Movie Review : The Expendables

“The Expendables” is Sylvester Stallone’s artillery heavy macho fest about a bunch of guys, a plane and lots of guns. Mercenaries for hire, this gang is lead by Barney Ross (Stallone). Lee Christmas (Jason Statham) is his right hand man. Ying Yang (Jet LI) and Gunner Jensen (Dolph Lundgren) bring up the rear. And Mickey Rourke plays Tool, an old friend and ex-gangmember who bides his time as a tattooing artist these days.

Ross, who is a principled gangster (ah ! nostalgia !) almost refuses Mr.Church’s (Willis) offer to overthrow an island’s dictator, General Garza. However while scouting out the island of Vilena, Ross meets a girl who is passionate about freeing her people from the General’s rule, and changes his mind. So he sets out of on a mission and his gang follows. Do they succeed in their unholy war ?

This film is a true Stallone product. It’s got brute force, guns and lots of gore. Bullets feature in almost every frame of the film. It’s also quite old-fashioned in the sense that technology doesn’t seem to exist except in those ultra-modern guns strewn about the sets. Ross and his men seem to function quite well on the impromptu plan, which is to barge in and shoot everything in sight. So yes, it’s good old brawny bluster, presented in Sly’s own inimitable style.

It was pretty clear what this film offered up; there were no pretensions to anything cerebral, or technological (for this band of mercenaries time seems to have stood still). And yes, it is clichéd, ham-headed drama, very been-there-seen-that. Even so, this is a decent watch, although the popcorn does run out after a while, and you sit there bereft wondering if there’s anything besides the action holding up the film. There isn’t. Watch this for 2 hours of mindless, zone-out, get-your-80s-fix kind of masala.