TITLE: The Expendables
STARRING: Sylvester Stallone, Jason Statham, Jet Li, Terry Crews, Steve Austin, Mickey Rourke, Dolph Lundgren, Randy Couture
DIRECTOR: Sylvester Stallone
STUDIO: Millennium Films, Nu Image
RATED: R
RUN TIME: 103 min
RELEASED: August 13, 2010

By Stephen McCarthy
Staff Writer, Evil Genius

The Expendables is the dream movie every action fan has been waiting to see for the better part of nearly three decades.  The chance to see the biggest and best action stars all team up for one big badass actionier.  Sadly, this movie is being made past the prime of Arnold Schwarzenegger and Bruce Willis (they make a cameo appearance), but the movie still delivers the over the top action and mediocre plot that one would expect it to.

This film mainly stars Sylvester Stallone, Jason Statham and Jet Li as a group mercenaries that will go out and get the job done for anyone.  They all have their problems; Statham is attempting to have a relationship, Jet Li talks about a family that he needs the money for and Stallone is the leader of the team who has seen too much.  These are the characters I felt I got to know and understand the most.  Unfortunately, most everyone else doesn’t get the screen time to really develop their character but at the same time, but I wouldn’t have wanted to sit through a 150 minute action movie that revolved around character development and even moreso when that is not what they are going for.

Photo from rottentomatoes.com.

But that isn’t to say that everyone doesn’t have their shining moment.  Terry Crews, Dolph Lundgren, Mickey Rourke, Steve Austin and Randy Couture all got a chance to have their moment in the movie and they did not disappoint.  Even some of the action scenes were kind of unique and drew big cheers from the audience that I saw the movie with.  The ensemble cast manages to have fun and great chemistry on screen which leads to an enjoyable watch must like Ocean’s Twelve was, although in a different sense.

Unfortunately, Stallone has decided to make use of the shaky camera during most of the action scenes in this movie.  This might annoy some but there was so much going on that it didn’t annoy me at all.  I felt that I was able to see everything that was going on and that it worked for the film.  I only wish that the shaky cam was not used during the chase scene, but this is a minor complaint.

Over all the movie delivered what it promised: the biggest action stars teaming up for a big action movie.  Practically the entire last 30 minutes of the movie is one big action scene.  This might not be a “great” movie but it is a highly entertaining movie in the vein of 80s action movies like Commando, Rambo and even newer films like The Transporter.  If you are a fan of movies like those then you should walk out a satisfied customer.

RATING: 7/10

Front page photo from rottentomatoes.com.