Movie Review: The Expendables 3 (2014)

DIRECTOR: Patrick Hughes. CAST: Sylvester Stallone, Jason Statham, Antonio Banderas, Jet Li, Wesley Snipes, Dolph Lundgren, Kelsey Grammer, Randy Couture, Terry Crews, Mel Gibson, Harrison Ford, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Kellan Lutz, Ronda Rousey, Glen Powell, Victor Ortiz, Robert Davi.

Stallone & company know that all we want with each Expendables movie is more—more of everything that happened in the previous installment and then some. The Expendables 3 certainly does that, although there are times when I wonder if perhaps it delivers too much. Our heroes are in a fight for their lives against the team’s co-founder who has since become one of the world’s most ruthless arms dealers. We see the Expendables become expandable as they recruit an entire new team to help wage their most personal war yet. UFC/WWE star Ronda Rousey has the most presence of the new blood; the rest are generally, well, expendable. Despite the excess, it is still entertaining as hell and would serve as a fitting end to the series had a fourth Expendables movie not been announced. Let’s hope that Carl Weathers shows up in that one.

Movie Review: The Expendables 2 (2012)

DIRECTOR: Simon West. CAST: Sylvester Stallone, Jason Statham, Jet Li, Dolph Lundgren, Chuck Norris, Jean-Claude Van Damme, Bruce Willis, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Nan Yu, Terry Crews, Randy Couture, Liam Hemsworth, Scott Adkins, Amanda Ooms, Charisma Carpenter.

The Expendables 2 is possibly the best of the series; it improves on the formula set by the original with more cameos, more violence, and more one-liners. Our boys vow revenge after a rival mercenary murders one of their own during an otherwise simple retrieval mission to Albania. Tons of fun ensues as the good guys fight, stab, shoot, and detonate their way through lots of bad guys to ensure that their fellow Expendable did not die in vain. There is more to the events than that, but it is probably best to keep it simple. Nan Yu does a nice job adding the necessary female role to the team while also temporarily replacing Jet Li as the resident martial arts expert. Anything that might have caused The Expendables to come up short successfully falls into place with this sequel.

Movie Review: The Expendables (2010)

DIRECTOR: Sylvester Stallone. CAST: Sylvester Stallone, Jason Statham, Jet Li, Dolph Lundgren, Eric Roberts, Randy Couture, Steve Austin, David Zayas, Giselle Itie, Charisma Carpenter, Gary Daniels, Terry Crews, Mickey Rourke.
I love The Expendables series as a fun throwback to ‘80s alpha male action movies appealing to modern audiences. The Expendables introduces us to a group of misfit combat veterans who are clearly unemployable in normal society. They instead find work as mercenaries completing the missions no one else would be crazy or stupid enough to take. One of our heroes goes rogue as the rest take a job flying to the Gulf of Mexico to assassinate a power-hungry military dictator. Things aren’t quite as they seem and the Expendables have to go the extra mile to ensure that all ends well. Cars drive at top speed through narrow streets, things explode, bullets riddle tons of nameless extras, and the good guys defy death in spectacular fashion. You can practically smell the testosterone emanating from the stars’ pores. The Expendables is nothing short of awesome escapist fun.