It has been almost 2 years since I first heard about The Expendables. At first it was just Sylvester Stallone making a massive action film, but then as the weeks progressed and turned into months the cast started coming together and every announcement seemed to top the last.
First modern day action favourite Jason Statham was cast, then martial arts legend Jet Li, then a man who has been off the big screen and languishing in DTV hell for years - Dolph Lundgren. And the names kept on rolling - UFC champion Randy Couture, WWE Champion 'Stone Cold' Steve Austin, Eric Roberts - another man who gets a long deserved big 'bad guy' role, Dexter's David Zayas, Former NFL star Terry Crews...
And not forgetting 3 unforgettable appearances from Mickey Rourke, Bruce Willis and Arnold Schwarzenegger.
I remember well about a year ago being gutted that the release date of May 2010 had been pushed back to August. Late in 2009 we got a rough trailer which showed us what to look forward to, and well here we are!
The Expendables is the first non-Rocky or Rambo film Stallone has directed since 1983's Staying Alive and tells of a group of mercenaries sent to overthrow a dictator. Thats it really. And I'm not saying that as a negative.
The film starts with the team - Barney Ross (Stallone), Lee Christmas (Statham), Ying Yang (Li), Gunner Jensen (Lundgren), Toll Road (Couture) and Hale Ceasar (Crews) saving Americans from evil Pirates.
Just as a side note here - obviously Stallone and co-writer Dave Callaham were having a bit of a laugh with the characters names here - Steve Austin's character is simply called Paine, Mickey Rourke's Tool...
After the scene is set, we follow Ross to a meeting with potential client Mr. Church (Bruce Willis), which also involves another leader of a group of mercenaries Trench (Arnold Schwarzenegger). Not to give away too much about this scene, but it's going to be one of those that go down in movie history. It's not a long scene but seeing the 3 action movie legends bouncing off each other is just brilliant and almost has a surreal quality to it.
That scene sets up the main plot of the film (such as it is) which involves The Expendables travelling to a South American island to overthrow a dictator (Zayas) but the dictator is being controlled by a ruthless American (Roberts).
Obviously when all the Expendables arrive at the island all hell breaks looses and culminates in a breathtaking action sequence in the underground of the dictators palatial residence. And when I mean breathtaking - I'm not kidding - a kind of hush fell over the cinema audience at this point as some of the most brutal fighting was uncorked in front of them.
The end also did expose a flaw or two - mainly down to some ropey CG which I won't detail as both instances are spoiler ridden, but you'll know what I mean.
In short The Expendables was the film I hoped it would be and more. Great action, cheesy dialogue and the return to the big screen of some people I'd never thought I'd see there again (especially Dolph Lundgren who looked like he was having a blast making it and was responsible for the second best line of the film - "Warning shot!")
And it seems to be catching. Apparently Bruce Willis saw a rough version and after all this time of distancing himself from the franchise (and only doing sequels when he can get something in return) he wants to do a proper old school style Die Hard film!
And what of The Expendables? It's left wide open for a sequel and after an impressive opening weekend in the States where it trounced Julia Roberts vehicle 'Eat, Pray, Love' and Edgar Wright's 'Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World' its bound to happen and Sly himself has already said he is thinking of ideas (apparently he has scrapped all plans for Rambo 5 in order to do a sequel) one of which is to introduce new Expendables.
So we can only hope for Steven Seagal, Jean Claude Van Damme, a return in some way for Arnold Schwarzenegger and Bruce Willis (entirely possible for Arnie - he is out of office in November) or maybe even the holy grail of 80s action stars...Chuck Norris?
But for now, enjoy what we've got and go see this film repeatedly. You don't get many chances to see something like this on the big screen.
*****
Sly and co. do not dissapoint in this adrenaline packed mammoth. Miss it at your peril!
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