The Expendables 3 Movie Review

Sylvester Stallone has spent the last eight years not so much trying for career renaissance, but to relive the glory days of his (relative) youth. Honestly, he wasn’t even that young when he was a major 80s box office draw. he has made new sequels to the Rocky and Rambo franchises, a boxing movie with De Niro that plays on their respective most iconic roles, and the Expendables franchise which is both tongue-in-cheek about the way it tries to relive the glory days of 80s action movie heroism and sort of serious in its attempt to be a modern action franchise. I’ll just put it out there that I really enjoyed the first film. It had some great playfulness, some killer action sequences and hand-to-hand fight scenes (especially those involving Jason Statham), and a great period appropriate villain and theme with Eric Roberts operating in Latin America as a kingpin. Our neighbors to the south served as the great action locations and source of villainy during the decade of cocaine. The Expendables was a welcome respite from the settings of Arab countries and former Soviet republics.

Short Cut Review: The Expendables 2

A Short Cut Movie Review is normally less than 400 words, but in some cases may go slightly over. This is my attempt to keep writing about as many films as I see without getting bogged down with trying to find more to say. They are meant to be brief snapshots of my reaction to a movie without too much depth.

Although I felt it lacked a lot of the sheer joy and fun of watching these guys kick ass in the first movie, this sequel still dazzles with the audacity to be bloody as hell with its gratuitous mayhem and violence. West, a director not known for restraint in action film, took over the helm from Stallone this time out. Now that Arnold Schwarzenegger is out of the governor's chair, his role has been expanded. Bruce Willis also participates more and Chuck Norris turns up riffing on the popular "Chuck Norris Facts." Van Damme makes a less than satisfying bad guy. In spite of the sheer excess of the combat sequences, West keeps the one-on-one muscle confrontations mercifully short.