Slyvester Stallone and his band of action heroes reunite again in the sequel THE EXPENDABLES 2.
Barney, played by Stallone, gets the gang back together again after he’s called on to repay a favor to Mr. Church, played by Bruce Willis. The favor is the retrieval of a device that contains valuable and secretive information, and its located in a remote location well beyond America’s borders.
The same crew joins Barney in action, with stars Jet Li, Jason Stratham, Dolph Lundgren, Terry Crews and Randy Coulture on board for another mission. In addition to the old timers, a young sniper, played by Liams Hemsworth, and Maggine, one of Church’s cohorts played by Nan Yu, are also along for the ride.
THE EXPENDABLES 2 ramps up the fire and star power for the second installment, and the body count as well.
In spite of the additional screen time for Hollywood action mega-stars Willis and Arnold Schwarzenegger and the addition of Chuck Norris and Jean Claude Van Damme to the cast, as well as the exponential growth of ammo, artillery and deaths, THE EXPENDABLES 2 is a lot of noise and mayhem without much excitement.
THE EXPENDABLES 2 offers less character development and backstory, which is appreciated considering the thin-nature of the film, but the additional action scenes aren’t any more exciting than the original, serving up standard shoot’em up moments that don’t derive any tension of suspense. They’re the equivalent to the big-screen version of the original Nintendo video game Contra.
Although the cast is a who’s who of action stars, only a few bring real charisma to their roles, and they’re in supporting roles. Schwarzenegger effectively hams up his few moments, as does the Satanic-infused Van Damme, as The Expendables villain. The rest of the cast seems along for the ride, resigned to their dumb-witted characters, even Dolph Lundgren, whose Gunner Jepsen holds a PHD in nuclear physics.
With the bulging biceps, high body count and gunplay, you’d think there’d be enough machismo for two films, but director Simon West and collection of story and script writers, including Stallone, splatter the film with blood, guts and an exclamation point of a finish that left me feeling angered and saddened.
THE EXPENDABLES 2 is an over indulgence of violence and mayhem.
Grade: C-
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