THE EXPENDABLES 2 - archive from 11th September 2012

Saw 'EXPENDABLES 2' last night and loved it! This is great mindless entertainment that combines the best of 80's action movies, star power, fire power, quick witted humour and a body count that does itself proud. If you were brought up on a diet of 'Rocky', 'Rambo', 'Terminator' and 'Die Hard' as I was back in the day then you're gonna love this! 

To see Stallone, Schwarzenegger and Willis on the big screen together chewing up the scenery and clearly loving it is worth the price of entry alone. Throw in Statham, Lundgren, Norris, JCVD, and Li makes this a priceless outing. The dynamic trio are great together and memorable for their egos, excesses and enduring humour and I laughed out loud more times that I can remember. 

Directed by Simon West and co-written for the screen by Sylvester Stallone, this time around Mr. Church (Willis) enlists Barney Ross (Stallone) and his Expendable Team to retrieve a package from a crashed plane somewhere in the former USSR - seems simple enough and a good ol' paycheque at the end. But of course, things don't go too simply as they had at first thought and one of Barney's men is taken hostage in return for the package . . . or the hostage gets it!

Handing over the package the hostage gets it anyway, and so now revenge is on the agenda and the retrieval of the package which tells of the secret location of a plutonium storage mine deep in the Russian mountains, where the local men are being forced to work and their families persecuted along the way. The lynch-pin of this mob of gangsters, crims and miscreants is aptly named Vilain (JCVD) who must be halted before the plutonium gets into the wrong hands and more widespread damage is caused on a scale even bigger than the Expendables!

Also starring Jason Statham, Jet Li, Dolph Lundgren, Chuck Norris, Liam Hemsworth, Randy Couture, and Terry Crews, this is a winning formula, a huge cast doing what they do best, and a treat for movie geeks remembering the good old days of action yore! They don't make 'em like this anymore . . . unless you're Expendable! Brilliant . . . for all the wrong reasons! Bring on 'E3' . . . and of course they are - out on 14th August 2014 at a big screen new you, and Previewed in 'What's new in Odeon's this week - Thursday 14th August 2014'

-Steve, at Odeon Online-