Review No.171: The Expendables 2

More summer fun now as we enter the retirement home of action that is The Expendables franchise with Sylvester Stallone and buddies blowing more stuff up around the world. The plot of this new film is like the first one, somewhat unmemorable, however with an even bulkier cast plus a shorter runtime and a new director at the helm I found this one more enjoyable. The start of the film sees all of The Expendables from the first film team up to shoot down some bad guys or something before Arnie's Trench comes up and saves the day while soon after Jet Li says his goodbyes to the group. Bruce Willis' Mr Church then gives them another mission to go on with some new recruits namely Liam Hemsworth's idealistic Billy and Yu Nan as new technology expert Maggie Chan. While the group to retreive the mystery item for Church they're soon pounced upon by Jean Claude Van Damme's imaginatively named villain Jean Villain who steals the item, takes their weapons and kills poor old Billy presumably so he doesn't show up the rest of the oldies in the remaining battle sequences. From there the team travel to some desolate Eastern European town where Jean Villain is abusing the men as workers in a nearby plutonium mine and soon his men are on the case of our heroes thankfully though Chuck Norris is around to help them out however he doesn't stay too long as he is a lone wolf after all. From there it's business as usual as Stallone, Arnie, Bruce, Stath and the rest battle JCVD and his allies to the death but as there's a third film in the franchise I think we all know how things are going to pan out.

For me I wasn't a big fan of the first Expendables film finding it disorganised and over long while at the same time it didn't exploit the great cast that it was given with most of the scenes featuring simply on Sly and Stath. The sequel though is a vast improvement which I believe is mainly down to the fact that Sly has handed over directing duties to Con Air's Simon West, who knows what he's doing when it comes to ensemble acting pictures, and he tries to make the best film he can about a bunch of over-the-hill action heroes that he can possibly do. The Expendables 2, unlike its predecessor, doesn't take itself too seriously instead adding a lot of in-jokes about the catchphrases that our stars are best known for as well as some obscure jokes also. The fact that Arnie and Bruce are in the film a little more this time, after the former is officially out of the politics game, also adds to the overall feel of the film as a nostalgia-trip while seeing them fight alongside Sly and Chuck Norris is a treat all on its own. Talking of Norris his Booker is well-utilised and only has a minimal talking role which is good a thing as he's more useful when he's kicking ass and he does that a lot. As far as the rest of the cast is concerned with Mickey Rourke, who did all the acting in the first film, now departed it seems that Jason Statham has picked up that mantle and was actually fairly impressive however it is still his bromance with Sly that is the highlight of the piece. Elsewhere the other expendables don't do a lot, however Maggie Chan is slobbered over by her male colleagues to the point where she could've ordered some sort of employment tribunal while Hemsworth is at least given an emotional death scene. JCVD is always cast as a villain although he does have some of the more ludicrous lines of the piece he's able to pull them off because at the end of the day's it's Van-Damme whose even cool when wearing sunglasses in a plutonium mine. If you're coming to The Expendables to for a story and character development then jog on as there's little of that here however what there is plenty of enjoyable in-jokes, chemistry between the leads and the chance to see your favourite childhood action figures fight alongside each other. Personally I rather enjoyed The Expendables 2 which, while it had no story to speak of, survived because of the willingness of the cast to send itself up and West's competent direction so in summary a good summer action film which is all we can ask at the end of the day.

Verdict: There's lots of fun to be had while watching The Expendables 2 though due to the fact it has very little going on outside of its action scenes I can only award it 6/10