Review
by Bob Ignizio
How
many action heroes can you cram into one movie before it becomes a
cluttered mess? It seemed as though that question had been answered
by 2010's THE EXPENDABLES.
That film had its moments, but far too often it felt rushed and
confusing. So how then to explain the fact that THE
EXPENDABLES 2 beefs up the
roles for two stars who had only brief cameos last time, adds two
more of the biggest names in action hero history to its cast, and
even manages to give us a pair of new, younger heroes, and yet still
manages to juggle all these stars and their respective egos far
better while only losing one major cast member (Mickey Rourke) from
the previous film?
For
one thing, it feels like there's more of a real script this time out.
Not much of one, mind you, but enough of an improvement to make a
difference. Perhaps more importantly, that script makes the decision to focus on just a few characters. Barney Ross (Sylvester Stallone) and
Lee Christmas (Jason Statham) are much more firmly the leads this time, with the rest of their band of mercenaries – Gunner
(Dolph Lundgren), Yin (Jet Li), Hale Caesar (Terry Crews) and Toll
Road (Randy Couture) – kept in the background,
although everyone does get at least one moment to shine. Li actually
exits the movie after the opening action sequence, allowing more development for new guy Billy (Liam Hemsworth)
and Maggie (Nan Yu), a technical expert on loan from Church (Bruce Willis). And while they aren't part of the
team, Church, Trench (Arnold Schwarzenegger) and a new character
named Booker (Chuck Norris) all show up when it counts to offer an
assist.
The
villain in THE EXPENDABLES 2
is named Vilain, (no really, that's his name), a Satanic terrorist
looking to get his hands on a huge stockpile of Soviet plutonium to
sell to the highest bidder. This particularly despicable bad guy is
played by none other than Jean Claude Van Damme, who in recent years
has shown he's more than just the “muscles from Brussels” by
taking on some interesting and risky roles, like playing a
down-and-out version of himself in JCVD.
A lot of actors known mainly for playing heroes would balk at being
the bad guy for fear of tarnishing their image, but Van Damme goes
for the gusto, turning in a performance that's arguably more
memorable than any of his heroic turns.
So
really, for the first two acts this is about as good a film of its
kind as you could want. The characters feel balanced, there's a
reasonable amount of self deprecating humor without crossing the line
into self parody, and the action scenes are staged well (although I
could do without the CGI blood – give me old fashioned squibs any
day). The third act gets a little silly and puts too much emphasis on
characters who probably should have been left as cameo appearances,
but the climactic showdown between Stallone and Van Damme almost
makes up for it.
The
same criticisms that one could make about any typical 80's action
film are just as valid here – it's right wing propaganda that
glorifies violence, it's mindless trash, the acting is bad, etc. –
but that never mattered much to me when I was watching movies like
RAMBO, COMMANDO,
or MISSING IN ACTION
as a teenager, and it doesn't matter much to me now. Sometimes you
just want to watch a movie where a whole lot of ass gets kicked, bad
one liners get uttered, and there aren't any complicated shades of
gray to get in the way of your enjoyment. 3 out of 4 stars.
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