The Expendables 3 2014 8+ out of 10

The Expendables 3  2014    8+ out of 10

For this third installment the 1980's action dream team has added Harrison Ford, Antonio Banderas, Wesley Snipes and Mel Gibson   I'm still trying to imagine how much money these movies would have made if they could have put this cast together back in 1989.   The Expendable movies are just a fun.  These films are throwbacks to the time when action movies were the biggest movies of the summer.  

This third installment gives us more of what we got with the previous films.   A bunch of tough guys taking on an impossible job and facing off against Mel Gibson in top form as the villain.   Wesley Snipes has come out of hiding from tax evasion to co-star in the film and even jokes about it.  Then of course the addition of my favorite actor of all-time Harrison Ford joins in a role that starts out more like what Bruce Willis and Arnold's characters were in the first 2 films ---but he eventually joins in the action as a daring helicopter pilot.

The action sequences:  The action was top notch.  Michael Bay would be proud of the explosions in this flick.  Each star basically gets their moment to shine in this action packed film.  The movie starts with the crew breaking Wesley Snipes character out of a moving train jail.  Then the move on to another job that ends with one of their crew getting shot by Mel Gibson's character that is supposed to be dead.   Mel Gibson used to be an Expendable himself, but has turned evil so the rest of the story is Sly trying to bring him down.  The plot is just an excuse to get these actors into an arena for an fun action battle royale.  The whole third act of the film is one big long action scene.

I personally enjoyed Expendables 2 better because it seemed like the ending was a little better,  but I would keep watching   this franchise for as long as they keep making them, unfortunately it sounds like Sly has decided not to continue with the franchise.

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The Expendables 2 2012 9+ out of 10

The Expendables 2    2012    9+ out of 10

Stallone sure had a great idea.   Assembling the most well know action stars from a different era into one movie.  The first Expendables was an enjoyable film, but number 2 is even better.   The movie knows what it is and executes it almost flawlessly.

  It has so much aged testosterone on the screen that the screen itself may blow up.   The film kicks off with a great action scene of the group storming some facility in order to rescue someone.  There are a lot of explosions and kick ass action scenes that make you feel like you are in a 1980's action movie (where most of these movie stars  kicked ass in there own films).   The genius of this film is that it assembles all of these stars together.   Bruce Willis and Arnold just had cameos the first time around,  this time they get to join in the fun.    And this time we also get Van Damme and Chuck Norris.....(Seriously you should be drinking a beer and lifting weights just reading about this movie).   It gets a little cheesy at times  with its self awareness.  The movie references  lines from the actors other roles with a cheesy wink and nod.           I actually loved those cheesy little moments.   For example: The group is taking heavy fire in this town in Russia and all of a sudden an unseen figure rescues them.   He walks out of the debris and we see Chuck Norris and Stallone greets him and there are a bunch of Chuck Norris jokes about his character.   Great Stuff.   Sign me up for Expendables 3 right now.  The 1980's and early 1990's  was the heyday of great action movies and even with some of these actors being older than dirt....they still have it on screen in a weird fun nostalgic way.  The movie doesn't even really need a great plot....because the interaction of this larger than life macho action stars is just as good as the action scenes themselves.    It reminds me of one of my favorite sports shows on TV   Open Court on NBA Tv,  where a bunch of great retired players talk about their heydays.   I'd love to just watch this group of actors sit around and tell stories from the set of their old movies....getting to watch them altogether on screen is a true joy.

Some the of the individual posters are too good not to share.  Here are some of the best ones.

War 2007 5 out of 10

I was looking forward to this one –Jet Li  vs Jason Statham.   But it was kind of a dud compared to the expectation that I had for the flick.  A convoluted story about Japanese gangs battling each other.  Story twists that I just didn't embrace.   It had some good action sets but the story just didn't flow.  Main characters suddenly just falling out of the story at times.   It was just kind of a mess.