The Expendables

The cinematic equivalent of an 80s revival tour, bringing together gone but not quite forgotten stars like Stallone, Schwarzenegger, Dolpg Lundgren, Mickey Rourke and Bruce Willis. Throw in a bunch of charisma-free wrestlers and a couple of more modern muscle-men (Jason Statham and Jet Li)  and you have The Expendables.

This is kind of film which doesn't let small things like plot, story and character get in the way of the next explosion. In other words, it really is a throw-back to the 80s action flicks and what was good or not about them.

The most talked about scene is the one where Stallone, Arnie and Willis appear together. Contrary to what you may have read - it doesn't work. The scripting here (which is good) requires a certain amount of verbal repartee and banter that is slightly beyond the acting abilities of Sly and Arnie, who are more comfortable delivering a bad one-liner having already killed everybody else in the scene. Willis (who can act) looks totally lost amongst the thespian wooden-ness around him. Arnie at least wins points for willingness to make fun of himself (at least, I assume he got the joke).

In many ways, that's sympomatic of the whole film - it has that kind of Oceans Twelve feel to it. You can tell that the cast had great fun making it, but that doesn't necessarily translate to great fun for the audience. Not that the film is without any merits - Sly can clearly still cut it, Lundgren is surprisingly good and Rourke predictably so, but underused. Statham (who has made a lot of bad films recently) comes out pretty well, whilst poor Jet Li gets used more as comic relief.

Overall - 5.5/10 It does exactly what it says on the tin, for better or worse.