Stallone… Jet Li…Jason Statham…it was all too good to be true. What started out as the idea of a lifetime, turned out to be an unnecessary blast from the past.
Call me new-fashioned, but The Expendables just can’t roll with the times. What would have been an action orgy back in the 1980s (maybe even early 90s) falls short today, and young audiences just won’t buy it. We’ve come to expect our action films to have a story line that highlights the shoot-em-up style without losing any sort of structure. And when it does- we lose interest.
On the contrary, fans of Stallone and his friends in their heydays (Schwarzenegger, Willis, etc.) can appreciate seeing the reunion. If you can get past Stallone’s manhandling of the camera- unnecessary close ups, constant following of the character eye-line, handheld confusion resembling a home video- then The Expendables could be a beer-and-barbeque good time.
But I don’t think anyone- old or young- can get past this stale, steroidy excuse for an action flick. No real story, no real explanations, barely even a reason for any of the action that ensues. For a generation that’s so quick to spot a bad story, a pointless explosion, a cheesy line or a dry dialogue, The Expendables sticks out as all of the above.
Rating: 1.9/5
