"The Expendables 2" Review

   

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       The Expendables 2 is one of my most anticipated movies of the summer. Most people are thinking "most anticipated film of the summer?", well I was super excited when the first expendables came out because I grew up watching Rambo, Rocky, and a lot of the Sylvester Stallone movies, such as Cliffhanger and stuff. Sly was my action hero growing up. I also grew up watching a lot of Schwarzenegger films such as Terminator 1 and 2. So, all of these great, cheesy, stupid action movies like Commando, and then the good ones like Die Hard, and even some of the crappy Van Damme movies. Seeing all of my favorite 80's action heroes was very nastalgic for me and I think that's why I like the first film a lot more than other people.
When they were making the Expendables 2, it had pretty much everyone that I wanted to see more of in the first one....so I was pretty close to crapping myself :).

      Expendables 2 is just a really fun time at the movie theatre and it's a great way to end the summer movie season. It's just a lot of fun, and knows exactly what it is. I think it might be just as good, or better than the first. Do you really need to know the plot of this film? No, it doesn't matter. You just need to know if the action is good, and the actors all work well together, and I have to say yes on both accounts. This movie is just so much fun, there is so many moments where I wanted to like hi-five the person sitting next to me. There was so many times where I just laughed out of sheer awesomeness and nostalgia. The movie is probably not a 'good' movie by any means, besides the action department. The acting a lot of the times, along with some of the supporting characters is pretty awful. Some of the dialogue is attrocious! The way the actors is look is unbelievable, you know, like you see Stallone doing a cartwheel or barrel roll, and you're like no, that wouldn't happen, but that all adds to the fun.

       When you go into the Expendables 2, you're not looking for "The Dark Knight Rises", you are just looking for a really fun, nastalgic movie, and I thought it was perfect for that. I was also very happy that they had Van Damme be the villain because I'm not a very big Van Damme fan. I have always admired his stunt work and martial arts, but I've never been a big fan of his movies, maybe I just haven't seen enough, but I have seen "Death Warrant" and "Blood Sport" which I had likes, but I haven't seen many films, other than those which weren't the greatest in my opinion. I was very happy that they had him as the villain and not part of the team, because I thought he was very menicing, and actually one of the problems I had with the movie, is I thought he could have been in it more of him.

    This movie has some amazing moments, whether it be the opening scene, which was really just one big action extravaganza, and might be one of the best action scenes in the whole movie. It starts out huge, with tons of explosions, and decapitations, and huge gory blood shots, but it was fantastic, it was really amazing. One thing that surprised me the most is Simon West. Now, when they announced he was directing, that was probably one of my biggest concerns, because of his work on the Jason Statham movie, "The Mechanic". I really thought that was one of the most poorly directed action films I had seen in awhile. I was very nervous on him taking up a movie that's even bigger in scale, along with bigger actors. He did pull it off though, and there is some very clear, excellent 80's movie type of shots. The dialogue isn't good, but you have some really funny lines here, a lot of self deprecating stuff, they make many jokes about their age, especially Arnold. Stallone also makes a lot of jokes about himself. Chuck Norris was great when he is in this movie., they really play off the whole persona, the Chuck Norris persona that has become such a popular thing in the 21st century now. The movie is much more self aware than in the first one.

     There is an airport sequence that is the climax of the movie that is amazing as well. You get Schwarzenegger, Willis, and Stallone shooting bad guys, it was a dream come true. Everything I wanted in the first Expendables film, with those three, and everyone else showed up in the second. In fact, my biggest problem with the movie is not the acting or dialogue, it's that the movie was too short to me, I thought to myself when they were wrapping stuff up, I was thinking, "We're done?!". This could have gone on for another 10 or 15 minutes, what's going on? We were really just getting to the big climax here. The Expendables 2 is not a good movie per say, but you should not be expecting that going in, I think it's a blast. It is one of the more satisfying movies of the summer, and a good way to end it. I have to give the Expendables 2 a very strong 3 1/2 out of 5.