When Sylvester Stallone announced the cast for his latest movie The Expendables, it sounded like audiences were going to be treated to one of the manliest, most action-packed extravaganzas ever produced. I mean come on, Stallone, Jason Statham, Jet Li, Dolph Lundgren, Steve Austin, Mickey Rourke, Bruce Willis, and Arnold Schwarzenegger in the same movie? How could that not rock? Inevitably, the final film is a bit of a let down. It’s still a balls-to-the-wall old school action movie that mines plenty of entertainment out of gunfire and explosions, but it’s just not the instant classic we were all promised. In the end, that should have been expected. No movie could live up to that cast, but at least the final result is an entertaining throwback action flick. Just one that will be best served by lowered expectations.
The plot of The Expendables feels like it came straight off of the back of the box of some direct-to-video action movie from the 80s. Stallone leads a group of mercenaries for hire who are assigned to take down the evil dictator in a non-specific impoverished country. It doesn’t come more generic than that, but that’s kind of the point. This isn’t a movie about breaking new ground, but bringing back a genre that we all assumed had died long ago. That simplicity is actually refreshing. The problems ironically stem from the cast. With so many big names on the poster, everyone is required to get some sort of subplot to call their own, slowing down what should have been wall-to-wall action with needless dialogue scenes and failed attempts at humor. Sure, a plot involving Dolph Lundgren getting drugged up and moving to the darkside is necessary, but do we really need tacked on love interests for Stallone and Statham or a needlessly dramatic monologue from Mickey Rourke? Not really, but LA agents clearly insisted their clients get a few extra scenes and as a result the movie feels bloated at a relatively brief 103 minutes.
It also doesn’t help that Sylvester Stallone (who also served as writer/director) presents the material so earnestly. He wants action movies to come back for obvious reasons (mainly his career) and takes the project a little too seriously. His most recent Rambo movie was excessively violent to the point of parody and that tone would have worked perfectly here. But unfortunately it’s all too clear now that Stallone didn’t intend that. He wanted Rambo to be taken seriously and the same goes for The Expendables, which is a shame. Whenever he’s dabbling in massive action scenes and limiting his characters’ dialogue to one-liners spat out between explosions the movie soars. Sadly, he wasn’t able to maintain that tone from start to finish. But that said, it’s not as if The Expendables is a laborious bore. This is still a pretty damn entertaining movie, just not what it could have been. It’s been a long time since this sort of deliberately brainless brand of action movie has hit screens and it’s actually kind of fun and nostalgic to see it play out clichés, excesses, and all.
