The Expendables 2

The Expendables 2 opened this weekend.  I haven’t looked forward to a movie since The Dark Knight Rises, and boy did this movie deliver.  It’s about a team of mercenaries that get hired to recover something in a crashed plane, they wander through some third-world European country and find a bad guy that they need to take down.  Simple enough right?

The good; the opening sequence.  It starts off with a condensed version of the first movie, the team comes in guns-ablazing (as if there were any other way) and they pretty much decimate this Nepalese hide out.  Seeing this masterpiece in the Arclight Dome was perfect, the screen was adequately large so I could see all the bodies flying and being eviscerated, and then the sound was in my face!  It’s the only way to go.
What an opening to a movie, the thing felt twenty minutes long if it was a yard… is that a saying?  Explosions, body count, bullets, cheesy lines – The eighties are/is back, with a vengeance.

We get the old team back together with some additions and we even get more time with Bruce Willis and Arnold Schwarzenegger.  The first film had all three of these action stars in one scene, the sequel integrates all them in to the plot, very very enjoyable.  The back and forth with Willis and Schwarzenegger during the shoot out is that first scene in the church amplified and then fuel injected, these guys are such great sports to have done that scene.

The action is amazing, they were able to re-create the tone and feel of the first movie, why can’t other sequels follow this mold?

Van Damne!  He’s in the theatres again!  And we also get Chuck Norris!  These are not spoilers, if you’ve seen the trailers and advertisements you know that these two are in this movie.

How did all these action stars come together to make this greatness?  Please give us a third one.

The bad; I don’t know if there’s much to put here.
I would’ve liked to have seen more Chuck Norris… I know that sounds weird, but with the tone of this movie, they really could’ve played up his part in it all.  It felt as though they only had him for a small window of time, because the bulk of his time is taken doing Total Gym infomercials, but most of his scenes he was in a cutaway of him shooting and kickin’ butt.  The only real time he was with the cast was his introduction.

Van Damne’s death scene was too short, I would’ve liked some more in his last fight.  The man can still kick, that’s for sure.
His hence men were lacking, there should’ve been a pecking order that the team had to work up to before they get to the big boss.  The first film had Stone Cold and Gary Daniels before you got to Eric Roberts, I wanted that repeated for this sequel.

Schwarzenegger mentions that he’s got his team waiting when he meets the Expendables team… what if the team from the first Predator movie showed up as his team, tell me you wouldn’t want to see that?

Overall it was everything I wanted and it certainly delivered.  So avoid this movie if you don’t want  your expectation met or if you weren’t around for the eighties action movie.  This sequel delivers and satisfies.

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