The Expendables 2 - The Re(al) - view

Barney Ross: I heard another rumor that you were bitten by a king cobra.
Booker: Yeah. But after five days of agonizing pain, the cobra died.

When you've got a poster like this, how dare you complain of too much action

You may want to skip this review if you've not seen the movie; and if you have .... welcome!!!

I am sick and tired of people complain that The Expendables (Parts 1 & 2) are too violent, c'mon! that was  it's intended goal, this is a movie that celebrates the era of the "tough guy movies" of the 1970's & 80's - like Rocky, The Terminator, Robocop, Die Hard, Commando, Rambo etc. The common denominator for films like these was a single protagonist taking on a large number of bad guys in very unrealistic manners .. but who cared? It was fun to watch period!

The Expendables is like an all-star classical action movie; hence if you never appreciated these movie in the 70's - 90's, then how can you possibly enjoy the all-star version.

Now to the plot, the Expendables is in this format - A group of mercenaries (The Expendables) are sent on a mission as usual (OK, maybe not as usual) and what was supposed to be a simple pick up in a jungle in Albania, was sabotaged by an international arms dealer (named Jean Vilain); in the process killing the newest & youngest member of the expendables (Billy played by Liam Hemsworth), which was kind of sad, and the rest well ... if you're a classical action movie fan you already know; and if not ... The expendables set out on a revenge mission that is super bloody!

Simply put - a revenge movie.

The Expendables 2 is plain old school action, that is no CGI and no computers, just 80's style action movie effects - that is guns, knives and ... more guns !!!

The cast of The Expendables 2 are action juggernauts - Sylvester Stallone, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Bruce Willis, Dolph Lundgren, Jason Statham, Chuck Norris, Jean-Claude Van Damme, Jet Li, Terry Crews, Randy Couture and Liam Hemsworth. Also Chinese actress Yu Nan portrayed Chinese agent Maggie.

This man knows how to light up a movie

When you bring these guys together for a movie you aren't supposed to expect much from the script, but with these guys I had no expectations but like the first one, it was filled with some really funny lines courtesy of Terry Crews.

That cobra made the wrong move

My only disappointment with this movie is the limitation given to some of these legends like Jet Li, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Bruce Willis and Chuck Norris. How awesome would it have been if these guys actually had more screen time. And no round-house kick from Chuck Norris? C'mon!!! At least Van Damme's was beautiful.

In all, The Expendables 2 did what it set out to do - satisfy our nostalgia of actions movies of old.

[Caesar reluctantly hands over his gun]
Hale Caesar: If I don't get this back, your ass is terminated.
Trench: In your dreams!