Expendables Movie Reviews
User reviews on Expendables
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THE EXPENDABLES (2010)
For me, most action pics are so stupid that they are painful to watch. If the previews show cars flipping up into the air and hitting hovering helicopters, I don’t want to see it. If the actors outrun the growing blast from an explosion and leap out the window just in the nick of time, I don’t want to see it. If the obligatory chase scene shows the hero laying the motorcycle onto its side so he can slid under the parked gas truck, I don’t want to see it. If the flick is labeled “A special effects extravaganza, I don’t want to see it.
Trust me…you’re going to want to see THE EXPENDABLES.
I have never seen a Jett Li movie. I think Dolph Lundgren’s entire movies blow. Mickey Rourke has had one too many face lifts. I don’t watch wrestling, or follow pro sports, so I don’t know who Steve Austin, Jason Statham, Randy Couture or Terry Crews are. Bruce Willis and Eric Roberts are in it as is the Governor of California in a cameo role. (For which he asked for no salary!)
But most importantly, this movie introduces America to Mexican born but Brazilian raised Giselle Itie.
The movie starts aboard a hijacked freighter off of the coast of Somalia. The deadline for the ransom has passed and the pirates are about to start killing the crew. Stallone’s mercenary crew slips aboard the ship, kills the hijackers, liberates the crew and flies home to collect their reward. I don’t have a clip of the pirate scene so forgive me if I instead attach another photo of Giselle Itie.
Once back home a CIA officer (Bruce Willis) hires The Expendables to overthrow the dictator of the Latin American island nation of Vilena. Former NYPD street cop David Zayas plays General Gaza and Eric Roberts plays the rogue CIA officer who controls Gaza’s purse strings.
Now this may not be the kind of movie my mom would like. She prefers films that tell the story of little boy growing up in a small village, raised by his grandmother because his mother died in childbirth and the father is a hopeless alcoholic. However, movies such as THE EXPENDABLES can teach you important things. Such as, if the evil dictator has a helicopter standing by to aid his escape, you can have one team mate toss a 105mm howitzer projectile into the air, above the helo, and you can detonate the falling projectile by shooting at it with your pistol. The explosive force will destroy the helo, set a fuel dump afire and incinerate the evil henchman’s bodyguard. That’s good to know stuff. (I was actually taught that trick in Navy Commando School. It was classified at the time and I never discussed it. Now that Hollywood has leaked it, I am free to discuss it.)
I was amused to see a technique in this film that was the same technique that I taught while I was a firearms instructor. I would teach my officers to dive out a window while holding a brace of pistols, firing while in the air. It they followed my instructions to the letter, their hit potential was excellent. Bruce was one of my best students. Stallone has mastered my method but I was disappointed that my name was not in the credits.
Another important point to remember is the wisdom of keeping a COLT Single Action Army “Shop Keeper’s” model in a Small Of The Back holster and, when the bad guy thinks he has you at a disadvantage, to draw the COLT and fan the trigger five times, firing from the hip, and scoring solid hits on your antagonist, all the while not hitting the damsel being held as a human shield.
All facetiousness aside, this was a super fun movie and I plan on adding it to my Blue-Ray library. -
I have to admit, going into the movie, I was really looking forward to a good action flick - good guys vs. bad guys. I guess I should've realized that most movies done by Stallone are usually pretty predictable and have a weak plot. I won't say the movie "blows" but I was disappointed.
The action was good but could've been a much better story line if Stallone and his cohorts were obliterating Islamic terrorists - something you could feel really good about watching. -
You get what you pay for, a lot of big name actors, and a lot of action! This was never meant to be a masterpiece of cinema, but rather it's an awesome B movie. If you like action movies, you will like it. -
Sly is gettin' old so lots of bouncy bouncy throughout the movie, a way to not show slow scenes and keep things going. Lots of boom boom but it was a little more chaotic than I was hoping. -
This movie the Expendable was really good to me and my friends, being that is was a type of movie based on a mission that they had to complete for the people they was hired to work for. Now for some of you who have seen the movie and did not like it because of who had played in it or its lack the action then you really don't really understand. Now i say this if you ever been in the military then you would understand more about the movie and whats it really based on and also the trust and respect for each other, ( and not who played in the movie or that actor is not good as a action hero )..it wasn't about that this movie was more about Loyalty an devotion to a person, country, group.
Great Movie......5 Stars -
Hey it was a fun afternoons entertainment! Plan to see it again in one of the new D box seats at the Cannery Theater. Should be lots of fun with all of the action! -
The Expendables is being marketed as the bringing together of action stars from the past (mostly the 80s), so it's supposed to be awesome watching all of these guys getting back together. Here's the problem with that: Over half of these guys weren't action stars (and some of them STILL aren't), and of those that were, most of them only show up for a cameo. So after the gimmick fades (which it does, quickly), you're left with another overblown action film with little to recommend it.
Writer-director Stallone plays the leader of a band of mercenaries. Each of these guys has a different skill (of course they do, or what's the point of having all of these guys in your movie?). They head down to South America to take down an American (Eric Roberts) who is controlling the local bosses. There's some stuff about Stallone and a girl, but this is a guy's film, and this guy's film is about blowing stuff up, gun fights and confusing action.
As I said before, the action isn't anything to write home about. It's muddled (as most action films today are), and hard to keep up with. As for story and plot, please, this is an action film written by Sylvester Stallone and starring guys not known for their acting chops. The script mostly revolves around lines only three or four words long. It's not particularly funny or entertaining (the one good scene involves two guys who WERE known for their action film prowess). So after the novelty has worn off (and it wears off quick), you're left with a movie that is pretty damn expendable.
