THE EXPENDABLES is Stallone’s tribute to 1980s action films.  He gets a cast of action stars together for a film that is filled with some good action leading to the explosive climax.   If none of these stars ever do a film like this one again, this is also a tribute to the action films each star have done in the past.   It is a film for action film junkies and fans of any of the stars in this film.   Even Bruce Willis and Arnold Schwarzenegger get into the game with a  one scene cameo that makes you wish these two could do a movie together one day.

Sylvester Stallone is the leader (Ross) of a merc team that takes up a mission to bring down a despotic general on a small South American island.   Their real target is an ex-CIA agent (Eric Roberts) who is pulling the strings on the island.      Ross gets pulled into Sandra’s belief in a free country for her people.  Still the action scenes are front and center in this film.  Everything else is secondary to that.  The last thirty minutes are the best part like it was with RAMBO.   THE EXPENDABLES is for action fans who looks for big action scenes.   It will do decent business in theaters and on DVD/ Blu-ray.  I wish other actors had more to do besides Stalone.   Statham has a ex-girlfriend subplot while Jet Li jokes about being smaller than the others while Dolph’s character has a drug problem.   This film plays out like a direct-to-DVD film with an A level budget.

This movie review is ©8-17-2010 David Blackwell and cannot be reprinted without permission.  Send all comments to lord_pragmagtic@hotmail.com