The Expendables 2
Back in the eighties and early nineties having in the same film the likes of Stallone, Schwarzenegger and Norris was a dream. But tha dream became a reality with The Expendables and The Expendables 2.
In The Expendables we saw Sylvester Stallone (Barney Ross) leading a group of mercenaries made by Jason Statham (Chriistmas), Jet Li (Yang), Dolph Lundgren (Jensen), Randy Couture (Toll Road) and Terry Crews (Hale Caesar) with the assistance of Rourke as Tool. They faced a ficitonaLatin American dictator who was helped by Eric Roberts (Munroe) and Steve Austin (Pane). Scharzenegger and Willis made cameo appearances as Trench, a competitor, and Mr. Church who is Ross's group employer for this mission.
The Expendables 2 has the same roster minus Rourke and with Liam Hemsworth (Billy the Kid) as the sniper of the group. This time we get to see more of Willis and Schwarzenegger in action plus Norris is introduced as Booker though he only appears in a timely fashion. There is also Van Damme as the bad guy (Vilain), an arms dealer who tries to steal Plutonium from an abandoned mine to sell it to the highest bidder. Yu Nan (Maggie Chan) helps the group in their efforts to get the plutonium and take revenge on Vilain who murders one of their own, the young Billy The Kid.
So if you ever wondered what would be the result of having all those great action heroes working in the same film the response is The Expendables and if after that you asked: "what would it be like to see them all again but this time with even more actors?" And the response to that one is The Expendables 2 which is, no doubt about it, at least five times as entertaining and exciting as the first installment.
If you love action films this is your dream come true. Having all these people together is less than extraordinary and as Stallone remarked in one interview :"It probably won´t happen again."
The story is predictable and the acting only acceptable , but then again we can't be demanding with these professionals because fighting and not acting is what they do best. The action scenes are of course the best, and in some cases unbelievable. You will find so much action you will not come back for more. Though of course that does not have to be necessarily true. I for one want to see another Expendables movie, one with yet another special actor: Jackie Chan .
If only for the action this movie deserves five out of five but all things considered is only three stars out of five for this one.
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