread
 

This would have been much better if Shane Black had written the script instead of Stallone and his co-writer. Just terrible one liners.

Way too much CGI gore. Whatever happened to bloody squibs or prosthetic body parts? The couple of times someone had a knife thrust into the chest the effects were so bad.

Re: The Expendables (Stallone, 2010) — The Reviews Thread
 

Did Jet Li have the most lines of English language dialogue ever in this movie?

Re: The Expendables (Stallone, 2010) — The Reviews Thread
 

^Are you being serious? Li had like 10 lines tops. He definitely had more to say in Romeo Must Die, Cradle 2 The Grave etc.

Re: The Expendables (Stallone, 2010) — The Reviews Thread
 

How about highest number intelligible lines of dialogue in the English language? Heh