Review: The Expendables

Grade: B

Barney Ross leads a team of highly skilled mercenaries that call themselves the Expendables. The team includes himself, knife specialist Lee Christmas, martial arts expert Yin Yang, heavy weapons specialist Hale Caesar, demolition expert Toll Road and expert sniper Gunner Jensen. When Barney is hired by a mysterious man who calls himself Mr. Church, the group is told to head to a island in the Gulf of Mexico in order to overthrow the dictator who rules the island with an iron fist. But, when the group get there they quickly realize things aren’t quite what they seem and things go horribly wrong. Ross is then faced with a decision, walk away and try to forget about it or go back and risk his life in order to clear his conscience.

This movie is a fun and exciting straight up action movie. From start to finish there are gun fights, fist fights and explosions. It is everything a man could ask for in an action movie and so much more. The plot and story line are a little weak but those things are really not that necessary in a movie like this. This movie is meant purely for enjoyment, not analysis.

The movie has of course been drawing people in on its cast alone, which comprises of some of the biggest and greatest action stars of the last 30 or so years. To start, the movie is written, directed and stars Sylvester Stallone (Rambo, Rocky Balboa) in the lead role of Barney Ross. Stallone has really still got it for being 64 years old. Pretty amazing some of the things he can still do and that he still has those huge bulging muscles. Jason Statham (The Transporter, The Bank Job) plays Lee Christmas. Statham is at the top of his game for this movie and really did a great job with his role. Jet Li (Forbidden Kingdom, Fearless) plays Yin Yang. Li was good in this role and pretty funny too. Since he is significantly smaller than the rest of the cast in almost every way, he is constantly the butt of jokes but does pretty well dishing it out as well. Probably the part of the cast I was most excited about was the infamous return of Dolph Lundgren (Rocky IV, Masters of the Universe) as Gunner Jensen. It was very entertaining seeing Lundgren back on the big screen and is part of what made this movie worth it. The cast is so great that if I go on like this, it will take forever to get through. So, the rest of the cast includes Terry Crews (Gamer), Eric Roberts (Dark Knight), Mickey Rourke (Iron Man 2), David Zayas (TVs Dexter), Bruce Willis (Die Hard), Arnold Schwarzenegger (Terminator), Steve Austin, Charisma Carpenter, Giselle Itie and Randy Couture.

If you are looking for a fun and action packed movie, Expendables is your movie. This movie is definitely what every guy dreams of in an action movie.