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The Expendables
2010; directed by Sylvester Stallone

For those viewers weaned on action movies from the 1980's, The Expendables offers up a dream team for its' cast list, including Jet Li, Dolph Lundgren, Bruce Willis, and even the governator himself, Arnold Schwarzenegger, making a rare appearance. But since the movie was both written and directed by Sylvester Stallone, the emphasis gets to be a bit too much on Sly himself, rather than the rest of the crew, which ends up making the film feel a bit generic.

The Expendables    The Expendables

Sylvester Stallone is actually an Oscar-nominated screenwriter, but you wouldn't know it from The Expendables. The plot is dead simple. Sly heads up a mercenary crew who are hired by a clandestine agent (Bruce Willis) to take out a dictator of a remote island that is being used by a former CIA agent (Eric Roberts) to farm cocaine. And that's it. Basically, just grab your popcorn, strap yourself in, and wait for the bloodshed and explosions -- lots and lots and lots of explosions -- to assault your eyeballs for the next 100 minutes.

The Expendables    The Expendables

There are a couple of attempts to inject some actual emotion into the proceedings, all of which fall flat. In particular, there's a ridiculously plodding and cliched soliloquy delivered (perhaps improvised?) by Mickey Rourke that kills off a lot of the built up momentum. Thankfully, Stallone seemed to realize that the emphasis here should be on action, not dramatics, and the movie does get back on track during the final act, which ends in an orgy of broken bones. Seriously, if you like seeing arms snapped and kneecaps blown out, this is the picture for you. Oh, and explosions. For one little island, there is a shocking amount of crap blown to bits, and it all goes up in flames in not-so-subtle voyeuristic fashion.

The Expendables    The Expendables

Overall, the action is a mixed bag. There are plenty of fun ultra-violent gags, but things tend to get repeated. Seeing a knife go through an eye socket is all fine and good, but after the fifth time or so, the blood spurts lose their effect a little. Also, and perhaps more damningly, there's way too many close-ups and "shaky cam" editing present during the hand-to-hand fight scenes, which obscures the action to the point that it's hard to tell what's going on. Perhaps that might not be such a bad thing when you're looking at Jet Li getting jobbed out to Dolph Lundgren not once, but twice. At any rate, The Expendables isn't the pinnacle of action films that early buzz made it out to be, but it's a fun brainless summer popcorn movie that should satisfy most action junkies out there.

RATING: 7

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