THE EXPENDABLES franchise has run out of
steam of it is just
suffering from a badly written script.
THE EXPENDABLES 3 is good for the first thirty minutes where they break
out Wesley Snipes (on his way back to prison) and go on a mission they think is
simple only to find out that Conrad Stonebanks (MelGibson), one of the original
Expendables Barney Ross thought he killed isn’t dead after all. Then
Barney decides to retire the old team
(because he doesn’t want another one of his team on his conscience) and hire
some young new Expendables (where the woman is the only interesting character
out of the bunch and that is a problem when you don’t care a lick for
them). Harrison Ford is OK as the CIA
fill-in since Bruce Willis decided he wasn’t getting paid enough (and Stallone
said no). Mel Gibson is a disappointing
villain in this sequel (some good set up, but the final smack down between him
and Stallone makes me wish for the superior fight between Van Damme and
Stallone in EXPENDABLES 2).
I know Sylvester Stallone says this is the final
one, but I think
this is a half cooked sequel that ends with a whimper and not a bang. I
just think I rather see the old team
fighting with him during the whole course of the movie instead of the plot
contrivance of retiring the group and bringing in newbies. I don’t
think Yul Brynner wouldn’t retire
the Magnificent Seven and neither would William Holden do that to the Wild
Bunch. I rather see the team go down
than having half of the film devoted to introducing new people who aren’t very
interesting (with the exception of the woman and Antonio Bandereas who is just
very crazy and won’t stop talking). I
hope someone tells Stallone to write a proper send off to THE EXPENDABLES and
not this expensive dud which is a box office bomb due to a bad script (and not
piracy like Lionsgate wants to make you think).
This DVD review is ©8-22-2014 David Blackwell and cannot
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