You’re not interested in this film because you’re a connoisseur of fine acting. You don’t want to see it because you’re interested in quirky humor that takes jabs at popular culture. You’re going to watch The Expendables because you trust that when you put the likes of Sylvester Stallone, Jet Li, Jason Statham, Dolph Lundgren, Terry Crews, Randy Couture and Steve Austin in a balls-to-the-wall action film that lots of things are going to explode, people will have their heads bashed in, and a quantity of firearms greater than that used in all of two World Wars will be thrown on the screen in a fiery mash-up of testosterone bliss. The Expendables gives action fans a taste of what they want, but it never really delivers on the promise that all those names gathered in one place suggests. In the end, we’re left with a serviceable action film and an audience scratching its heads still waiting for that last huge epic fight scene their sure must be just around the corner and will fulfill the prophecy, but which will never come (unless we get a sequel).
Barney (Sylvester Stallone) heads a team of some of the most efficient killing machines in the world. They take on missions around the world to dispatch bad guys, rescue hostages, or some other goal that requires a little bit of muscle (or a lot of muscle). His team includes Lee (Statham), Yang (Li), Caesar (Crews), and Road (Couture), and Gunner (Lundgren) recently expelled for getting too trigger happy. Fresh off their last job, Barney and Lee jump into their next one at the bequest of a client (Bruce Willis) and head off to a small island under the control of despotic leader General Garza (David Zayas) being manipulated by a warlord James Munroe (Eric Roberts). After a hasty retreat from their recon mission, they head back fully armed to take on Garza, Munroe and his henchman (Austin) in an all-out firefight that comes within inches of giving the viewer what they wanted from the movie – only to pull back at the last second. What a tease.
The script isn’t clever. The performances aren’t nuanced. The score isn’t a masterpiece. None of that matters. It's got cheesy one-liners galore and the action sequences are well-crafted giving every action star a brief moment to shine (though not long enough by my count), but letting only a few of them go off the rails and into the frenzy that their fans want to see (most notably Statham, and even his recounts his The Transporter days, taking on 8 jocks on a basketball court). On the other hand, we never get a spectacular display of Li’s abilities or even Crews’. In fact, until one of the final scenes, they have Li dispatching all his enemies with a pistol – the badass Chinese action star who wowed audiences in Fearless – was killing guys with a gun. Minus 2 badass points. I’m sorry. Stallone’s character all at once stands in the spotlight and yields it to his co-stars. He’s the leader of his wolf pack and consequently most of the story driving comes from Barney’s efforts, but when it comes to knocking skulls, he never hogs the spotlight – commendable considering Stallone co-wrote and directed the feature while simultaneously acting as the magnet that helped reel in one of the most impressive action film casts of all time.
The Blu-ray presentation is crystal clear and definitely benefits from the hi-def transfer. Thanks to the films lush environments and constantly exploding surroundings, there’s plenty of opportunity to sit back and relish the benefits of Blu-ray on this one. If you have a good audio system, get ready to feel your couch rock; with movies like The Expendables there should be an entire channel of the surround sound dedicated to perfecting the sound of bombs and heads exploding. Some day.
Blu-ray Bonus Features
It’s another combo pack, so you’ll find the film in Blu-ray, DVD, and digital copy format, with all of the extras on the Blu-ray portion. The easier extras to burn through include the large collection of marketing trailers and teasers used to get audiences excited for the action star reunion that is The Expendables, as well as deleted scenes, a gag reel, and a taping of the ComicCon panel (I’ve never been a big fan of ComicCon footage though, because it’s genuinely a happening that requires the excitement of being there). The meatier extras include a solid audio commentary by Stallone (I find a disembodied Stallone pretty comical), an in-depth making of featurette, a documentary chronicling the film’s release and the days leading up to it, and finally, an interactive version of the film where you can select options throughout the film’s duration as they pop up on the screen to learn more about its production and conception.
"The Expendables" is on sale November 23, 2010 and is rated R. Action. Directed by Sylvester Stallone. Written by Dave Callaham, Sylvester Stallone. Starring David Zayas, Dolph Lundgren, Eric Roberts, Jason Statham, Jet Li, Steve Austin, Sylvester Stallone, Terry Crews.
