Movies Features

The Unseen Movie Review - The Expendables

By Robert Dixter Aug 10, 2010, 15:38 GMT

Sylvester Stallone and Jason Statham at "The Expendables" UK Premiere. © Landmark / PR Photos

Remember being a teenager in the mid eighties and hearing about the latest Stallone or Schwarzenegger film to hit theaters? If you were born in the nineties or were busy working out with Jane Fonda then the answer is no.

Back then we didn’t buzz about movies on the internet, we discovered them in theaters and waited until they came out on Betamax. We also wore leg warmers and listened to a group called Johnny Hates Jazz, it was very confusing times. Stallone could release anything back then and as long as it had a fair amount of action and violence it would be a hit. Then Sly disappeared for a while because the times they were a changing and he was still putting out films like Eye See You.

In the past few years Sly has bounced back better than Carnie Wilson hitting a trampoline (pre-surgery). He made Rocky Balboa and followed that with Rambo. That was a pretty risky move for someone who should have been washed up after doing Stop! Or My Mom Will Shoot. But both films stayed true to their characters and Stallone is popular once again.

If you saw the latest Rambo you know that Stallone’s style hasn’t changed since the old First Bloods from the eighties. He still shoots his action the same way. This could have been seen as a little worrisome because since The Matrix we want our action to be more fantastic. We were shown something unbelievable by the Wachowski brothers and we liked it. Kind of like teenagers discovering cigarettes for the first time. Since then directors have tried to create action like we’ve never seen it before, except Stallone.

That’s the good thing about The Expendables (I’ve already seen the movie). The film is a throwback to the action films of the eighties. The actors are a little older, the action is shot straight on, and the characters fit a bad guy/ good guy stereotype. It’s not a Zack Snyder film with stylized fighting and blurred lines between good and bad. If you liked those action films from the eighties or if you’re a little nostalgic for your teenage years then you’ll dig The Expendables.

The plot might be a little more involved than they were back when Samantha Fox was hot, and Mickey Rourke delivers a speech that is a little better than those standard soliloquies from three decades ago (because honestly, there’s nothing Mickey can’t do. He can even change a flat tire while never putting down his Chihuahua) but the action is straight out of the eighties, and that’s why I liked The Expendables.

Watching Stallone and his buddies fight, shoot guns, fly planes and blow stuff up reminded me of watching Predator, Commando, and Rambo 2 and 3. If you remember watching eighties action flicks but don’t feel like revisiting that time because you had pimples and couldn’t get a date in high school, check out The Expendables, you won’t be disappointed.