The Expendables 2

• Directed by Simon West
• August 13, 2012 (London) / August 17, 2012 (US)
• Based on a story by Ken Kaufman
• Based on characters created by David Callaham

The Expendables seek revenge against a rival mercenary who murders one of their own men and threatens the world with stolen Soviet plutonium.

They just do not make them (at least with any regularity) like The Expendables 2 anymore. Much like the first film, this is testosterone fueled with adrenaline pumping action from start to finish. While events are largely a result of what happened in the first movie your enjoyment of this film is not dependent on having seen that film. It offers enough of a recap that if someone so chose this could be their starting point. Bold move in today’s market where you pretty much need to see each and every film in order to understand what’s going on at all.

What is essentially a mission to make it up to Mr. Church (Bruce Willis) for what happened in the last film goes very bad very quickly, and a new young member of the team (Liam Hemsworth) gets killed by a deliciously evil Jean-Claude Van Damme as Jean Vilain who leads a group called the Sangs. Van Damme really kills it as the villain in this movie and I love how his name is also a bit of a joke. 

Sylvester Stallone, Jason Statham, Jet Li, Dolph Lundgren, Chuck Norris, Terry Crews, Randy Couture, Liam Hemsworth, Jean-Claude Van Damme, Bruce Willis, and Arnold Schwarzenegger all take part in this action fan’s wet dream. For fans of the movies that made Schwarzenegger and Stallone famous, their verbal sparring alone was worth watching this.

And I swear in this movie Schwarzenegger is dressed similar to how he was dressed in at least a portion of the original Terminator with the green jacket on and his general clothing. Then again, as is often the case, there are nods to the films that some of the bigger names have starred in peppered throughout either in dialogue or the names of their characters.

There’s comedy mixed in with action, which was often the case in many of the films that the legends cast in this earned their reputations from. For example this is quite possibly the first film I have ever seen someone get beat up with a religious incense burner. I never even considered it as a weapon yet Lee Christmas (Jason Statham) uses it as such.

There is a strong flirtation between Barney and a much younger Chinese agent named Maggie (Yu Nan) working with the CIA. But they wisely avoid a full-on romance. For one thing it would be seriously May/December, but more importantly the character of Barney knows that the life he leads is not good for long-term relationships. This is not a dumb film.

These are not fake explosions or CGI people moving about the screen mostly. There are some things that insurance companies just will not allow you to do today clearly and that’s where the CGI comes in but those explosions are largely real and those stunts actually happen. One done where Stallone is grabbing onto the side of his plane as he tries to climb in is clearly a mixture of live action and CGI. The CGI comes from the water spray. At least it looks like it is the only real element of fakery that takes me out of the story. But it’s brief. 

There are no deep messages. There’s no great social commentary. This is meant to entertain and get the heart racing. And it does that perfectly. It’s a throwback to the old days of action films. The heroes border on being super powered. They are gods among men and the best of the best. But there’s also a the element of the burdens and scars they carry from the life they live which is something not too common. I dare say Stallone’s Rambo films were the only ones that had that.

Ultimately The Expendables 2 is a great follow up to the original film. It’s a treat for action fans both new and old and I cannot recommend this enough!