THE FOLLOWING REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS OF THE DISCUSSED FILM. READERS DISCRETION IS ADVISED.
There’s always gonna be those handful of movies where you know they’re bad but you can’t help but like something out of it. In 2023, a prime example was Expend4bles. PLOT
The film follows mercenary Barney Ross lead his team to Libya, assigned by CIA operator Marsh, to prevent opposing mercenary Suarto Rahmat from stealing detonators to nuclear warheads for a mysterious terrorist known as Ocelot, an enemy Ross failed to stop 25 years prior. For this mission, Ross’ team includes: Lee Christmas, Toll Road, Gunner Jensen, ex-Special Forces agent Easy Day and Galan, the latter of which is the illegitimate son of Galgo. The mission almost goes to their liking until they get outsmarted by Rahmat’s forces. The team tries to chase down the enemy with their own vehicles until getting crashed. When Ross’ plane runs out of flare, Lee abandons pursuing Rahmat to take down the SAM but this would be a mistake as it allow the opposing merc to shoot down the plane and cause Ross to crash. The leading expendable would be presumed dead when the only thing found in the crash is his signature lucky ring worn on a burnt corpse. During the day of his memorial service that took place in New Orleans, Marsh would inform Lee he will not be part of the continuing pursuit of Rahmat and the expendables will be lead by his girlfriend Gina. The only other person that tags along with her is a fellow operative named Lash. Lee would choose to follow the team to Asia, thanks to a tracker he left on a knife he gave to Gina. His determination to avenge his friend elevates due to how his death opened a sealed file revealing there is an eyewitness to Ocelot’s identity, Fen Leong Bai ( In Asia, the team is debriefed by Marsh and his co-worker Russo (Lucy Newman-Williams) that Ocelot’s goal will be to provoke World War III by launching the warheads in the Russian Far East. Marsh and the team track the ship down containing the warheads, but quickly get captured. This would lead to Rahmat taking Marsh away from the group and demand a prisoner exchange with Russo for the eyewitness. Lee would first go to Thailand and reach out to a former expendable named Decha for his help before finding the ship. Together, they fight off a majority of Rahmat’s forces to save the team. As they try to take the remaining army, Toll Road gets wounded, causing the team to focus on leaving for his sake. Just as Lee kills Rahmat, Marsh reveals himself to be Ocelot as he quickly kills the eyewitness that gets dropped off on the boat and quickly recognizes him. Just when Lee and the team realizes what happened, Marsh explains he intends to frame them for WWIII while he profits off of igniting it. Lee makes the team leave without him while he stays behind to turn the boat around and avoid global conflict. Lee would attempt to go after Marsh and the remaining forces until another helicopter assists him in the process. The chopper would be piloted by none other than Barney who faked his death to lure out Ocelot. With the enemy slain for good, he and Lee depart before the warheads go off. With the team celebrating another victory, the film would end with Barney explaining how he faked his death: It turns out he swapped places with Jumbo Shrimp (Mike Möller), a guy who tried to take his ring from him, before parachuting out of the plane in time. THOUGHTS
I never have high expectations for movies like this because I don't expect anything special. The only thing I wanted was genuine entertainment and Director Scott Waugh brought that in his own way. The action scenes are without indeed well edited from both Libya scenes to the entire boat scene. Those scenes work out but the visual effects are very bad. While I expect the fire and blood to be fake like past entries, the background shots are the most obvious and it's embarrassing since the first film had less of a budget than the first two and that looked more real thanks to the practicality. In a generation where technology improves yearly, this should've not been a problem yet I shouldn't be surprised of it since the third film had similar issues. I do admire the theme on how to never give up on what has to be done while others around you choose to be doubtful. The takeaway however is that I have a hard time to naturally connecting with every character like before. Toll Road & Gunner have been there since the beginning yet they felt so underutilized here. Randy Couture usually makes Toll Road a gritty guy until giving him a 180 that makes him a bit snarky when trying to flirt with Lash, which doesn't feel earned. Dolph Lundgren always put in an interesting arc for Gunner, making him a guy trying to appreciate his second chance as a teammate. The takeaway for him is how he has to break his sobriety just to do better as a sniper. He never was a sniper before, so I don't see the point on why he needed to be one now. And it's one thing to try telling us to put good use on the best/worst parts of yourselves, but not even that feels earned. It even felt fucked up for Lee & Ross to say they liked him better than when he’s drinking, especially for the latter since he originally kicked him out of the group for using. And the fact neither he nor Toll spoke up when Lee was booted out of the mission is dissatisfying because they know he had good intentions and didn't deserve such consequence. I’m actually Marsh kept Gunner around when he isn’t a good sniper. Another big gripe I had was actually trying to make me believe Sylvester Stallone's Barney Ross would ever be killed off when the actor has never been killed offscreen since 1978's FIST. Knowing that made his presumed demise too good to be true. It gave a chance for Jason Statham's Lee to shine as a worthy leader willing to be selfless in the long haul, but it's undone when Ross faked his death. Sure it worked to lure out the enemy, but it undoes the latter's arc in an attempt to pass the torch. And Ross was a total ass for getting a guy killed for stealing his ring. That is a terrible sendoff for the central protagonist because it makes him an asshole when he's supposed to be prideful to the point where he would avoid being selfish. That is dumber than him forgetting he hired Galan. Speaking of which, it was a big stretch to have Jacob Scipio basically impersonate Antonio Banderas as Galgo's son who only exists because the latter wasn't available. I got nothing against Scipio, but I don't think his character needed to be related to another. What I did like of him though was how he lacked being talkative when Ross died because he respected him for giving him a chance and felt lost without him. Lucky for him, he didn't have to feel that way for too long. The most underdeveloped character has to be Levy Tran’s Lash because while she kicks ass with a barbed chain, she has the edge that drives her to succeed in taking out enemies. Since we only meet her halfway through the film, it's hard for the connection to stick compared to past characters. I got nothing against 50 Cent since he's made such a big contribution in Hollywood, revamping the popularity of the premium network channel starz thanks to producing series like BMF and Power, the latter of which he starred in. My problem with him is that he's an obvious replacement for Terry Crews who left for personal reasons. His swagger doesn't match the others which is not a good thing because that doesn't give him enough of a bond he should have. The biggest surprise of casting additions was Megan Fox as Gina because I never anticipated her to do an action film that wasn't produced by Michael Bay yet here we are in a good way. What she brought different to the table was coming off as a hot head due to mixing her personal life with her professional life, which is her relationship with Lee that ironically works out for her just as much as it does for him by the end. The two butted heads from the moment we see them together because they don't have equal visions for their future. Lee put that in consideration when Ross was presumed dead because he didn't want to take anything for granted. I don't entirely believe Gina when she said letting Lee follow her was part of the plan when he didn't know she was aware of the tracker. The only thing I get out of it is picking up on her respecting his wish to redeem himself. With Ross back into the fold for now, I hope this works out for Lee more than it apparently did with Lace. Since asian produced action films always slap, it's always a blessing when actors from those said films become part of this franchise and arguably provide the best fight scenes. I back up this statement here when we got Ong Bak himself, Tony Jaa himself as Decha. This was a big improvement compared to the henchman he played in Furious 7 due to getting to play a character with actual depth in comparison. Decha was interesting because he was someone putting the past behind him after being tired of the blood he had to shed for the greater good. He chose to help Lee out not just out of respect for Ross, but knowing he needed the help more than ever. The best thing about him was how he was able to restrain himself and not lose control when the going got rough. I was so disappointed with Andy Garcia as Marsh who does the big 180 of being a commanding superior Marsh to the greedy ass terrorist that is Ocelot because it's so much of a rush I can't even care when we get there. And it's a shame for me to feel this way since the actor has done way better stuff than this. It's too predictable of a twist because they made that a possibility with Mr. Church until going back on it which is why I didn't get surprised like I shouldn't. The only thing I enjoyed out of him was laughing at how sudden his death was because that just meant the movie was about to be over. The one villain that actually made the story worth getting through was Rahmat and it doesn't surprise me thanks to Iko Uwais nailing it in making him a sadistic figure. He is brutal with every decision he makes and the intimidation kicks in at every turn. Seeing him wield his signature tonfas definitely shook things up. Again, so much elements/scenes are wrong with this movie it holds it back from being way better. For example, why was Gina surprised of the conversation ending between her and Lee when she was the one who walked away? When you walk away, the conversation is over and it's annoying when people don't understand that. And another thing, it was pretty dumb to see Lee be a bodyguard for a social media influencer because that was doomed to fail. I know he needed money but that was a pointless decision on his part. And if we're gonna talk about continuity errors, how about Gunner shooting a gasoline canister multiple times and it doesn't explode? That was dumber than Marsh surviving the rocket blast from Lee before Ross shoots him down. Having said all the cons, it's hard to ignore them enough to appreciate all the pros I came up with. It’s funny when Lee puts a social media influencer on check during a livestream, but the most unreal thing of the sequence was how he found the ad on a newspaper. I mean I got nothing against newspapers, but t’s odd for him to not check his personal phone for some online work. Also, why has it taken so long for the eyewitness to snitch on Ocelot? If he’s already in protective custody, he should’ve spilled the beans a long time ago. And Gina could’ve looked a little harder when seeing the first room empty yet the henchmen were just ducking in order to get the jump on them. Lastly, no one found a parachute when Barney faked his death? That’s more surprising than how he got to the boat without knowing how he knew where to go. To wrap up, Expend4bles is the weakest of the franchise for not having the same energy nor the passion the first three shared in the 2010s, becoming the guiltiest of guilty pleasure films in the process. If those kind of movies are your thing though, I hope you enjoy it more than me. If you didn't like it at all, watch the better Lionsgate produced franchise John Wick and you'll thank me later.
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