THE PLOT THUS FAR
Sylvester Stallone stars as Barney Ross, leader of The Expendables, a tight-knit team of skilled combat vets turned mercenaries. Hired by a powerful covert operator, the team jets off to a small South American country to overthrow a ruthless dictator. Once there, they find themselves caught in a deadly web of deceit and betrayal. Using every weapon at their disposal, they set out to save the innocent and punish the guilty in this blistering action-packed thriller.
WHAT WE THOUGHT
The Expendables stars Stallone as Barney Ross, the head of a group of professional mercenaries, consisting of Lee Christmas, Ying Yang, Gunner Jensen, Hale Caesar and Toll Road. They’re on a mission to take down the evil dictator of the fictional South American country Vilena, General Garza, who unflinchingly kills people. Turns out he is not their only target, as crooked ex-CIA agent James Munroe is the well-dressed controller of puppet Garza’s strings.
This is not even an 80s movie, like some delusional moviegoers claim. It is one of those state-of-the-art-shaky-cam things with some actors that were known in the 80s, but you can’t tell that in the action scenes, not only due the mentioned filming, but also due to the editing, where they tried to set a new record for as many cuts as possible. The Director’s Cut barely approves upon this with ten extra minutes of backstory for Staham and Stallone’s characters. Some of the troublesome CG has been replaced, but it’s not that big of a deal.
Jason Statham’s got a weak subplot about his maybe-girlfriend played by Charisma Carpenter that goes nowhere and that wastes her presence as a performer completely. Jet Li complains a few times about needing money for his family, but it never pays off in any way. Mickey Rourke shows up as a former mercenary-turned-tattoo-artist who is meant to spark some sort of crisis of conscience in Stallone’s character, and he’s got a monologue that is obviously supposed to be the soul of the film. But it’s all so drenched in cliché, so painfully familiar, that it just doesn’t connect. Rourke is a fascinating on screen figure these days, all ruined beauty and scar tissue, and he is good in his big moment… it’s just that it doesn’t feel connected to the movie around it.
The Blu-Ray comes with an introduction, featurettes and music video. You also get a Digital Copy for people that have to take their niche action on the go. The 1080p transfer seems to be an exact copy of the original release, even with the troublesome digital noise during the night-time shootouts. The DTS-HD 7.1 master audio track is pretty impressive even when compared against the original DTS-HD track. In the end, I’d recommend a purchase.
RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW!
