Rated R
(strong action and bloody violence throughout, and for some language)
1 hour 43 minutes
Storyline:
A team of mercenaries head to South America on a mission to overthrow a dictator.
Written and Directed By: Sylvester Stallone
Starring:
Sylvester Stallone
Jason Statham
Jet Li
Dolph Lundgren
Eric Roberts
Randy Couture
Steve Austin
Mickey Rourke
Critics Grade:
44%
My Grade:
B-
So in my opinion there are maybe three types of action movies. First you have the epic/action-drama or thriller. Movies that have big stories and the action its snuggly in between. Usually these ones have very well written screenplays and great casts. Movies like The Dark Knight or recently Inception. Second you have the confusing as all hell action movies that try to do way to much with a story and have over the top insane action. Stories that usually baffle an audience to a point where the action is just a distraction. Something like Eagle Eye or maybe even Salt. Lastly, you have the old school, plain ol' action flick. Movies that are maybe 85% action and 15% attempts at a simple storyline. That's where The Expendables fits into. Sometimes they are pretty bad, and sometimes that actually are kind of enjoyable. This time...I think it was quite entertaining.
The big selling point for this movie was the ginormous cast of action legends. If you want the list, just look above I won't speak of them here. With this group of guys all you really need to expect are scenes of awesome action. That's exactly what you get. There is a storyline, of course there has to be one. The plot is rather simple and fairly easy to follow. Although I think I got confused once or twice...but who really cares. You can't walk into this movie anticipating some kind of coherent or good plot or any kind of brilliant performance. You come to a movie like this for action. The action here is very cool. It is very fun. It is very entertaining. It isn't even THAT over the top. It is pretty bloody at times. The blood looked like something you would see in a violent episode of Looney Toons or something, but oh well. These guys know how to do action, and they certainly show off here in this movie. I mean I was glued to the screen the whole time. It never really got slow or boring.
There were a few side plots they could have done without. I think they wanted to add some human elements to the characters...but they didn't do a great job. There was a pointless side plot with Jason Stathams character that fell flat. Jet Li had some kind of character build up that led to nada. I thought those were a bit strange but again they were so small it didn't even matter. Some of these actors clearly are beyond their years do a movie like this. It was sort of like the Old Dogs for action legends. A couple of them just looked tired and exhausted. Watching Stallone run was like watching someone trying to run through a pool of chocolate pudding. But whatever, these are the superstars of the genre. They all did their part and they all did awesome!
That's all this movie really is: awesome! Actually it's quite bad ass. It's by no means an epic masterpiece of a film. It's not one that will be on my personal best list at the end of the year. It may not even be a movie I'll remember in six months. But right now I do remember it, and it was damn fun! It does not disappoint. It is chock FULL of action that is almost non stop. The action scenes are explosive and cool. There's nothing to hate about this movie if all you want to do is watch a good action flick. The movie is a very old school action flick and I liked that. It didn't try to do to much. It never went to far or over the top. It was just action. And it was just awesome.
No comments:
Post a Comment