The Expendables

Soldato
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Crap Film, Crap Action, Crap Script, Crap Sets, Crap Bad Guy, Crap Stunts, Crap Quips, Crap Story.

what a let down.

*SPOILERS* kinda..

only good part was Terry Crews shotgun and the camera stationed down the side tunnel as he waltz through.

anybody who thinks these Fight Choreography or action scenes were good is completely mistaken, Camera angles were crap, Choreography was meh, Jet Li looks a shadow of his former self. Sylvester Stalones character spent half the film attempting to find his gun as his team gets ripped to pieces.

Jet Li apparently requires Jason Statham and Stallone to beat bad guys... They took one of the modern great martial art experts in cinema and emasculated him to a Midget Jester of Quips. Im a big Dolph fan but there's not a high hell chance he'd stand up against Jet Li in a fight, he'd hit him 700 times to sunset before dolph had time to react, each blow would be a precision shot to weaken him. none of this is even considered in the fights, its just kick, kick kick, punch, kick, grapple. Like Jet Li would attempt to grapple a 7 foot Russian brick wall with his legs... Would he ****, thats suicide and retarded.

One lines were pants, the only good one being Bruce Willis 'Why don't you guys just suck each others ****s' and the only reason that was any good was because it was true, they basically may as well have gave each other Handy Js as they made goo goo eyes over their previous lives as action stars.

Bad Guy wasn't even Bad Ass, it was Eric Roberts pretending not to be a camp diamond stud wearing turd. Steve Austin's all i can do is shout and spear you antics...

How on earth anybody comes out of this and considers it 'Amazing' probably really enjoyed Terminator Salvation and the Clash of the Titans Remake, considering both master pieces of modern cinema.

Waste of money personally, wouldn't watch it again.
 
Soldato
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You think in real life Dolph Lundgren would get hammered by Jet Li? Seriously?

You've been watching too many films lol Jet Li is fantastic but Dolph was a karate champion I believe?

You obviously have your mind made up but it does appear you are in the minority.

Terminator Salvation was **** btw, Clash of the Titans, meh 6/10.
 
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Soldato
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Crap Film, Crap Action, Crap Script, Crap Sets, Crap Bad Guy, Crap Stunts, Crap Quips, Crap Story.

what a let down.

*SPOILERS* kinda..


Waste of money personally, wouldn't watch it again.

wow calm down, I do see your point about the camera angles in some fights it could have shown the action clearer.

Arguing over who would win in a real fight is kinda pointless though considering its scripted and not real :p

Fav part was in the cellar area, cool moves and auto shotgun carnage.
 
Soldato
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wow calm down, I do see your point about the camera angles in some fights it could have shown the action clearer.

Arguing over who would win in a real fight is kinda pointless though considering its scripted and not real :p

Fav part was in the cellar area, cool moves and auto shotgun carnage.

i am calm, it took me 60seconds to type that out. just giving a frank and honest opinion on the movie and stating my reasons for disliking it.

the only good part like you said is Terry Crews and his Auto Shotgun of the Apocalypse.

the rest of the movie is so so rubbish, and i don't believe in praising a movie purely because it 'entertained' me for and hour or so. it was barely entertaining and had no areas of any real depth, in script, shots, action sequences, characters... nothing.

When you group a cast like that together you should expect something special, what they delivered was mediocre, im not going to praise them for that, and neither should anybody else based on the fact These guys have made great films during their careers, because this is a flop of a film, if you think it was anywhere near as good as it should have been then you're not looking at it right. You judge and action movie to other action movies.

Is it as good as:

Rambo First Blood? no
True Lies? no
Die Hard? no
Commando? no
Predator? no
Once Upon a Time In China? no
Terminator 2? no
Enter The Dragon? no
Aliens? no
Desperado? no

and there's tons more that are better. This cast should have done a lot better, to hold them to any other standard is silly.
 
Caporegime
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I agree with shipinabottle - the film was indeed terrible as I posted before. Its the CGI that really was embarrasing - it was like pre-vis stuff for the last third of the film. Yes there was action, but in all honesty Id be more happier with a crate of chinese bangers and a darkened room than this movie. Also why does every fight scene with an ex-wrestling star have to feature some wrestling move/hold - its gets sooo boring so quickly - please dont say its a nod to their glorious previous 'career'...

Acting was non-existent - though I do wonder what I was really expecting so perhaps its more higher expectation than anything. For definite though the cast as a whole wasnt the sum of each part...

The wierd thing is that I like Shoot 'Em Up which actually succeeded in being a braindead action parody - with this they didnt aim to do anything other than get a fat paycheck so when people try and justify it Im thinking more of the 'Emperors new clothes' than anything...

Hell my three paragraphs above were better written than the whole script and I cant believe Im saying this but JCVD was right...

An action movie isnt that great when the most memorable part is just an auto-shotgun

ps3ud0 :cool:
 
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Associate
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14 Apr 2006
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Watched this on Wednesday, really quite enjoyed it.

I don't know what film some people were watching but there was defiantly a plot in the film I watched.
 
Soldato
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lol o dear, someone has gone into an action movie and complained its not realistic LOL brilliant :)

What on earth were you expecting?

You have listed some all time classics from guys in there prime, im sorry but realistically what on earth were you expecting from it?

If you go in to this movie expecting all of that then i'm not surprised you are disappointed.

Just lol at your Jet li vs Dolph argument its brilliant
 
Soldato
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You think in real life Dolph Lundgren would get hammered by Jet Li? Seriously?

You've been watching too many films lol Jet Li is fantastic but Dolph was a karate champion I believe?

He began as a weightlifter in Stockholm weightlifting clubs, ranking 3rd in the Sweden Junior national weightlifting championship. Lundgren holds the rank of 3rd dan black belt in Kyokushin karate. He won the European championships in 1980 and 1981 as well as a heavyweight tournament in Australia in 1982.[7] He was also captain of the Swedish Kyokushin karate team, and was a formidable challenger at the 1979 World Open Tournament (arranged by the Kyokushin Karate Organization) when he was only a green belt. In addition to Kyokushin karate, Lundgren has also studied fencing, boxing, judo, and Gōjū-ryū
 
Soldato
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lol o dear, someone has gone into an action movie and complained its not realistic LOL brilliant :)

What on earth were you expecting?

You have listed some all time classics from guys in there prime, im sorry but realistically what on earth were you expecting from it?

If you go in to this movie expecting all of that then i'm not surprised you are disappointed.

Just lol at your Jet li vs Dolph argument its brilliant

wasn't talking realism, if i was talking realism jason stratham would get his arse handed to him by them 5 guys on the basketball court. talking retarded choreography, there's no way jet li would attempt to leg lock dolph like that, its just suicidal and a crap reason change the tide of the fight.

there's plenty of guys in the cast in their prime to create some fantastic action sequences, there's none though, none standout in a class to any of the action movies of old. Statham, Crews, Austin and the rest of this generation are all capable of doing 'in their prime' action scenes, where were they? crap camera work and choreography is justifiable because Stallone and Dolph are out of their prime... nice justification.

i 'LOL' at your statements in all honesty, you've clearly got a crap view of action films if this fills your quota and you think is comparable to all them action movies. because that this is, an Action Movie that has crap action... what else you want me to compare it to, Notting Hill?
 
Soldato
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You say youre not talking realism but then go on about why jet li wouldnt attempt it?

Statham is alright but doesnt really have the same aura on screen, austin is rubbish and crews has his comical roles in the past which is hard to take him seriously. Even in this he's hard a serious character.

The camera work was poor in places, the car chase for example it was hard to tell what the hell was going on.

A bunch of the movies you listed hardly have a ground breaking story, commando? die hard? first blood? All pretty simple.

I think the trouble is you went in expecting to be like those movies which be honest nothing since them has really done the same.

They were done the first time and were awesome back then and have been hard to beat ever since!

Look at the Predators movie, it was dire for that very reason.

The plus side is at least this isnt another rehash from a franchise, doesnt take its self to seriously, has some good moments, does exactly what it sets out to do.
 
Soldato
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You say youre not talking realism but then go on about why jet li wouldnt attempt it?

Statham is alright but doesnt really have the same aura on screen, austin is rubbish and crews has his comical roles in the past which is hard to take him seriously. Even in this he's hard a serious character.

The camera work was poor in places, the car chase for example it was hard to tell what the hell was going on.

A bunch of the movies you listed hardly have a ground breaking story, commando? die hard? first blood? All pretty simple.

I think the trouble is you went in expecting to be like those movies which be honest nothing since them has really done the same.

They were done the first time and were awesome back then and have been hard to beat ever since!

Look at the Predators movie, it was dire for that very reason.

The plus side is at least this isnt another rehash from a franchise, doesnt take its self to seriously, has some good moments, does exactly what it sets out to do.

Exactly my point, this was meant to be a throw back to the good old days of action movies, but it wasn't. That is the problem, you expect more from these guys.

its not even a good action movie, mediocre. is that really respectable for a cast like this? a mediocre movie which has no legs to stand on because a crap story isn't backed up with great action sequences, or script or choregraphy, or camera work. nothing in this movie is good. Its all very Mediocre.

Yes i shouldn't expect jet li to be pole vaulting etc. but i should expect some good choreography, Age didn't stop jackie chan doing New Police Story at the age of 50. Sly is well past it, so i don't berate him much, his acting has always been so so but the rest of the movie just stinks...
 
Soldato
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Shipinabottle, we get it, YOU don't think its a good action film. Theres no point with constant back and forth arguments because it is just different peoples opinions at the end of the day. There is no right or wrong answer.
 
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