N'Al on 10/9/2010 at 06:17
I've seen it. It was... alright. Does what it says on the tin.
[edit] I did crack up at the Sly-Arnie-Bruce scene; the dialogue was so incredibly cheesy, it was great. The movie's worth it for that. ;) [/edit]
Sulphur on 10/9/2010 at 15:21
Saw it a week ago. A lady friend of mine cringed from some of the violence, but that's to be expected since she once saw Bioshock's opening level with the flaming man meeting the business end of a wrench and refused to look any further.
It's a ridiculous, testosterone-infused popcorn flick. Does exactly what it's meant to, no more, no less. I got some flashes of Commando from certain parts, but that might just be me. It's a good way to waste an evening as long as you don't try to mistake anything in it for depth.
And yep, the best part was as N'Al said, the bit where the terrible three finally meet up for the first time on a movie screen.
nicked on 10/9/2010 at 18:14
I was very disappointed with the film. I guess it's my own fault for expecting some kind of self-aware tongue-in-cheek homage to cheesy action movies. Instead, it just is a cheesy action movie, without even a hint of depth or subtext. To sum up the film in one word: "pointless". On every level.
CCCToad on 11/9/2010 at 01:04
Quote Posted by nicked
I was very disappointed with the film. I guess it's my own fault for expecting some kind of self-aware tongue-in-cheek homage to cheesy action movies. Instead, it just
is a cheesy action movie, without even a hint of depth or subtext. To sum up the film in one word: "pointless". On every level.
The sad part is that quite a few people I know simply described it as "badass". I'm probably being too kind, but I'm hoping that they were just saying that because they didn't want to admit they paid good money for a bad movie.
rachel on 11/9/2010 at 08:13
I really wonder, were you really expecting Stallone to pull off a meta-action flick? :D I mean come on, the guy can write but sorry he's not that good. Me, I went there expecting a
Commando-like action movie that felt like it was taken straight from the 80's, and guess what, it's exactly that.
Quote Posted by Sulphur
It's a ridiculous, testosterone-infused popcorn flick. Does exactly what it's meant to, no more, no less. (...) It's a good way to waste an evening as long as you don't try to mistake anything in it for depth.
^ Word.
nicked on 11/9/2010 at 10:22
I guess the difference with something like Commando is that the comedy aspect of it feels unintentional, like it's an accidental byproduct of the cheesy writing. Expendables feels very forced. None of the characters are believable, even accepting that they're action film cardboard cutouts, because they have nothing subplots attached to them.
There's these weird conversations where Jet Li complains that he should be getting paid more money. But it doesn't go anywhere and has no bearing on anything else in the film.
Likewise with Jason Statham beating seven shades of shit out of the guy his girlfriend was cheating on him with. And this of course makes her swoon and throw herself on him, just like all women in real life would be really impressed to find out their boyfriend is a murdering psychopath.
The action scenes are impressively done, sure, but when you're given no reason whatsoever to root for the "good" guys, it just becomes this emotionally dead thing flapping about. There wouldn't have been much difference in excitement levels if they'd just animated the storyboards.
Schwarzenegger and Bruce Willis are in it for one scene of pointless wink-wink-nudge-nudge gags; Mickey Rourke lounges around doing nothing and talking about it; the bad guys aren't even that bad, they mostly just bicker amongst themselves.
At least Commando had a motivation for Arnie - they kidnapped his daughter. This drives the plot and sustains interest. Expendables tries to sustain interest by praying that you'll be interested in the characters, because they have very little motivation to do anything that they do in the film. The best they can muster up is a shoe-horned-in hot girl who may or may not be in trouble.
I would have thought that the recipe for this sort of silly action film is pretty simple: likeable characters placed into unwinabble situations and/or given clear motivation, and kicking ass against the odds. All we have here is dull, boring characters who are shown from the start and throughout the film to be so good at kicking ass that the outcome is never in question, even while suspending your disbelief. And that leads to thorough boredom in my book.
rachel on 11/9/2010 at 10:51
Actually Mickey Rourke is probably the best character I think. Certainly the most fleshed out emotionally anyway. I was impressed.
Sulphur on 11/9/2010 at 11:22
I think the Commando comparisons coloured your expectations some.
If you went in expecting something with heart instead of an ensemble cast of heavyweight action heroes trading quips and bullets in equal measure, you were bound to be disappointed. It's a cheese fest with a token romance told in broad actiony strokes, not a solo vehicle for guts and grit built to make you root for the hero. It did what it had to in its runtime to introduce everybody to the audience, and then proceeded to what it's all about: the action. Hell, the opening five minutes should have made it clear where the real focus is. It's no less than any other shallow nonsense featuring Seagal or Van Damme or Snipes, and indeed follows that tradition to a T. And we usually ate that stuff up with barely a complaint.
Matthew on 17/9/2010 at 09:44
I walked in expecting an overblown action flick with slightly stilted dialogue and a lot of things blowing up, so I walked out with a smile on my face. :D
BEAR on 17/9/2010 at 14:53
It was a little slow to get started and wasn't ALL I COULD EVER HOPE FOR, but I walked out satisfied.
The whole part after they assaulted the island (down in the basement during the over the top grunting match between goldberg and stallone), was pure awesome. I wish more of the movie could have been that, but I was satisfied.
Also Jet Li had some pretty funny moments (well, almost entirely funny moments).
