|
| Feature
Stories-hot off the press |
Newsletter
| Links
|
THE EXPENDABLES SYLVESTER STALLONE AT HIS EXPLOSIVE BEST
© Marc Wickert
The Expendables is a top-notch action flick from go to woe, with no ‘down-time’ padding. Made in the tradition of The Magnificent Seven and The Dirty Dozen, Stallone keeps the theatre goers’ hearts pounding for the entire 103 minutes with his hand-picked cast of hard-ass stars. Can’t believe a reviewer from the Sydney Telegraph gave the movie a one-star rating and wrote, “Unfortunately, The Expendables is simply a deplorable mess, ineptly thrown together and inertly unexciting.” If you want to doze off through 224 minutes of “epic romance” in Gone With the Wind or enjoy trying to focus your teary eyes on Love Story, then The Expendables is not for you. But if you’re looking to chill out from your crazy modern-day lifestyle with unadulterated action, delivered by the screen’s leading macho men, then you’ve come to the right place: The Expendables is definitely for you. At 62, as director, co-writer and lead star of The Expendables, Sylvester Stallone still delivers diabolical dynamite both on and off screen. And his fellow cast members all play exciting and enthralling roles. As a UFC and MMA fan, I went along to this movie particularly to see Randy Couture, who has already played some very convincing roles in other movies and television parts. Couture will always be incredibly successful in anything he sets his mind to. In The Expendables, Randy does a great job as Toll Road, a demolition expert and former college wrestler who enlists as one of Barney Ross’s (Sly Stallone’s) mercenaries. But it’s not surprising to see Mickey Rourke put in another command performance as Tool, a tattoo artist and former member of the Expendables team. Bob Dylan, in his book Chronicles Volume One, says of Micky Rourke’s performance in Homeboy: “Mickey’s acting was at the upper end. He could break your heart with a look. The movie traveled to the moon every time he came onto the screen... ” This is also the case in The Expendables. All cast members play their parts so well, and there are a couple of Stallone’s former acting acquaintances returning for this one: Eric Roberts was an arch enemy of Sly in The Specialist, and Dolph Lundgren threw down with Sly in Rocky IV. There is also a fun cameo scene by Stallone’s Planet Hollywood buddies, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Bruce Willis. Then there are the Harleys, the hotted-up ’56 Ford F-100, a very funky old seaplane that’s armed to the gills, a BIG gun manned by Terry Crews, and enough knife throwing to make John Locke drool on his relocatable island. All this is laced with a great soundtrack. The Expendables is a must for any action-packed-movie adventurer.
|
