I’m often surprised by critics who find cause to ridicule
action films. They decry the lack of a deep plot, find the acting to be wooden
at best and in general discuss how unbelievable the movie is. What they miss is
that these are the exact things that fans of those films love about them. This
is why little was heard about THE EXPENDABLES 3. Then again it seems they love
to pound on star/writer Sylvester Stallone anytime he makes a movie these days.
As most already know the series of films revolve around a
group of mercenaries led by Barney Ross (Stallone). Unlike most merc groups
this one seems to have a heart and doesn’t take on jobs that they don’t approve
of; they’re not a do anything for a buck type group. They’re also very loyal to
one another and consider honor something worth dying for.
As the film opens up the team is on and rescue mission,
saving a prisoner from a moving train named Doc (Wesley Snipes). The usual hair
raising, death defying, explosion filled moments come and go but it isn’t until
things settle that we discover this was personal. Snipes was one of their own
they just now were able to rescue. In need of his skills for a new mission they
set out to get started.
That new mission begins fine with everything moving along as
smoothly as possible. Things begin to go badly when the leader of the group of
arms dealers they’ve been sent in to stop is revealed. His name is Stonebanks
(Mel Gibson) and he’s an ex-member of the group thought to be dead, killed at
the hands of Barney Ross. Knowing just how unscrupulous and deadly he can be,
the team ends up trying to complete the mission and get out as fast as possible
alive.
The team crawls home, wounded with one man out of
commission. Barney begins to think perhaps it’s time to move on. Realizing that
the men he’s come to love as brothers are in harms way, maybe even more so
since Stonebanks knows them in and out, he decides it’s time to bring in new
blood to face this threat to the existence of the Expendables. After receiving a
threat from Stonebanks, he turns lose the old crew and begins recruiting a new
one. Once gathered he leads them on a mission to take out the bad guy.
But things go wrong and the new team ends up in trouble,
some captured and filmed by Stonebanks who taunts Barney into coming after him
before he takes out “the kids”. When all else seems to be going wrong who but
Barney’s original team can back him up to save the day and the new group?
Some have slammed the film asking why Barney would recruit
new blood rather than his dependable team. For me this was simple, he was
trying to protect them from being killed by someone he thought had the
knowledge to do so. Sure it was probably also done to bring in some younger
faces which would result in younger audience members. But it might also be a
way of giving the series of films longevity with new recruits and eventually a
new leader.
The gathering of action stars young and old is a perfect fit
for this series, the new faces doing a commendable job. Harrison Ford taking
over in the position Bruce Willis once had does a fine job though his days of
leaping from vehicles, machine gun in hand may be long behind him. Snipes does
a perfect performance here and shows he still has what it takes if only he
could get a decent script in front of him. The stand out though is Antonio
Banderas who steals the movie from the rest. His character becomes so annoying
and yet loveable at the same time that you want to see more of him. Gibson has
shown he can portray a fantastic bad guy and continues with this film. The rest
of the new faces do an equally admirable job and are fun to watch.
Watching THE EXPENDABLES 3 will not save the world. It will
not help push forward a cure for disease. It will not feed the hungry. What it
will do is entertain. For 126 minutes you will forget about your day to day
problems escape into a world of pure action fueled fantasy. You’ll have fun,
you’ll laugh and you’ll wish well for the heroes of the film. For me that’s
enough. I’ll add this film to the collection on the shelf and have fun with it
more than once. I suggest you do the same.
Click here to order.
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