Mid-August is a notoriously tricky time to release a film, given that it usually signals the end of the always-strong summer movie season, and if a studio wants to recover a budget, they had better make damn sure that they end on a high note. Quentin Tarantino was able to do it with Inglorious Basterds last summer, but could Stallone achieve similar success with an ensemble action film? To be fair, Stallone has had considerable success as a director, so I was excited to see what he could do with such a complicated project; but saying that The Expendables has an ensemble cast is a shocking understatement, since Stallone was able to put together some of the biggest action stars that Hollywood has seen in the past three decades. When I first saw the trailer for The Expendables, the cast listing and some of the action scenes depicted were enough to pique my interest, but the one element that really sold me was the promise of a scene that brought together Sylvester Stallone, Bruce Willis, and the “Governator” himself, Arnold Schwarzenegger. The box-office success of these three iconic action stars is measured in billions, and they each lay claim to some of the most famous characters in cinema, so I knew that I couldn’t miss seeing this historic scene.
As the final explosions settled, I sat in the theater feeling like I had just been given a needle of adrenaline and testosterone straight through the heart. Watching all of these high-end action personalities interact and kick the living shit out of everything on-screen was just plain awesome. The story isn’t the best and the boundaries of logic are stretched a few times, but the action is so entertaining that you find it hard to care. One word of caution to my readers of the fairer sex, The Expendables is completely and utterly a guy movie, and I can see how there would be little appeal for female movie-goers. However ladies, if you dragged your guy to Sex and the City 2, Twilight: Eclipse, or Charlie St. Cloud, and he was decent enough to sit through those chick flicks, you owe it to him to go see The Expendables. Bottom line, The Expendables boasts an entertaining and historic cast that cannot be missed; if you have ever enjoyed an action movie, you need to see this epic on the big-screen.
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Overall Recommendation: Very High
