Pjtaylor-96-138044 Before the series became a washed-out, PG-13 parody of itself, it was actually a legitimate attempt to revive both the bullet-slinging, one-lining, squib-spurting 80s action movies of yesteryear and the careers of the ageing actors who starred in them. But this somewhat narcissistic exploit actually missed the point of the pictures it was trying to recapture and, while its intentions may have been somewhat pure and only motivated monetarily by a majority fraction instead of a whole one, this means that it fails in its mission to take action flicks back to their 'glory days' despite the fact that much lead is slung and many Stallone one-liners are slurred, though the blood-packs are entirely replaced with their digital equivalents - and their non-convincing digital equivalents at that. 'The Expendables (2010)' ends up a rather dull slog through cliché after cliché, trope after trope and, perhaps less often than you'd like or even expect, shoot-out after shoot-out but avoids the fun that comes with even the 'worst' of the genre without having the courtesy to being self-aware about it. Ultimately, it isn't an enjoyable experience even though it is technically competent, conceptually admirable and, in essence, watchable. 5/10

crendine For the trivia enthusiasts out there : Barney Ross was actually a professional prize fighter in the 1940's who held titles in 3 different classes. As for this film : The best way for me to describe it would be like listening to 2 opposing arguments about professional wrestling. One would be that it's mindless and lacking any authenticity. The other would be that it's simply entertainment. Nothing more. Nothing less. If you're a fan of this genre, you will probably enjoy this film a great deal. The crew assembled around Barney Ross (Stallone) seems very team-oriented and operate like a well-oiled machine. Eric Roberts turns in a convincing performance as an international villain. What Stallone has managed to do here is expand the tongue-in-cheek action film like he did in Demolition Man. He brings in all sorts of action heroes who actually make fun of their own films in the course of the dialogue. The hand-to-hand combat scenes are incredible and well choreographed. In general, this is an action film not to be taken seriously at all but still viewed closely. My only regret about the plot itself is that there is no explanation as to how this team gets assembled, what Ross and his teammates did before becoming "The Expendables", etc. It simply begins with them venturing out on their first mission. But that's just a minor point. Again, if you're a fan of Rambo, Terminator, Die Hard, etc., just sit back, relax and enjoy an action-packed adventure. My personal favorite is Jason Statham as "Lee Christmas".

pedrostrik-46477 complete piece of trash, I'm unable to watch more than 3 minutes to this kind of nonsense free violence with fairy Tale heroes, who the hell in this world likes to watch these "new" artificially bad guys movies, i could get it sub eighty's, but nowadays its annoying, no story, no roles, free non stop violence, fireworks and bad hi-tech effects. Man this is so far from reality that even hurts to think someone write this stuff to make a movie.

classicsoncall I hate to say it because I've been a fan of most of the players here, but the main thing this film did for me was show how old they were all getting to be. Don't take that as a knock, because I'm in my mid-Sixties myself and in good shape, so I can relate to how the Expendables decide to remain relevant in a rapidly changing world. Given the premise, this was bound to be pretty much an over-the-top adrenaline rush for the average fan-boy, but with actors like Willis, Schwarzenegger and Rourke in the cast, one could understandably feel cheated by their in and out appearances in the story. It also didn't surprise me that a lot of the heavy action scenes were filmed almost entirely in the dark, a testament to how impossible it would be for a half dozen guys to take out an army. Which they did as one would expect in a film like this. For me, the best scene was when Lee Christmas (Jason Statham) took out the six dudes on the basketball court. At least that was believable. Yeah right, but considering what he did for a living, maybe he could have pulled it off for real.