Viewed in
2012
Formats
Movie theater.
Premise
The sequel to The Expendables, nuff said.
Loved
Over-the-top stupidity, Chuck Norris.
Liked
Pretty much everything else.
Disliked
Not enough Jet Li.
Thoughts
For most sequels, bigger is not always better. Here's the exception to the rule.
I was a very big fan of the bloated, botox-ed, bombastic band of brothers the first time around. Louder, more ridiculous and stupid were my expectations, nay, my demands. Pretty much the entire time I vacillated between snickering and laughing out loud. There were machine guns, explosions, wanton mayhem, roundhouse kicks, campy one-liners, decapitations, primal screaming, infinite henchmen spawning points, and "I now pronounce you man and knife".
Jean-Claude Van Damme was one of my favorites as the juicy baddie who kicks a knife into someone's heart while taking Corey Hart's signature song as his anthem. Arnold Schwarzenegger and Bruce Willis had bigger roles and were a hoot plagiarizing each others' catchphrases. Statham sneered, Stallone mumbled, Terry Crews yells, Couture did nothing, and Lundgren was just charming and bizarre. And I kind of geeked out when Cordelia of Buffy made a cameo.
But really, this movie belonged to Chuck Norris. The energy of the theater just went bonkers every time he appeared onscreen and wrecked havoc. I honestly believe that Norris meme-ing himself was not only worth the price of admission, but truly the pinnacle of film-making for all mankind.
Sadly, it wasn't perfect. I was little underwhelmed at times. Jet Li's appearance was more of a cameo, though he made the most of it by Jackie Chan-ing a kitchen. The female lead wasn't interesting/attractive/badass/understandable enough to hang with this crowd of legends. Sadly, everyone had hyped up the "a motorcycle flies into a helicopter" shot so much that it was doomed to disappoint me, dejectedly asking "that's it?" Part of the problem was they shot that in real-time, when it should have been in gratuitous slow-motion. Speaking of helicopters, how could they not fit in a "Get to the choppah!" into the movie?
So yeah, if you liked the first movie, you'll probably love The Expendables 2 even more.
