|
 Now screening [MA15+]
Director: Sylvester Stallone
Runtime: 103mins.
One thing you can’t deny about Sylvester Stallone is that what you see is what you get. There’s never really any subtext or reading in between the lines with his films, and you’ve kinda gotta respect that – sort of (I’m still recovering from the visceral horror of Rambo Goes to Burma, and while I never really got the point of Rocky Balboa Redux, he was the one who directed John Travolta in Staying Alive – what a weird career). So despite the strange career choices, the boxing-induced slurring, Stop! Or My Mom Will Shoot, and the odd steroid importation allegations, Stallone remains an interesting character with the kind of Hollywood connections that can make the truly bizarre happen. How else could a studio convince the three founders of Planet Hollywood to appear in the same scene? That’s right – in one memorable snatch of film in The Expendables, Bruce Willis, Arnold Schwarzenegger, and Stallone trade barbs inside a church before heading off on their separate ways.
And that’s the last we see of Bruce and Arnie, but there’s plenty of opportunity to catch the unnerving physique of Stallone in the rest of the movie, as the writer-director marshals a pretty extraordinary (and admittedly intellectually lightweight) shoot-’em-up that bundles all of the Rambo films together and kind of makes them funny. Stallone’s Barney Ross heads up the eponymous Expendables, a crew of mercenaries dedicated to do the jobs no one else can finish – sound familiar? Lee Christmas (Jason Statham) is his 2IC, and a grunt of wrestlers fill in the rest of the character roles, including Steve Austin and Randy Couture.
Back in their hometown, Barney seeks inspiration and consolation from former fighting buddy, Tool (Mickey Rourke in a role that is visually repulsive, but sort of endearing). When the aforementioned Willis as a CIA spook offers a suicide mission, Barney barely flinches before heading off to a Caribbean dictatorship that smells vaguely of Nicaragua or some other US foreign relations nightmare.
The latest gig involves assassinating a despot, and freeing a country, but there’s the slight complication of a black ops feller gone postal (Eric Roberts at his sneering, vaudeville worst), and a stereotypically cruel paramilitary. Oh and there has to be a helpless maiden in the form of Sandra (Giselle Itié). There’s nothing really new here, just a whole lot of explosions, gunfire, torture and martial arts. If the A-Team’s busy, and the Losers are true to their name, perhaps you should call the Expendables.
***
TIM MILFULL
|
| Comments are submitted for possible publication on the condition that they may be edited. Poster's IP addresses are logged. |
|
Be first to comment on this article
