Sly Stallone pulls off a testosterone fueled tribute to the yesteryear of action films and partially succeeds. He has a cast that is dreamt of if you’re a fan of action films, but he hangs it on the barest skeleton of a plot - not that the films that he’s paying tribute to had much of that anyway.
Barney Ross (Sylvester Stallone) is the leader of a mercenary team consisting of Christmas (Jason Stratham), Yin Yang (Jet Li), Toll Road (Randy Couture), Hale Caesar (Terry Crews), and Gunner (Dolph Lundgren). On their latest assignment, Gunner goes a bit wacky and has to be subdued until he can cool off.
When Barney returns stateside he goes to see his mentor/contact Tool (Mickey Rourke) who tells him that he has a gig lined up. He meets “Mr. Church” (Bruce Willis), but finds that his competition is old rival Trent (Arnold Schwarzenegger). Trent quickly turns down the job. The assignment is to go to the island of Vilena and overthrow the dictator General Garza (David Zayas).
Barney and Christmas fly down to the island under the guise of an environmental group to see what the situation is and meet their contact Sandra (Gisele Itie), who Barney takes a liking to. They also discover that there is a more sinister force behind the general, ex-CIA agent James Munroe (Eric Roberts) and his henchmen Paine (Steve Austin) and The Brit (Gary Daniels).
The pair barely escapes with their lives, but the compromised Sandra chooses to stay with her people, again earning Barney’s admiration. Barney realizes that their real target was Munroe, who is setting up a drug empire via Vilena, and they decide not to do the job after all.
However, Barney has second thoughts about abandoning Sandra and decides to go back on his own and rescue her. His buddies won’t let him go it alone though.
Speaking of buddies, you have to give Stallone credit for the cast he’s assembled. It’s a roster of action heroes that would be to die for, especially for fans of the genre. Many of them had their heyday back in the 80s, such as Stallone himself, Dolph, Arnold or Bruce. Not that the younger crowd doesn’t get its due as Li or Statham got their stars later than the elder statesmen.
The problem arises in that the plot really doesn’t make much sense and the dialogue is even worse. It’s not going to bother many of the genre fans as those problems are part and parcel with the genre, but it moves The Expendables from epic territory more into potential misfire territory.
Certainly the film doesn’t qualify as a misfire but you long for what might’ve been if the script would’ve worked better. The meeting of Stallone, Schwarzenegger, and Willis is certainly the highlight, but the third world country bit has been done to death.
The script does have some good stuff there, for example, Rourke has a nice dialogue about why he got out of the business. The film is certainly action packed enough that maybe the plot isn’t supposed to matter and the novelty of seeing so many action stars in the mix is hoped to make you forget about it.
However, that high roster even works against the film as you really don’t have much character development and you have to shoehorn a bit for each actor into the plot (even a groan inducing bit where somebody we thought dead pops up for the after-movie coda). From all that complaining I’d imagine you think that I hated the film.
I’ll have to admit that I ended up liking it, just thought that with some more polishing that you’d have the action film for the ages. Stallone may get another run at it since he’s shopping around Expendables 2 (hoping to add even more action stars). I hope he gets the chance since I really like the idea that Expendables postulates.
Of course it could all be moot since maybe all those things I had trouble with from the script where put there to homage all the other action films that used them… I’d rate the film three stars, but I’m going to give the overall disc a higher rating for the specialfeatures and great transfer.
The Expendables is presented in a 1080p high definition transfer (2.40:1). Specialfeatures are in high definition unless noted. First up is a commentary from Stallone. There’s also a picture-in-picture “Ultimate Recon Mode” that adds behind-the-scenes documentaries to the mix.
Next is the 92 minute “Inferno” expansive making of, 45 minute “Comic Con Panel,” 26 minute “From the Ashes” about postproduction, a 5 minute, standard definition gag reel, a 45 second, standard definition deleted scene, and a marketing archive containing posters, the trailer, and TV spots. The disc is also BD-Live enhanced. Disc two is a DVD copy of the film and disc three is a digital copy.
The Expendables is a fine idea done well, but not as good as you think such a great idea could’ve been done. Some script tweaking may have helped matters, but beyond that you’ll be excited to see your favorite action stars back in the saddle again.
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