THE EXPENDABLES 2 (19)
Release Date: 16 August 2012
Running Time: 103 minutes
Distributor: Lionsgate
Director: Simon West
Screenplay: Sylvester Stallone, Richard Wenk
Starring: Sylvester Stallone, Jason Statham, Jet Li, Dolph Lundgren, Chuck Norris, Terry Crews, Randy Couture, Liam Hemsworth, Jean-Claude Van Damme, Bruce Willis, Arnold Schwarzenegger
Plot Synopsis: The Expendables are back and this time it's personal... Barney Ross (Sylvester Stallone), Lee Christmas (Jason Statham), Yin Yang (Jet Li), Gunnar Jensen (Dolph Lundgren),Toll Road (Randy Couture) and Hale Caesar (Terry Crews) -- with newest members Billy the Kid (Liam Hemsworth) and Maggie (Yu Nan) aboard -- are reunited when Mr. Church (Bruce Willis) enlists the Expendables to take on a seemingly simple job. The task looks like an easy paycheck for Barney and his band of old-school mercenaries. But when things go wrong and one of their own is viciously killed, the Expendables are compelled to seek revenge in hostile territory where the odds are stacked against them.
REVIEWS AFTER THE JUMP
Review: The Expendables 2 is the sequel to the 2010 gang-ho masculine-fuelled action and the one directed by Sylvester Stallone. Moving away from the director chair this time to hand it over to the English director Simon West, Sly turns his attention to lead his Expendable team – comprising a bunch of 80s action-stars for a new mission somewhere in the Eastern Europe. Just like the first movie, this will surely kicks some ass, slapping fancy one-liners and a warm embracement to the 80s action flicks. But does the second goes better than the first movie? Sure it does.
As the story goes, The Expendables team receives an important job handed by the CIA-man, Mr. Church (Bruce Willis) and Barney (Sylvester Stallone) reluctantly receives it, knowing he owes the man once. The job is supposedly simple – to retrieve a priceless code for weapon activation from a wrecked plane somewhere in a dense jungle in Eastern Europe. The job goes awfully wrong when the team crossed path with a ruthless mercenary gang, lead by Vilain (Jean-Claude Van Damme). With revenge and redemption, Barney and his team stage a feud to take down Vilain before the weapon tips the balance of world order.
As a package, The Expendable 2 slews a more comprehending and competent approach thanks from Simon West, whose direction stands taller than Sly’s effort in the first move. There are enough body count to figure for and bloodier violent to coat over Sure, there are problems going around the story which is overwhelmingly familiar, unorganized and has its own redundancy. The structure is easily predicted and none-the-less very restrictive for anything else to expand for. With a thin sheer of story that runs direct with a sloppy pacing, it is still a fun testosterone action to watch.
While the plot is nowhere stands out or ground-breaking as it is, the essence of action rampage and gun-slinging remains a notch portion of the excitement. The action rampage done by The Expendable team is none-the-less handled much better this time although an amount of grainy visual and vertigo-movement still puts some restriction on the experience. The Expendables 2 plays more like a first-person and third-person combat from a video game, plus a toss of over-the-top but enjoyable stunts while putting a lot of macho-sheer of “in-the-80s-when-the-hero-will-never-dies” concept into the spin.
With a huge casting going on in The Expendables 2, many risks are put to stack but it manages to pull off an unprecedented achievement in the acting from a different approach. Certain characters are not given a good send-off, especially JCVD’s Vilain and some even get a rather quiet evening on the plane. Even Yin Yang (Jet Li) is missing 90% of the movie. The focus is entirely on Barney, Lee (Jason Statham), and the much awaited trio shooting gang of Barney, Trench (Arnold Schwarzenegger) and Church. Maggie (Yun Na) is a poorly-written female character and seems miscast. While the plot does not break down into any much great characterizations and building, With a lot of actions going on, the movie never forgets to splurge a sizable amount of comedic liners slapping all over it. From Chuck Norris’ cobra experience to the antic museum reference, it is all about that good banter of tongue-and-cheek dialogues that work very well.
In the end, The Expendables 2 is a great action B-film that has the essential traits of action films from the 80s which is surely enough nostalgia to evoke the fans with plenty of fun gang-ho, bloody violent and mindless actions amidst the huge casting and unorganized plot.
MY RATING:
Story: 3.5
Casts: 4.0
Cinematography: 3.0
Effects: 3.0
GREEN-TEA-O-METER: 14.5/20.0