The Expendables 2 (2012)

To me The Expendables franchise is a pretencious vanity project.Yeah sure I get it, all the most famous action stars thrown together for old school action. I understand the appeal, I just don't like it.Now despite what my profiles analytics say I don't really like action movies, they're not my thing unless they have a lot of other themed content (Action/horror etc). Sure I respect the old school original action films, they had a certain novelty charm to them but here it comes across as recycled as much as it does a homage.Considering the list of famous names the action isn't as explosive as you'd imagine and the fight scenes are really quite lame. How can you have Stallone/Arnie/Willis and not have the best action? How can you have Van Damme/Norris/Jet Li and not have great fight scenes? It's like they decided they didn't need to make the effort because they had the cast, well you did.The Expendables 2 is on par with the first movie, namely brainless action with a generic cliched storyline and nothing even remotely original.It's like they took all these stars, threw them into a paint by numbers action flick and assumed it would work. Oh wait, it did. The franchise has been very successful. I'm sure it's nostalgic for the old and new and exciting for the young.Well it doesn't appeal to me. Call me weird but I want more than gun fights, explosions and fist fights. I want story, I want substance, I want originality.The Good:Old school actionFew neat action movie referencesThe Bad:Statham still can't act for crapSome of the cgi is ropey, really shouldn't have been any anywayMindlessThings I Learnt From This Movie:Charisma Carpenter is improving with ageReal heroes open fire with high impact automatic weapons even when innocents are in the same direction

The expendables are back and its war baby so Stallone has given up the directors chair but still done the screenplay he is better for it with the all the 80's actors are back with more story to them as well as the newbies. Liam hemsworth id brilliant as the sniper from the army the team signs up for a mission that looks like an easy paycheck , but things go wrong for Barney and his band of old school mercenaries when one of their gets killed by a psychotic terrorist for hire van dame character . there is more one liners from Arnie wills and co taking the the pi#s out of their own famous catchphrases like Arnie says to wilis I'll be back willis say you have been back all ready so as they hunt in Austria they cut a swathe of destruction with all weapons at their hands going through enemy territory in a made up american city for the enemy to play in and barney meets up with the village people to find the men in an under ground and shut down an unexpected threat in the nick of time loads of battles explosions and try to prevent a weapons grade plutonium from getting into the wrong hands this 1hr38mins I gave it 7 out of ten not bad at all this is my 247 review.

A much better improvement over its predecessor in nearly all areas. Stallone purely focussing on the acting and partially the writing was a smart move, doing the directing as well was just too much for him last time. Barney and his gang of mercenaries are employed once again to stop a megalomaniac from unleashing a deadly weapon. Bigger action, badder weapons and brisker pacing, improvements improvements improvements! That's what I like to see. Alas, the plot is one dimensional and incredibly dull again. The dialogue is either cringey or boring, but atleast there is more characterisation here. It isn't the "Stallone and Statham show", the other members feel more integrated which was great to see. The opening action sequence immediately had me hooked, the sound of pounding guns obliterating baddies (literally shredding them to pieces) and the exciting explosions harked back to classic action films. It's mindless, numbing and will make your eyes bleed. More muscles and testosterone than a can of 'Mr Muscle', bulging biceps in every scene as I count how many veins are popping out on Stallone's arm (the answer is three by the way). Acting is serviceable with more focus on the stunt work, which is fine for this type of flick. Throwing blades, raging tanks and gigan...WAIT! Stop! Guys, Chuck Norris waltzes in and steals the film!? "I was bitten by a poisonous cobra, five agonising days later the cobra died". Life...complete! The constant cheesy lines were cringeworthy to say the least, particularly when Willis and Schwarzenegger were on screen together. "I'm back", "I'll terminate you", "yippee-kiyay"...we get it. Nostalgia is beautiful, but don't force these quotes in. It's so out of place. Despite the bland plot and horrific dialogue, it's a fun entertaining time that'll keep you occupied. More of an 80s throwback than the first instalment, so atleast I got something I was promised this time (finally!).

This movie is so fun. It's just a bunch of action scenes. If you like straight action movies with really good action scenes and awesome one liners, this is your movie. It's not a masterpiece like John Wick but it's so fun to watch. The action scenes are really well done and that's what makes this movie so good. I'm young so I don't care much for the reunion of old actors aspect of the movie but those one liners are awesome (except that cringeworthy scene at the airport with Church and Trench).This scene contains three major action scenes and my favorite is the first. It's extremely over the top and extremely awesome. One issue I had with this scene is that they put the title of the movie right after! I feel like this really brings us out of the movie when they do this especially when the scene is 15 minutes long! It's really annoying. It is an awesome spectacular scene though. The airport fight was also really awesome. With a movie like this, you would expect no emotion and no suspense but while far from a drama or a suspense thriller, this movie has a bit of both. When Billy dies, it's extremely sad. The final scene where Villain and Barney fight actually has some tension. Barney is really beat up and you kind of feel like he's overpowered by Villain.This movie gets an 8/10 because it has no story. It's the best you could get from a straight up action movie. It's really far from a masterpiece but I'm going to say this again, it's the best you could possibly want from a straight up action movie with awesome one liners.