THE EXPENDABLES — ★★1/2 — Sylvester Stallone, Jason Statham, Eric Roberts; rated R (violence, gore, profanity, torture); in general release
As promised, the cast of "The Expendables" is top-heavy with name actors from the action-film genre.
Among them are Sylvester Stallone (who directed and co-wrote the film), Jason Statham, Jet Li, Dolph Lundgren, Terry Crews, Randy Couture, Steve Austin, Eric Roberts and Mickey Rourke.
Even Bruce Willis and Arnold Schwarzenegger show up in the film briefly, in what are glorified cameos. (Apparently Jean-Claude Van Damme and Steven Seagal both turned down the opportunity to appear in the movie. Presumably Chuck Norris did as well.)
But the problem comes when the film tries to find something substantive for all of these actors/performers to do. It can't possibly manage that, and at times it feels like it's trying too hard.
However, you certainly can't say this over-the-top thriller skimps on action. The final third or so is wall-to-wall brawling, shootings and explosions. It should be noted that, as with most of Stallone's previous directorial efforts, it is pretty R-rated in terms of its graphic depiction of violence.
The title characters are a team of mercenaries led by Barney Ross (Stallone).
Others on the team include Barney's best friend and co-pilot, Lee Christmas (Statham), martial-arts expert Ying Yang (Li) and loose cannon Gunner Jensen (Lundgren).
Their latest assignment takes them to a tiny island ruled by the tyrannical General Garza (David Zayas, from Showtime's "Dexter").
They're supposed to take out Garza, but as it turns out, he is little more than a puppet dictator. Instead, the island is being run by an ex-CIA man, James Munroe (Roberts), and worse, it appears theirs is a suicide mission.
Stallone and co-screenwriter David Callaham try to flesh out most of the characters, which leads to a rather slow middle section. The action-packed finale makes up for that, though.
In terms of acting performances, there's not much to comment on. Rourke is good in limited time, as a tattoo artist/mentor to the expendables.
"The Expendables" is rated R and features strong, often disturbing violent content and imagery (gunplay and shootings, knife play, including slashings and stabbings, brawling and fisticuffs, explosive, fiery and vehicular mayhem, and violence against women), bloody and gory imagery, strong sexual profanity, a scene depicting torture and interrogations, derogatory language and slurs, suggestive language and references, and brief drug references and content (narcotics trade). Running time: 98 minutes.
e-mail: jeff@desnews.com