The Expendables 2 (***)
Directed
by: Simon West
Starring:
Sylvester Stallone, Jason Statham, Jet Li, Dolph Lundgren, Chuck Norris,
Jean-Claude van Damme, Bruce Willis, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Terry Crews, Randy
Coutoure, Liam Hemsworth
Seen:
September 21st 2012
***
Out of ****
With
a cast like this in a no holds barred action movie it has to be done in a
self-deprecating way, tongue planted firmly in cheek. Luckily this is the case,
but what Stallone and Co. have managed to produce under the direction of Simon
West (Con Air, The General’s Daughter, Tomb Raider) is even more. You can sense
the enjoyment every actor gets out of playing his part, and the feeling is
contagious. The action is insane, the humour is fun and funny, and the story is
engaging enough to be more than merely a link between action scenes. Add to
that an opening 30 minutes that measures up to and comes close to beating just
about any other great action movie I’ve ever seen, and The Expendables 2 is
definitely a roaring success.
The
Expendables starts with a bang and some chuckles as the group assault a
military installation of sorts in Nepal to rescue a hostage and a captured
mercenary, Trench (Schwarzenegger). The team consists of leader Barney Ross
(Stallone), knife-man Lee Christmas (Statham), martial artist Yin Yang (Li),
weapons master Hale Caesar (Crews), demolition man Toll Road (Coutoure), the
somewhat crazy Gunner Jensen (Lundgren), and sniper Billy the Kid (Hemsworth).
Every team member is at least 40 years old except for the youngster Billy the
Kid, who after this mission approaches Ross and tells him of his intention to
retire from this life of violence at month’s end. Before month’s end however,
another mission rolls by courtesy of CIA operative Mr. Church (Willis) and this
is where things go awfully awry. Billy is captured and, in front of the team,
killed by the movie’s main villain, Jean Vilain (van Damme). Stopping Vilain
and avenging Billy is the name of the game from here on out, setting up a
sumptuous slew of grand action scenes crammed chock-full of explosions,
gunfire, and hand-to-hand combat.
As
mentioned earlier, I enjoyed the first 30 minutes of the movie immensely. After
this the movie is reduced to something of a slightly more generic, but still
very well made, shoot and blast action movie. The first 30 minutes gets its
resonance from the story arc involving Billy’s death and the team’s dealing
with it and burying him as they promise vengeance – up to this point this movie
was brilliant in my humble opinion, after this it is a hugely enjoyable feast
of action. One aspect that was really entertaining was the abundance of
references to the actors’ other movies or personal lives. Schwarzenegger and
Willis do a Die Hard/Terminator cross-over, Dolph Lundgren’s life as an
engineer before becoming an actor is referenced, and Chuck Norris seems as
unstoppable as the internet would have you believe.
It’s
all heaps of fun and all the actors visibly enjoy playing around. Jean Claude
van Damme looks as though he’s had constant plastic surgery for the last 15
years and he is only slightly scary as Vilain, but the threat that he poses
with his terrorist group is translated in a very real manner.
The
Expendables 2 is all the action giants of the last 40-50 years having a blast,
and it achieves what it was aiming for far better than many movies that will
get better ratings than this movie. I loved The Expendables 2, which was in almost
all ways superior to the first Expendables movie.
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