The Expendables – Review

There’s a scene at the end of the movie where the all-star cast are just joking around, making fun of each other, playing a game of darts with knifes, that really sums up The Expendables. These old-timers are here just to have fun, and that’s fine with us. It’s like hanging with the old-timers to the wee morning hours listening to them tell tales that we’ve heard before, but go down smooth, tales we never get tired of hearing. That’s The Expendables. It’s the same old song, yet it’s a good tune to listen too, a valid reason that justified all of those Saturday late night runs to Blockbuster to rent their actions flicks. It’s a nostalgic thing, you had to be there.

But if you were there, man, those flicks were something. Times might have changed, but when The Expendables makes good on its action promise, as it’s a heck of a good time. Now, understandably, with the cast they rounded up – Stallone, Willis, Stratham, Li, Rourke, Austin, Lundgren, Schwarzenegger, Couture, Roberts, and Crews – expectations could be unfulfilled. Anyone expecting the action epic of all action epics, would be epically wrong. The script is a sticky note or two of an idea, sadly, just something to string together the mercenaries to take down some money men and a dictator, but thanks to casting directors  Mary Tricia Wood and Deborah Aquila, The Expendables is an event picture instead of a direct-to-DVD movie. That’s going to be the main gripe of the film. The story doesn’t give the talent much to do, as it’s the same old trite stuff we’ve seen for decades.

On the contrary, I think that’s sort of the point. For some it’s a nostalgic trip down old action roads, but The Expendables is an ode to a bygone mentality of the genre, we now balk at. In all of its glory, it’s a film that knows its audience, and that audience wants a swan song for these old legends where it’s a shoot-first, ask-questions-later attitude, with tough guy talk and quips, and balls-to-the-wall action. In that regard, The Expendables delivers tenfold. Each action hero gets their time to shine, whether it’s a one-liner or action sequence, fans of a particular action hero will not be disappointed. While things are different now days in the action genre, The Expendables reminds us how much fun we had in the late 1980s going to the theater and browsing the action section at Blockbuster growing up.

Rating: