The Expendables 2

The Expendable Dozen

Director: Simon West
Release Date: 2012
Rating: 15
Running Time: 100 mins
Genre: Action/ 80's Revival
Actors: Sylvester Stallone, Jason Statham, Bruce Willis, Arnold Schwartsnegger 

"You've been back enough, I'll be back".

I'm going to be honest, when I saw there was a new Expendables movie coming out I thought 'Here we go again', another stupid blockbuster that will feature little to no narrative or character development, cost millions to make and its primary aim would be to blow up and much stuff and kill off as many extras as it possibly can and have plenty more to franchise this film to death just so some of the action heros from the 80's could revive their career in a film for the fans. So when I finally had the guts to sit down to watch, I was not surprised at what I came to see. However, what I was surprised at was how much I actually ended up liking it.

I think the truth is at the end of the day, we don't want to sit down every time and watch 'Citizen Kane', 'Vertigo' or 'The Godfather Trilogy' because we just don't have the energy to absorb our minds in such fascinating and genius films that you've got to watch five times before you can actually begin to comprehend. Though perhaps that's hypercritical of me to say given that I do live for those sorts of films. I guess what I mean is, sometimes we all just need to switch our brains off, ignore the many plot holes and just enjoy watching everything that's shown on screen get blown up for 90 minutes.

I can't guarantee that you're going to be watching you're new all time favourite film, or even that you'll remember half of it in six months, but what I can guarantee is that you'll get to see Bruce Willis and Arnold Schwarzenegger ripping the doors of a smart car and driving round shooting nameless terrorists whilst Chuck Norris walks around just not giving a shit. Stallone also, for a short period revives his role as the legenary Rocky Barboa as he puts aside the Rambo by tossing his gun away and taking on the so aptly named French villain Villain, in a brawl to the death.

As you can probably imagine it tried to take itself seriously, but at the end of the day just had to throw in all the clichés and cheesy one liners they could think of e.g. "I'll be back", "You're ass is terminated" and what's an 80's revival without "Yipe-kaya". If you ask me though, this managed to pull off another rare successful sequel, in terms of star power and finally getting to see Bruce and Arnie get involved in some of the action rather than just compete for who's got the biggest ego. I don't see why this franchise can't keep going as they can just keep replacing the story with new places and villans until maybe one day the indestructible action hero's decide to call it a day.

What I'm basically saying is, if you're expecting Francis Ford Coppola or Alfred Hitchcock, you're going to be disappointed, so just don't expect much but fighting and and dick measuring and you'll pretty much love it.

7/10