Movie Review: The Expendables 2
Author :
Nona
Blog :Nona's Pensieve
Date: 8/21/2012 10:25:00 PM
Towards the end of the movie, when Church(
Bruce Willis) presents a new aircraft for Barney(
Sylvester Stallone), the latter scorns and remarks about it being a museum piece. On hearing this, Trench(
Arnold Schwarzenegger) philosophically says, "We all belong there!". This statement is not only true about the trio but also about the other three major actors featured in the movie namely
Chuck Norris,
Jean-Claude Van Damme and
Dolph Lungdren. Despite this fact, they bravely come out to do a movie without any pretense of their glory days. In this process, they seem to enjoy every bit in kicking ass and also poking fun at each other, and also themselves. These two factors makes this movie an immensely pleasurable watch.
In the sequel to The Expendables directed by
Simon West, Barney is still with his old team comprising of Christmas(
Jason Statham), Yang(
Jet Li), Caesar(Terry Crews) and Toll(Randy Couture). They also have a new member in the team, Billy the Kid(
Liam Hemsworth). When one of their team is killed during a mission by Jean Vilain(Jean-Claude Van Damme), the rest decides to avenge the death. With this basic premise, Simon West successfully manages to entertain us by staging spectacular action scenes while at the same time never ever trying to make us believe this is not a farce. The job is relatively easy. Simon takes the story forward by slowly introducing and re-introducing most of his star cast for the action sequences. This keeps the viewer hooked on although we can second guess what is next. The action sequences are all inspired by the respective performer's past successful movies. But then, that is why we love most of the actors featured in this movie. As the technology has advanced, the movie also has become very violent with exploding heads, decapitated bodies and blood spillage thereby making this a perfect outing for an action junkie. As for the performance, all of them are known as bad actors. So, there is nothing much to write about. What comes out elegantly on the screen is the camaraderie between the various performers. They seem to have a lot of fun doing this. This makes us enjoy what we see on the screen.
If you grew up watching the Hollywood action movies of the late 80's and early 90's, this is a must see for you. Gulp down your favorite choice of poison which make this ride much more enjoyable. Also be ready to clap and whistle. Some of the lines are self deprecating and outright funny. Other lines are the corny and the cheesy ones we heard while growing up.
Language: English
Genre: Action
Rating: ***