Review of the Expendables

Sylvester Stallone directed and stars in "The Expendables" which premiered on Aug. 13. This movie is as a unique add-on to the already huge stockpile of bad action movies out late in the summer. Basically, Stallone, Jason Statham, Jet Li, Terri Crews and Eric Roberts play a gang of misfit mercenaries who work for different agencies for the right price. There's a good guy versus bad guy feel to this movie from the start because, as usual, Stallone is playing the part of the hero in the tradition of Rambo with multiple gun-wielding bad-asses which create a chaos of long-range combat operations overseas, apart from a slew of dead terrorists and pretty cool dismemberments. A body gets cut in half by a buck-shot from a .50-caliber-shotgun-wielding Roberts, whose unstable attitude affects the mood of the film.

At first, although the larger plot of the film is predictable, it's hard to get an accurate portrayal of the film's stars. Are they good guys? Are they confused bad guys? One of them turns against the team from the start but then it's revealed it's because he has drug problems. Good guy or bad guy, pick one, please.

Then, naturally, they come across an island where a tyrant is holding the people hostage Fidel Castro-style and it becomes more a save-the-girl story. The initial reason for going to the island is to complete a job, which for some reason, Arnold Schwarzenegger playing the part of a competing mercenary team, denies the job and lets Stallone's crew take it. This scene is complimentary to the movie like an un-needed cherry on a chocolate ice-cream. Arnold's post exit gets a rather opinionated, "He wants to rule the world" from Stallone after the employer asks him what's wrong with that guy.

In any case, after no-lapse in action sequences, Stallone and his crew get ready to take on a small army in a far-away island. The movie has confused lighting at first but then the explosions and multiple knife-injuries become quite evident. At the rate of about one death per minute, the movie explodes with almost non-stop killing. It even has a few moments of a large propeller plane turning into a war-plane like those used in world war II and firing on bad-guy army soldiers.

Although predictable, the movie has appeal because of, well, a movie star gang-up which is like watching a bunch of super-heroes gathered together to fight the bad guys. It does give that feel of "too many good guys" but also it gives that inspiration that comes from team work.

At the rating boards, it should get an eight for style, a nine for action and a so-so for plot. Stallone got it right, however. It's an action movie; so long as things blow up and people are flying through the air dead, who cares about plot?