Review: The Expendables

Barney Ross (Sylvester Stallone) leads a charismatic bunch of mercenaries. This group includes Lee Christmas (Jason Statham), Ross' second in command and expert knife thrower, and Yin Yang (Jet Li), a martial artist with a Napoleon complex. They all have varying skill-sets and personality quirks, but share one characteristic: balls of steel. They are hired by a mysterious "company man" to overthrow a South American dictator who has aligned himself with a rogue CIA agent. But there turns out to be more than money incolced with this mission. It might just be their shot at saving their collective souls.

The Expendables is the action movie to end all action movies. Stallone has gathered the coolest names in action, written them a kick-ass script, and continued to shoot the hell out of it. Right from the get-go, the movie promises to deliver on intense action relying on a number of different disciplines: martial arts, marksmanship, and demolition. And that is just the tip of the iceberg. It boats one of the best and thrilling climatic finales an action movie buff could ask for. With explosions setting off left and right, the one black mark on the entire film is the horrible computer rending of the still burning fire.

The cast is better than to be expected for an action movie. Stallone and Statham are front and center as the two main protagonists. They are both proven talents not just in the arena, but otuside of it as well using their screen presence to their advantage. This pushes Randy Couture and Terry Crews, one of the more charismatic stars, till the end shootout. David Zayas chews a bit of the scenery, but Eric Roberts lightens the mood with his smooth rogue agent. Giselle Itie was surprisingly well-done. The two best actors of the bunch are Mickey Rourke and Bruce Willis, both of whom have very little screentime.

Rourke plays a handler for the gang. He obviously has experience in the field, but his confidence has been dragged through the mud. He gets a very compelling anecdote that poetically drives Barney's moral compass. Bruce Willis plays the mysterious "company man" who hires the boys. To finally see not just Stallone and Willis face off, but to add The Govenator as well, was a sight to see. The machismo filled pissing contest begins and never lets up. Like Deniro and Pacino in Heat and Walken and Hopper in Truce Romance, this face off will go down in the cinematic history books.

The Expendables is a rough and tough action extravaganza that plays to Stallone's creative strengths and the rest of the casts on-screen strengths. This movie knocks the teeth out of the modern action movie in the face, and hopefully sets a new standard. It is far from the perfect movie, but it takes pride in its flaws.

8/10