This past weekend saw the rise of a new number one movie (which will probably replaced this weekend, since most movies these days, with few exceptions don't have much staying power), Sylester Stallone's latest nostalgic throwback, The Expendables.
As always, I try to provide a spoiler-free review of films/games/whatevers, but be warned, there are some.
First off, while the plot and the stars might be from a bygone era (though the plots of beefed up action heroes out to rescue damsels in distress will probably never die), the filming techniques are very modern. While Stallone's Rambo had a very gritty feel to it, Expendables looks to utilize modern techniques like the jerky hand-held camera style for the action scenes as popularized by the Bourne films (though why all of Ultimatum had to be filmed that way is still beyond me). It even tries to be innovative during a couple of scenes, to varying degrees of success. Overall, though the action gets muddled at times by the shaky camera and jerky cuts, there's more than enough mayhem to go around.
The actors do a good enough job at making you like the right people and hating the rest. My only real problems were with Steve Austin and Randy Couture (sp?). Randy isn't an actor and Austin just came off as a pro-wrestler, not a bad ass military-type. I know his claim to fame is as a wrestler, but he has been in films since leaving the WWE, so I expected a little bit more from him.
The film has a reported budget of 90 million, and it looks like most of that went into the special effects. An oddity I noticed was in the blood splatters later in the film. Sly reported that there was no CGI used in the Expendables, but the blood towards the end looks straight out of Ninja Assassin.
A bit of the thrill is seeing which of the Expendables is going to bite it, and there are several tense moments. However, there is one fight scene where I almost couldn't suspend my disbelief.
Overall, the film is a bit deeper story-wise than what I was expecting, but it definitely was a no-holds barred action film and that's all anyone really needs to know.
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