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

^I'm guessing you haven't seen Unleashed

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

Try Ken Watanabe in Inception for that.

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

Do you guys think that having Van Damme in the movie would have taken it up another notch?

Maybe Van Damme could have done a dim mak and be ruthless, plus a few splits.

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

I really don't know if Van Damme would have helped. I'm for having him in the sequel along with Seagal. Maybe Dwayne Johnson could make an appearance as well! :)

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

I would have liked Van Damme being in it because Van Damme would have had Dolph's role, and yet I bet Seagal would have given Dolph a different role, like the Couture role. Instead Dolph had a dreary role and was basically wasted.

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

What I want to see for the sequel is Stallone, Van Damme, Seagal, and Chuck Norris on the run from the law, in the form of Samuel L. Jackson and Dwayne Johnson as the supercops from The Other Guys.

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

Okay, I already have a sequel idea:

Stallone's Team vs. Schwarzenegger's Team vs. A CIA Team headed by Willis

Stallone's Team stays the same.

Team Schwarzenegger (aside from himself)
Jean Claude Van Damme
Kurt Russell
Dwayne Johnson
Chow Yun Fat
Alexander Skarsgard-need a young guy for the mix
Chuck Liddell-token UFC fighter

Team Willis/CIA:
Willem DaFoe
John Travolta
Steven Seagal
-a bunch of flunkies the chief of them being Danny Trejo

Throw in a Chuck Norris cameo too, and then have Harrison Ford appear as the President of the United States. ;)

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

Schwarzenegger, Kurt Russell, Dwayne Johnson, and Chow Yun Fat on the same team? Why would anyone be rooting for Stallone's team at that point?

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

Okay, we can have Russell join Stallone's team. My story would have them working against each other at first, then teaming up towards the end to take on the evil CIA organization.

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

When I first walked into the theater I thought I had stumbled into a showing of Toy Story 3. There were so many kids under the age of 6 :mad:
Lazy, irresponsible parents. Get a fucking babysitter!

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

what the hell? What has he ever done that made you think "action star"

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

Well, it is animated blood...who am I kidding, that's bad parenting. Bottom line.

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

I saw it this afternoon.

Initial reaction: 3.0/5.0 or a solid "B"

An enjoyable film but it nowhere lived up to the hype. It felt more like a setup for a sequel or something bigger.

What really kills it is the lack of screentime for at least Terry Crews. Couture was understandable as he didn't have much charisma or skill at line delivery, but Crews was great in his limited role. It really felt like a buddy-merc movie with Stallone and Statham at first and only towards the end Li, Couture, and Crews are pulled into the mix.

The fight scenes were terribly edited. You could tell they would have held up with longer, more steady shots. The behind the scenes stuff for the big Austin/Stallone brawl was more exciting and impactful than the final product. Stallone's commitment to doing his own stunts felt very wasted.

The big "meeting of the giants" scene was criminally brief and in hindsight, Willis feels like a little fish in a big pond when on screen with Stallone and Schwarzenegger. Willis' role should have gone to someone like Chuck Norris or Kurt Russell (who I know turned down a role in the film).

I'll easily snag it on DVD, where I think it will hold up a little better. If you're on the fence, I'd just wait for this to hit a cheaper theater or make it a rental.

Favorite Moments:

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

I was entertained..but the editing and camera work (and decision to keep it so dark) was flat out criminal. Universal Solider Regen needs to be mandatory viewing from now on for every hollywood director that is filming a fight scene. Nolan, Greengrass, Stallone, etc... need to be shown that brutality and chaos can be achieved with a steady hand and minimum editing.

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

Why Was Jean-Claude Van Damme Deemed Expendable for 'The Expendables'?
http://movies.yahoo.com/feature/movi...xpendable.html

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

Yeah that Van Damme interview was posted awhile back in the regular thread. Im sure hes split kicking himself now. I would like to have seen him in Gary Daniels role.

I saw it again today and still enjoyed it.

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

Oh, that's cool that Sly did talk to JCVD, Norris, and Seagal.

Had no idea Universal Soldier movies were still being made. Regen is worth watching?

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

Loved it.

Slow to start, but the final fight was worth the price of admission alone. Solidified my love of Jason Statham in an action film (which is why I don't really like the Crank series...he doesn't do much fighting in either of those movies).

I was surprised by a few of the twists, I didn't really notice the CGI blood everyone is losing their shit about, and there were plenty of memorable moments, cool moves and awesome fights.

The worst part, I thought was actually the Stallone/Willis/Arnold scene. That was the only moment that seemed super forced ha-ha-look-at-us-we're-so-cool. And I can't believe Arnold has lived here as long as he has and still can't speak a form of English you can understand.

I'd watch a straight-up Stallone-Staham flick at this point. They made a great team.

Also, as a major Buffy/Angel fan, I was glad to see the world hasn't forgotten about Charisma Carpenter. I think she's holding up pretty well, considering. She could have gone REAL downhill and she was looking plenty hot to me.

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

Agreed. Its easy to forget she was one of the oldest cast members, and is 40 now.

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

Saw it tonight and liked it. It did what it was supposed to do and that was entertain me. It did drag in the beginning and I've NEVER been a fan of Stallone's corny attempts at humor in the form of one liners in most of his films. Those 2 things aside it was a fun ride.


And oh, you guys with your "Squib talk" are hilarious! :lol: The CGI blood was a non issue. In fact, the kills were so over the top and brutal that they didn't even need to show blood to get the vicious kill point across.



I would like to see a sequel too but my god man, where are the female action stars?

I would like to see a sequel with either new additions to the Team Stallone including FEMALE action stars from the last 5 to 10 years or something like your idea of the opposing Team Willis with female actions stars. I mean shit, Angelina Jolie, Milla Jovovich, and a few others could totally be in this.

Seriously, we need some female action stars.

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

Then why the hell did they have to ruin it by adding CG bullshit? It ruined almost every action beat for me because I immediately thought more about how shitty the CG was instead of whatever was happening.

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

Dunno Mate. Ask Stallone. (I edited my original post before I saw your response)

Mind you, I read the CGI blood complaints here <B>before</B> I saw this film and they still didn't bother me. It was a non-issue. It just seemed like the film had bigger problems than that like...how the FUCK

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

Obviously, PURE TESTOSTERONE did the trick.

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

Saw it late last night, can't think of the last film I saw where the audience was so into it, guys were freakin' yelling at the screen at parts.

I liked it but there were waaaaayyyy too many awful points to make this movie out to be what some people in this thread are. Basically all the problems I complained about fearing before the movie was released proved to be true.

I cannot believe there are actually people here posting that the CGI wasn't that bad. This film has literally, the absolute worst fight sequences & worst use of CGI I've ever seen in a main-stream film. It was worthy of being an episode of Mystery Science Theater at some points. That car chase, the camera would shake around, zoom in, & then they would be in a different spot, I had no clue what was going on.

Second, I assume the entire movie was actually a dream that took place in Inception. There was approximately 147 million bullets fired at the Expendables in this film, some at nearly point blank range, and not a single bullet hits them once (Roberts shoots Stallone at the end, but I don't think it was a bullet, I think it was a water gun, because Stallone gets up as if nothing happened). The action IMO got boring because so much stuff blows up, its just repetitive, they blew up explosions, in mid-explosion, which I didn't think was physically possible. The vomit-inducing car chase also proves its a dream because police do not exist in this world.

Third the cast is both awesome, & not so awesome as it should be. The film for me, dragged more during the action, than the scenes without it. Loved Stallone & Statham together, & the best parts of the movie were all the scenes with Rourke. The wrestlers sucked hard as I knew they would. The bald bad guy was awful, it was like "hey, look at me, I'm bald, and I grimace so I must be a villain". And then the wrestler with the messed up ear was like they pulled somebody off the street to be in a movie, what was the point of him, he was awful with what little dialogue he got, he didn't look or sound tough. Crews had a big gun with the ability to shoot out globs of computer generate effects & brought no charisma at all to the movie. And Dolph, I'm sorry, he just seemed like he kept being woken up from bed each time he was on screen. Would have been so much cooler to have had Van Damme in that role.

That said, I'm all for a sequel if Stallone doesn't direct it & it gets some better casting. There was indeed, something magical about seeing Arnold, Bruce, & Sly together in one brief scene.

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

One scene that did bother me - and only because I had seen this pic:

http://www.boxofficemojo.com/img/e/e...LARD9831_R.jpg

Now that's a powerful shot, but in the movie, the camera is very close up on everyone, and theres a CGI star field in the back ground.