I have never put high expectations on action hero movies. I usually watch them on DVDs months after their release and (maybe) at times watching them in cinemas, but only after reading the reviews and recommended by friends. Why? Simple, I don’t believe, that a person can actually run across a room or an open field that is flooded with bullets and explosions, and not get killed or wounded. What are the odds out of a 100 men shooting at 1 man, and none of them can actually (at least) wound the person?
However, after being lured by the trailer where they highlighted the action hero stars’ last names: Stallone, Statham, Li, Lundgren, Crews, Couture, Rourke, Austin, Willis, Schwarzenegger; I decided to put The Expendables into my list of “long awaited must watch movies in cinema”. Why against my idealistic opinion of an action-hero movie? Well… I thought there are too many famous names in stake for this movie to be crappie. Yet, I was wrong.
If you are looking for nostalgia walk into 1980s Stallone action movies… this movie suites your appetite. The plot is plain and simple, a group of mercenaries hired to overthrow a dictator of a small island nation in South America. No mind games, no tricks, and anti-climax. It was just full pack shooting, explosions, hand-combat, knives-through-throats, and killings of faceless enemies, from the beginning till the end. A memorable scene is the conversation between Willis, Schwarzenegger, and Stallone. Although the scene is not significant at all, meaning with or without it the audience will still understand the plot, yet it is truly entertaining. It is rare for these legendary action veterans together in one scene.
All things considered, from a scale from 1-10, I give The Expendables a 3; not because of its plot, or all the action, but for Stallone’s effort to assemble an all-star action cast of the last 3 decades into one movie, hence creating a cool poster to put on my bedroom wall.
