As Chad noted in this week’s Friday Forecast column, the film likely to own the weekend box office is “The Expendables,” from esteemed auteur Sylvester Stallone. For me, this is the real capper of the summer movie months (haven’t seen it yet, as the reviews have taken that sting out a bit, but I will). I’m eager to hear your thoughts though, so, you know the drill.
Comments
18 responses to “Tell us what you thought of ‘The Expendables’”
It’s total shit.
Heh, where’s the “Eat Pray Love” post? ;)
It depends really… for example, did you enjoy Rambo?
If yes, this will makes that look like dull in comparison.
If not, it’s more of the same with more humor. Turn your brain off, and for once be rewarded for it, instead of insulted in the case of much of what Bay would call ”escapism”.
It’s certainly not for the pretentious but you don’t have to be brain-dead to enjoy it, as in Crash of the Titans.
As a child of the decade that prodcued such bloody, extravegant, and fantastically over-the-top actioners like The Terminator, Robocop, even Rambo, an ofcourse my favoite of teh bunch, Die Hard, which I’ll admit doesn’t entirley fall into that category but still, I was actually excited to see something that promised itself to be a throwback to that Regean-era of popcorn entertainment. Unfortunatley, Sly Stallone’s latest effort to stay relevant in a culture that is prehaps better off without him doesn’t even manage to succeed at achieving the fairly simplistic goal of being a B movie tribute.
Not going to elaborate to much from there but even leaving my brain at the door in an attempt to enjoy this “blockbuster” in the same regard as say the first Transormers isn’t enough for me to buy into a film that feels like a late-night basic cable movie headlined by Chuck Norris.
It’s enjoyable to watch the number of ways Sly and his crew can make people’s heads explode. It’s unashamed of its desires.
Not entertaining enough, a real real disappointment. To be plain, who cares about Terry Crewes and Randy Couture ??? What I wanted in this movie was to see actors with a real past as an action hero. People like Michael Dudikoff, Steven Seagal, Jean-Claude Vandamme, Don Johnson, Wesley Snipes, Bo Svensson or Carl Weathers. Don’t tell me they’re too old, or I may be unkind to Sly. A battle of the genre icons, even some bad ones. The only members of the cast doing the kind of entertainment expected from this movie are Eric Roberts ( a great over-the-top villain ) and Dolph Lundgren. The latter really delivers ! He steals the scenes he’s in. Who is interested by the ” relationship ” between Charisma Carpenter and Jason Statham ( boooooooooring ) ? Let’s enjoy rather Jet Li vs Dolph. The church sequence is quite funny, which underlines the great weakness of the movie : its severe lack of irony. It could have been to 2010 what Last Action Hero was in 1993 : a fun tribute AND an action movie. Stallone ignored too much that first element. If there’s a sequel, let’s have more fun and better henchmen to the lead badass ! Steve Austin ?!? Really ?!?
The cast is essentially a collection of the handful of people in Hollywood who vote Republican. Bruce Willis, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Sylvester Stallone, Mickey Rourke. All they’re missing is Robert Duvall.
What a piece of shit. “Unashamed of its desires”? This is the most ashamed a violent movie has been since Unforgiven, and that was *about* violence, not a gleeful exercise in it with awkward soliloquies about tough Latin American broads resisting colonialism and Bosnian ladies throwing themselves in the water ’til your manly soul dies awkwardly stitched over. Stallone never figured out what this thing was supposed to be, 80s throwback or essay on the aging action hero in a time of globalization blah, and it shows.
It’s a lazy, rote action movie that tries for “art,” but ultimately numbs the viewer into submission with the carnage-heavy finale of explosions. Awful film that should’ve been dumb fun.
“To be plain, who cares about Terry Crewes and Randy Couture ??? ”
Lol, I`m wondering myself. I guess they were cheap.
“What I wanted in this movie was to see actors with a real past as an action hero. People like Michael Dudikoff, Steven Seagal, Jean-Claude Vandamme, Don Johnson, Wesley Snipes, Bo Svensson or Carl Weathers. ”
Maybe they bring some of them in the sequel and maybe some of them are frenemies with Sly so he crossed out their names by default. And I bet they all cost more than WWE and UFC.
That said, I enjoyed it for what it was but it could`ve been so much better. Lose WWE and UFC people for starters. They can`t deliver 3 lines let alone act. Unless it`s the Rock who actually can act.
Too many characters but the major attraction is in the movie for,like, 3 minutes tops (Sly, Arnie and Bruce scene).
It`s perfectly OK to make a 100% sausagefest. Those barely there chicks didn`t make the movie any better or more appealing. Just unnecessary waste of screen that could`ve gone to surprising star of the movie – Dolph!
Script does matter and the best action movies have both great action and great script. This is not one of them. I can`t even recall what were the character names. I call them Sly, Statham, Mickey,etc. That`s not good.
Very curious about its second week drop. That it`s going to be big is a no brainer but how big?
Expendables was terrible and really boring at times.
I love Commando, Under Siege and Hard Target and yet I could not get into this at all. Stale.
What an awful and ridiculous film. Boring, painful humor. And no, turning my mind off didn’t work either. It’s simply really not enjoyable. And let me tell you this, all those supporters claiming it’s brainless fun need to re-evaluate. The main reason is this: Stallone made like the ultimat bad movie with the most bad-ass cast. He assembled them. He should’ve delivered the most kick-ass movie of the year if not recent memory. He didn’t even manage to make it the most kick-ass of the past few weeks. This was bad.
Pascal, I’d wager a bet and say people like Van Damme wouldn’t have done this movie with the small roles that they would’ve been given. Seagal has said he declined because of a previous dispute with the producer.
qwiggles, huh? This movie is ashamed of being violent?
Yes. I know it was difficult to keep from nodding off during Mickey Rourke’s 12 minute monologue on the soul-deadening effects of being an ex-Rambo, but that was certainly a thing that happened.
True about Van Damme or Steven Seagal declining to be in it. Or even Wesley Snipes. I don’t believe Carl Weathers was expensive. I’d be surprised… We’ll have to wait and see if Machete is better. Starring Seagal AND Don Johnson. Could be fun..
Machete arguably has the more kick-ass cast with DeNiro, Johnson, Seagal and Rodriguez.
I hated it too. It operates on the level of a six year old who owns his first toy gun. And now don’t say “Naah every action flick does” because I don’t believe so. Only one question remains: where was Chuck Norris?
This film was total crap !