Soldiers of Fortune (2012)

The film opens with Craig McCenzie (Christian Slater) leading a secret reconnaissance mission in Afghanistan. With the life of a fellow soldier (Freddy Rodríguez) in danger, Craig ignores orders to save him from our own CIA man Carter Mason (Colm Meaney). Rather than get a medal, they are dishonorably discharged from the service. They have fallen on hard times.Our heroes are then recruited by the lovely Cecelia (Oksana Korostyshevskaya) to lead a group of mercenaries to act as freedom fighter for a mineral wealthy island known as Snake Island (Black Sea?) against a ruthless colonel (Gennadi Vengerov) his equally ruthless daughter (Sarah Ann Schultz) and his arch enemy Carter Mason. However there is a catch to this whole thing. Not only must he free the island but do so while escorting 5 millionaires who want to "play soldier" for various reasons. They are funding the revolution. Thus a play on words of "Soldiers of Fortune."The 5 guys are:Dimidov (Sean Bean): He is originally from the island. He is in the mining business and already knows how to handle weapons.Grimaud aka Grim Reaper (Ving Rhames): An African general who knows how to fight. He sold the colonel weapons and he is late on his payment.Sin (Dominic Monaghan): Video game designer who makes violent video games. His psychologist recommended reality. For added measure he has a broken leg.Haussman (James Cromwell): He has done everything in life. His goal is to die so his kids get his fortune and not his wife (Ekaterina Suslova) known only as #5.Vanderbeer (Charlie Bewley): Runs a successful Wall Street hedge fund that made money when everyone lost. He just wants the bragging rights.Of course things don't go as planned and Christian Slater must save the day against overwhelming odds uncovering all kinds of schemes and plot twists. Unfortunately the plot remained as simple as a Steven Seagal movie. The film had potential but quickly falls off the edge. Slater being the main character was a stroke of bad casting as I don't see him convincing in this role.PARENTAL GUIDE; F-bomb, no sex, no nudity.

liked this movie because it was action and no complicated plot. Some films try to be to clever, and this one works because you know the cast and like them from other films and TV , they have acted in. I am a huge fan of Slater and i like the fact he isn't a pretty boy trying to play the hero as a James bond actor would. I chose this movie because of being mainly a fan of his, and that least in this movie he doesn't get killed off half way through. If you want to watch something easy to comprehend and don't mind a few mistakes here and there, like the fact it isn't full of the f word every sentence you'll enjoy it. This as an edge of old eighties action movies and I believe that if rich folk in the future, want to play war, it is possible that the outline plot of this film may become a reality. Money does buy everything and that's the point of this movie. Slater does his best with what he as been given and wouldn't be bad in one of the expendables movies , this film as an edge of what expendables delivers on a bigger budget.

The actors in this movie have all been in big box office successes' so whatever possessed them to think this one would be a good career move? I fortunately watched this on a PVR set and was able to fast forward every time I felt vomit in my mouth. It is advertised as an adventure comedy, you need to take this description with a pinch of salt, which incidentally will help with the bad taste it will leave you with after viewing. It was a thoroughly poor and disappointing movie, bad action sequences, awful acting and terrible special effects. The movie budget is quoted at around $8 million and it made $1,572,040 at the box office...my question is how come it made so much?

It's more than incredible what a waste of talent this movie is. If you look at the cast, you'd be excused expecting something better. Even if only in B-movie terms. It actually does just give you enough, for you to not get completely angry and annoyed by its lack of commitment or lack of anything substantial.I'm not sure when it happened, but Christian Slaters fall from Grace is something we've all seen by now. He also must have a house somewhere in eastern Europe, if you consider how many movies he's shooting over there/here. I do wonder what the excuse for the other guys was though? Some needed money I guess and the script might have sounded cooler than the finished product turned out.