Friday, September 26, 2014

The Expendables 2

The Expendables 2 is the 2012 sequel, this one starring Sylvester Stallone, Jason Statham, Jet Li, Dolph Lundgren, Chuck Norris, Terry Crews, Randy Couture, Liam Hemsworth, Jean-Claude Van Damme, Bruce Willis, and Arnold Schwarzenegger. Fun cast with lots of explosions and well-placed bits of humor. Honestly, sometimes that's enough for me, and I like this one.

trailer:



Slant Magazine gives it 3 out of 4 stars and concludes, "As ludicrous as it is to see this troupe of largely past-prime action-movie icons manically reassert their own box-office primacy, there's enough empty calorie fun to be had in humoring their shared fantasy that they're not getting too old for this shit." Rolling Stone gives it 2 out of 4 stars, saying, "This sequel doesn't wear down your resistance; it just wears you out." DVD Talk says it's "bloody fun and greatly improves on the mediocre first film." Entertainment Weekly gives it a B and closes with this:
Assigning artistic values like ''good'' or ''bad'' to The Expendables 2 is a fool's assignment. The movie is excellent crap, fine junk, an exercise in campy movie nostalgia, and a demonstration of American supremacy in the field of nutty cosmetic enhancements for aging movie stars. I had an inexcusably fine time studying movie-star hairlines and admiring their willingness to let us gawk.
Rotten Tomatoes has a critics score of 65%.

6 comments:

  1. Nothing like a mindless action-flick from time to time. I saw the first one and only remember Stallone´s face, which was something to see, indeed (have probably erased cringy dialogue from memory). We fell in love with Statham in "Snatch", but he was also very good in "The Italian Job" (I think Keeley Hawes was in that too, and she is wonderful). Isn´t Harrison Ford supposed to be in this one as well?

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    1. Harrison Ford is in the 3rd one, along with Kelsey Grammer, Wesley Snipes, Mel Gibson and Antonio Banderas. We love Statham, too. I saw him first in either Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels or The Transporter. I can't remember which...

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    2. Kelsey Grammer?! Banderas, he can do anything, but Grammer - hm, I don´t suppose he´ll be the one running with guns on the top of buildings, but I´d love to see that! :-D

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    3. Yes, it doesn't feel like a fit, does it? He plays a retired mercenary who helps recruit younger members for the team.

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  2. This doesn't sound all that fun to me, although I like action films. I guess I don't care for Stallone, so that would turn me off to this movie. Not sure my fondness for anything Bruce Willis would be enough to overcome my dislike for Stallone.

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    1. Stallone's a non-issue for me either way. I haven't seen all that much by him. This is not by far my favorite Bruce Willis movie.

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