The Expendables 3 (**½)
Directed by: Patrick Hughes
Starring: Sylvester Stallone, Mel
Gibson, Jason Statham, Antonio Banderas, Harrison Ford, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Jet
Li, Wesley Snipes, Dolph Lundgren, Kelsey Grammer, Randy Couture, Terry Crews,
Kellan Lutz, Ronda Rousey, Glen Powell, Victor Ortiz, Robert Davi
Seen: August 24th 2014
**½ Out of ****
The Expendables is an over-the-top action
blockbuster franchise revisiting the heydays of 80’s and early 90’s action
cinema. I enjoyed the first movie and I enjoyed the second a little more for
its self-deprecating nature, and the third one remains fun and enjoyable, while
at the same time I was baffled as to what these “good guys” can justify in the
name of friendship and basic employment. This movie, in my opinion, has the
strongest villain of the three movies, as Mel Gibson simply devours every scene
he appears in with an almost insane glee, and the rumoured fourth and fifth instalments
will need a strong script if they hope to stay fresh following Gibson’s
maniacal mega-villain.
Paralleling events in the second
movie, The Expendables 3 starts with a high octane rescue mission followed by a
mission ending in an unfortunate turnaround as one of their own, Hale Caesar
(Crews), is severely wounded (in the second movie one of their own was killed).
The rescue mission features a speeding train and a new introduction of an old
Expendable, Doctor Death (Snipes). The turnaround mission is to capture an arms
dealer who proves to be more than expected, and the team retreats to recover. Barney
Ross (Stallone) is approached by Max Drummer (Ford), replacing Mr. Church
(Bruce Willis, not in this movie) as CIA handler/manager of the Expendables,
after the failed mission. Drummer puts Ross onto the trail of Conrad Stonebanks
(Gibson) again, but suggests he gets a younger and more “able” team. Ross happily
obliges, as he doesn’t want his team (and by extension friends and only family)
in this kind of danger anymore, and he retires Christmas (Statham), Gunnar
(Lundgren), Toll Road (Couture), and Doctor Death against their will. Ross
approaches his old friend Bonaparte (Grammer) to assist him in finding a new
team, and they recruit Smilee (Lutz), a former Navy Seal; Luna (Rousey), a very
capable girl with a dangerous combat skillset; Thorn (Powell), a tech expert;
and Mars (Ortiz), a weapons specialist. One of the hopefuls, Galgo (Banderas),
a crazy-talking hyperactive mercenary sniper, is seen by both of them as too
old, and they reject him.
The new team, together with Trench
(Schwarzenegger), head to Romania to capture Stonebanks, but fail to complete
the mission and are captured with only Ross barely escaping to rendezvous with
Trench at their extraction point. Ross decides on a solo attempt at getting
Stonebanks, but he is joined first by Galgo, and then the rest of the team as
they head out to the climactic battle which takes up approximately the last hour
of the movie.
The action is well produced with the
obvious moments of ridiculous stunts that pepper so many action movies
(remember Bruce Willis ramping a car through a toll booth to take out a chopper
in Die Hard 4? This is like that at times…). I was wondering how many tens of
thousands of fake bullets and rockets were fired at one stage but realised that
pondering that is beside the point, just know that it is almost non-stop during
the final battle. I find a huge contrast in the value of life of a colleague or
friend versus the that of anyone else in this movie; and I mean a phenomenal
gap, because to rescue Doctor Death from prison, the team basically murders an
entire maximum security prison’s staff, and to finally get to the villain, the
team decimates an entire army (I kid you not, an entire army), this time of
some country with a name ending in “-istan”.
All the actors are having a blast, and
the fun they’re having is evident throughout. Stallone is a worthy leader and
he has some of the better one-liners in the movie. Antonio Banderas steals a
few scenes with his extremely talkative and desperately approval-seeking Galgo,
and Mel Gibson simply destroys his role. In one particular scene between
Stallone and Gibson, Stallone practically disappears as Gibson tears through script
and screen, he plays the villain magnificently, and every other scene he
appears in is just as intense – Gibson owns The Expendables 3.
If you enjoyed the first two movies,
there’s absolutely no reason you wouldn’t also enjoy this one – it’s fun, it’s
violent (less so than the first two, there’s almost no blood in the entire
movie), and it’s exciting. For simple enjoyment, The Expendables 3 is worthy
bang for your buck.
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