Reading like a 'Who's Who' of Hollywood heavy hitters, Barney Ross is at it again with his likable gang of mercenaries doing what they do best in
'THE EXPENDABLES 3' - which I saw last night.
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I've said it before and I'll say it again - just seeing these action stars of yesteryear and this year up on screen together, chewing up the scenery, guns blazing, and clearly having a damn good time during production which is evident on screen - is worth the price of your ticket alone. Screenwriter again for this outing, principle mega star, and leader of 'The Expendables' is
Sylvester Stallone playing the lovable rogue Barney Ross. He is one again joined by
Jason Statham (Lee Christmas) as his right hand man,
Arnold Schwarzenegger as Trench in his biggest Expendables role to date,
Dolph Lundgren as Gunnar Jensen the strong silent type,
Jet Li as Yin Yang back for more martial arts mayhem as only he can,
Terry Crews as Hale Caesar, and
Randy Couture as Toll Road.
Needless to say the opening scene (like every Bond movie before) starts off with a bang as our Expendables crew lift newcomer
Wesley Snipes (Doc) from a heavily guarded prison train in between one heavily guarded prison where he has served eight years already and another heavily guarded fortress somewhere in deepest darkest Russia. With the use of an agile helicopter piloted by Ross and lots of impressive weaponry, our boys overcome adversity and Doc is rescued.
On the way home our intrepid mercenaries have to make a little side trip to some downtrodden third world country to collect a package, where more mayhem ensues, there are big explosions, rapid machine gun fire, impressive vehicle stunts, overhead cranes, shipping containers and more shit going down than you could poke a M16 at! It is here that an unwelcome discovery is made in the form of one
Mel Gibson playing villain in the piece, Conrad Stonebanks - former co-founder of The Expendables who has subsequently gone rogue and become a ruthless international arms dealer who is after the same package as Ross and his cohorts. Ross believes that Stonebanks is dead by his own hand many years earlier - but not so it would seem, and as the two eyeball each other we know that revenge and closure for either is on the radar front & centre!
Realising that their new adversary is bigger and mightier than the dwindling and ageing Expendables Ross folds up his crew and tells them to ride off into the sunset and enjoy their new forced retirement - alive at least!
The next set up is Ross catching up with underworld talent scout
Kelsey Grammer (Napoleon Bonaparte) to recruit new, younger, tech savvy and disposable blood to The Expendables to capture Stonebanks and deliver him to the CIA alive - represented this time not by Bruce Willis' Church, but by
Harrison Ford's Drummer. Along the way recruited to the fold are the new bloods -
Antonio Banderas as Galgo,
Kellen Lutz at Smilee,
Victor Ortiz as Mars,
Glen Powell as Thorn and token ass-kickin' female
Ronda Rousey as Luna. Watch out for Banderas because he hams it up beautifully, and clearly is having great time doing so!
After the new gang are recruited they head off to where Stonebanks is holed up - some fictitious eastern European no-hope war torn country where the new Expendables and joined by the old Expendables and Drummer in the sky doing helicopter acrobatics with Trench and Yin Yang riding shotgun . . . or machine gun! This is the climatic ending that sees helicopter and tank assaults on a booby-trapped one-time office tower where the Expendables are housed, close quarter hand to hand combat, more artillery used and abused than you can image, explosions aplenty, a rapidly rising body count, and jaw dropping action backed up by quick quips and one liners that is sure to raise a smile. And then of course there is the final showdown between Ross and Stonebanks!
Having grown up with these guys in the 80's and the action films they made, this is an updated throw back to that era. It's heavy on the fire power, heavy on the body count, heavy on the ego's and heavy on the quips but it's all good fun, and I found myself chuckling and laughing out loud several times. When Arnie shouts 'Get them to the Choppa' you know he's having a blast, and when Ford says of Church (the Bruce Willis character he replaces from the previous two films) - 'he's out of the picture' - you'll understand the double meaning in this comment that I'm sure Stallone wrote in especially when Willis exited stage left!
Directed by only second time helmer Aussie Patrick Hughes - this is good fun, totally over the top, and good on Stallone for pulling such a talent pool for our entertainment and serving up a dose of nostalgia. For the fourth instalment we should expect to see Cage, Segal, and Chan in there too, and maybe Danny Trejo as the villain - now that would be something! There are those that will dismiss this for a host of reasons, but three films in, Hollywood A-listers lining up to star, and a fourth film announced - The Expendables must be doing something right, and clearly there is an audience!
-Steve, at Odeon Online-
Stallone's Triple 'R' playbook of Rocky, Rambo and now Ross (Barney Ross his elite mercenary leader for hire and king pin of 'The Expendables') all have one thing in common - they enjoy a fight and generally come out on top! And so it is with his merry band of highly skilled, accomplished, and deadly mercenary sidekicks that takes the best of the action hero genre; big ticket actors of yesteryear who still have their mojo's intact; and adds a good dose of blades, guns, grenades and gadgets with a sprinkle of humour and wraps it up with tongue firmly planted in cheek as its nods heroically and enthusiastically at the movies I grew up with!
In this case those heroes are Jason Statham (Lee Christmas - knives), Jet Li (Yin Yang - martial arts), Dolph Lundgren (Gunner Jensen - sniper), Terry Crews (Hale Caesar - heavy weapons), Randy Couture (Toll Road - demolition) with Mickey Rourke (Tool - tattooist), Steve Austin as Randy Paine, Arnold Schwarzenegger as Trench Mauser, Bruce Willis as Mr. Church, and Eric Roberts as bad guy James Munroe.
Ross and his crew are engaged by the mysterious Mr. Church to overthrow a Dictator on a small island state (Vilena) in the Gulf of Mexico. On arrival The Expendables learn that The Dictator (General Gaza) is being kept in power to shield the profiteering exploits of an ex-CIA Officer James Munroe, who is holding hostage the daughter of the General as bargaining collateral and security. As more is discovered about the link between Munroe and Garza and why Mr. Church is so interested in this small island and what Munroe is up to, so the action ramps up, shit gets blown up, the body count goes up and it all wraps up nicely in the end.
This is good honest to goodness mindless entertainment that is a welcome throw back to the action heroes, the action films and the action nonsense of the 80's. Don't expect any more than that, but you can expect to be wildly entertained with a good dose of blood & guts, humour, excitement and adrenaline pumping action. Furthermore, to see Stallone, Willis & Schwarzenegger on the big screen in the same frame chewing up the dialogue in spades is worth the price of your ticket alone, and truly a rare moment in cinema history.
