The Expendables

Thanks for the wonderful technology of online streaming, I was able to watch a movie that I had been trying to go to cinema to see but didn’t over the weekend why I was recovering from a sore-throat at home. I saw ‘The Expendables’ at my desktop yesterday and glad that I didn’t pay full price to see that on big screen.

Don’t get me wrong that I do like Sly and excite to see some old fashion back-to-the-80s type of hardcore action movies. I think this movie is ok, but just not worth paying full price of emission.

I don’t expect much from the script and it does match my expectation. There isn’t much of a story which is plain vanilla straight forward script, just for the sake of setting up a premise for the action guys to go to a place to kill everybody. No twist, no surprise, not even a speed bump from beginning to end. I think this script can be written by any amateur script writer finishing an 101 course at a community college. Well, how about acting? What do expect from these guys, we shouldn’t and they didn’t deliver much. Why should that? The script didn’t ask for it. I think most fans would simply happy to see those tough guys being lumped into the same movie together. This movie is all about action, action and actions! Well, does it deliver? I would say yes, but not an overwhelming ‘YES’. I like the hardcore R-rated actions of blowing up bodies with big guns, but what I wish they could spend a bit more brains to create some elaborated scenes of actions. Cuz, be honest with you, the actions are just forgettable, nothing could stick in our head after seeing them. Also, I think the level of killing is ok for this type of movies, but the actions scenes are just too dim. I wish they could put a bit more light to see how to do things before the explosions coming up when the bad guys were killed. Also, the fight scenes with Jet and Dalph are too choppy to be seen, wish they can show some wider angles. Character wise, I think Jason as a knife expert is the best part of the movie, besides him, nothing much.

Well, what about the most talked about scene of this movie? Not any of the action, killing, explosion, but the short 5 minutes of Arnold, Sly and Bruce together chit-chatting in a church. That’s the highlight of the movie, and the dialog was indeed funny. Just too bad that they weren’t on screen together for an action piece, no matter how brief it would have been. Anyway, I don’t mind to see a sequel and even pay for full price if it is gonna be good. Otherwise, please let this be a one time nostalgia.