'Expendables 3': Crunchy on outside but unfortunately soft inside
Testosterone driven story line full of ridiculously extraneous explosions and locker room banter is exactly what movie goers should expect when they go to see the Expendables 3. After all, when the greatest action heroes of the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s gather for a film, it should be an homage to all of the things that they have done before. This incarnation delivers everything that it promises in the first five minutes and the third act. Unfortunately, it lags a little in the middle.
Everyone gets it, the stars are getting old. The only thing that is missing is Danny Glover muttering “I’m getting to old for this sh--.” That is part of the appeal. These are men who had their heyday 30 years ago – more or less. Movie goers still want to see them do what made them famous. Putting Sylvester Stallone on the same screen with Dolph Lundgren, Harrison Ford, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Jet Li, Mel Gibson, Antonio Banderas and Wesley Snipes is pure genius. There is no better way to bring back the nostalgia for the 1980s while cracking jokes at each other’s expense and just because it is plain cheesy. Where this movie flies a little south is in trying to set up the next generation of action stars. Yes, Ronda Rousey does a kick-ass job. She brings the heat, and her fight sequence is one of the greatest fight sequences I have ever seen. However, Rousey and the others in the Expendables youth movement aren’t the one thing that makes the expendables work – they aren’t legends. When they get recruited, they do not have the chemistry, they do not have the fun, and they do not have the history to pull off things like inverting a helicopter or saying (the best line in the film) “I am the Hague.” The action picks up again in the third act, and the audience is treated to the incredibly maniacal Gibson performance to rival his turn in Lethal Weapon. It is understandable that the movie franchise will want to continue, it is just difficult to watch the young guys start so soon. Stop the torch from being passed too soon and go see the legends at their kitschy action best in Expendables 3. |
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