The Expendables
When your movie is comprised solely of (almost) every aging hard man in Hollywood, you probably shouldn't get them to talk too much because chances are their deliverances will be somewhat less than spellbinding. Which is why it is especially perplexing that The Expendables has so many talky bits in it and lengthy ones at that. Do we really care about Jason Statham's endless diatribes on his lucklessness in love? Um… no. Do we care about how Randy Couture got his cauliflower ears? Hmmm… not really. Do we want more shooty bits and explosions? Oh, yes please!
Sly Stallone's new flick is the epitome of WYSIWYG movie making, what you see is definitely what you get. With an all-star gym-jockey cast which includes Stallone, Statham, Li, Lundgren, Rourke, Austin, Willis, Schwarzenegger and Eric Roberts as the bad guy, what more could we want? (Well, I suppose JCVD, Segal, Rutger and Norris would be nice but, hey, let's not spoil ourselves!) The plot revolves around a group of hard-ass mercenaries who head to a small island in the Persian Gulf to do… something. It doesn't matter, the point is they get into trouble and then get to shoot lots of folk and blow shit up and that's all we care about. Slight disappointment in the lack of a Stallone/Lundgren grudge fight - it comes tantalisingly close but, alas, no cigar. The Rambo-ish, over the top cartoony violence does not disappoint, however.
How do you top a movie like Rambo (the circa 2008 version)? Well, you grab a dozen odd Rambos, throw 'em into one movie and press play. The result is predictable and less than the sum of its parts but it is a satisfying slice of beef (and cheese) cake nonetheless. Stuart Jamieson www.expendablesthemovie.com
also featured
NEW COMPETITIONS! The Grey Competition Thanks to Icon Film Distribution, we have ten double in-season tickets to give away to The Grey!
Read more >>
Shame How do you connect with the disconnected? Read more >>
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy is a characteristically British film.
Read more >>
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo The best thing about this American version of The Girl with the Dragon
Tattoo is that this is Fincher's version of Dragon Tattoo.
Read more >>
Mission Impossible – Ghost Protocol After cutting his teeth on Pixar's The Incredibles, Brad Bird applies
his ample talent and requisite enthusiasm for spy thrillers to live
action in this, the latest installment in the foundering Mission:
Impossible franchise. Read more >>
Boxing Day Bash The annual Boxing Day movie feast presents Hollywood approaching the
season’s end like it was a big fairy tale wedding with something old,
something new, something borrowed and something blue.
Read more >>
Puss in Boots When a franchise runs out of steam there is always the spin-off.
Read more >>
Attack the Block The alien invasion genre has been hit particularly
hard of late with the likes of Cloverfield, District 13, Battle: Los
Angeles and Aliens vs Cowboys, each one more mediocre than the last and
culminating in the downright awful Skyline. So kudos to director, Joe
Cornish, for at least trying something a little different.
Read more >>
Immortals As eye candy, Immortals ticks all the right boxes.
Read more >>
In Time In Time is a competent action/thriller in the Hollywood mould but coming
from director, Andrew Niccol, who also wrote and directed Gattaca and
wrote The Truman Show, it is disappointingly light.
Read more >>
Moneyball First the conundrum, I love baseball movies but don’t especially like
the game itself and would never even entertain the thought of actually
watching an entire game.
Read more >>