THE EXPENDABLES 3 – The Review

I really wanted to like THE EXPENDABLES 3 but for them… 3 is not a magic number.

In THE EXPENDABLES 3, Barney Ross(Sylvester Stallone) is back, along with his good pal Lee Christmas (Jason Statham), Gunner Jensen (Dolph Lungren), Yin Yang (Jet Li), and Hale Caesar (Terry Crews), along with some new pals to take on former Expendable Conrad Stonebanks (Mel Gibson), who has traded in his title and became an arms dealer. After almost being killed by his pal Barney before, Stonebanks has made it his mission put to end The Expendables, and Barney is prepared. He beefs up his gang of misfits with new members, and gives their old-school style a reboot. Together, the team must find Stonebanks before he finds them! Despite uniting some of the biggest stars of the past few decades, the first warning sign should have been the PG-13 rating. This film feels extremely tame and boring  compared to the prior two films. Sure, there is a ton of action but we’ve seen that already. The first film was a refreshing action piece that I had been craving since new flicks seem to shy away from mortal, non-superhero or monster action lately. THE EXPENDABLES 2 had me clapping and jumping out of my chair. It was funny, full of action, and in my opinion, trumped the first film. Maybe I was expecting too much… or maybe this film tried to ride coattails of it’s incredible all-star cast rather than developing the story more. Let me rephrase that. It’s the latter.

I have no problem with the cheesy acting in this film. In fact, it is one of the reasons that I love the first two movies. Action films in the 80’s and 90’s had an incredible balance of awesome, butt-kicking scenes and bad one-liners that made us laugh, and stuck in our heads. They were nice throwbacks to the past. They got away with that in two films, but in this installment director Patrick Hughes didn’t quite nail the throwback meets funny approach. I get that parts of the film are parodies of the older stars and their old films, but it feels played out now. Give me something new.

Because of the throwback to the older action film styles, I’m perfectly fine with the acting in this film. Some of it goes cheesy and campy… which is everything I want and expect from an action film. Having said that, I was not ready for a young Expendables team. Part of The Expendables appeal is that ‘old guys still kicking butt’ attitude. They’re jaded. They’ve been doing this a long time. The new breed of actors and professional fighters that they brought in haven’t earned their stripes yet, so the whole thing felt forced and awkward. Kellan Lutz was the only one that seemed to fit in a bit with the other guys. He hasn’t earned the Expendables status yet, but he felt the most natural to me. Either way, this cast is too big to give everyone the adequate screen time that they deserve. I’d rather have a smaller cast that I can focus on.

Fans of the film will still enjoy seeing their favorite stars on-screen together. There are still some kick-ass action sequences, but with less blood. For me, that sucks. If you are going to go for a combo of the last two films, you can’t say “Yeah, but with less blood.” In what world does that make sense? Patrick Hughes also made the choice to shoot some close-ups in this film that were less than flattering to the aging stars. The guys still look great but maybe they should have backed up a skosh. Sadly, THE EXPENDABLES 3 is nothing new. There are some laughs, and some good action but not enough to make the film stand out.

OVERALL RATING : 2.5 out of 5 stars

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THE EXPENDABLES 3 is in theaters now

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