The Expendables 3 (2014) [Blu-ray]
Action | Adventure | Thriller

In The Expendables 3, Barney (Stallone) faces off with an old enemy and must fight old blood with new blood, bringing in a new era of Expendables who are younger and faster. The latest mission becomes a clash of classic old-school style versus high-tech expertise in The Expendables' most personal battle yet.

Storyline: Barney (Stallone), Christmas (Statham) and the rest of the team comes face-to-face with Conrad Stonebanks (Gibson), who years ago co-founded The Expendables with Barney. Stonebanks subsequently became a ruthless arms trader and someone who Barney was forced to kill... or so he thought. Stonebanks, who eluded death once before, now is making it his mission to end The Expendables -- but Barney has other plans. Barney decides that he has to fight old blood with new blood, and brings in a new era of Expendables team members, recruiting individuals who are younger, faster and more tech-savvy. The latest mission becomes a clash of classic old-school style versus high-tech expertise in the Expendables' most personal battle yet. Written by Liongates

Reviewer's Note: Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman, November 21, 2014 -- With a formula as set in stone as some of the Botoxed faces on display in The Expendables 3, it's probably a shortcut of sorts that provides an opportunity of sorts, perhaps not even necessitating the fineries of an actual screenplay. That may then beg the question as to why it evidently took three people instead of a mere algorithm to come up with the predictable pile of excess that is this film. Resolutely unambitious but just as undeniably slick and manufactured as might be expected (maybe a better name for this franchise would be The Expectedles), The Expendables 3 expends—er, make that expands its list of yesterday's heroes to include such stalwarts as Harrison Ford and (heaven forfend) Mel Gibson, at least cast here as the bad buy to trade in on his tarnished image. The film kicks off with what is its stock in trade, a spectacularly staged action set piece that sees Barney (Sylvester Stallone), Christmas (Jason Statham), Jensen (Dolph Lundgren) and Toll Road (Randy Couture) engaging in a take no prisoners assault on a train which is in fact a mission to free a prisoner held on board, a former member of this elite squad named Doctor Death (Wesley Snipes). This opening sequence is everything that Expendables fans have come to relish about the series—it's big, noisy, flashily accomplished and completely improbable. Someone with a stopwatch probably planned and edited this film, for like clockwork little bursts of violence or grander, longer sequences built on similar action hyperbole tend to erupt every 20 minutes or so, but that still leaves close to two hours of other material that the film needs to slog through, and the increasingly tired banter of aging males bonding just isn't enough to carry this installment.

Doctor Death may have visions of returning to his home and former life after apparent years of captivity, but of course Barney has other plans. That ultimately brings in returnee Hale Caesar (Terry Crews) to help in a job involving bombs, where Barney is shocked to discover his long ago partner and present day nemesis Conrad Stonebanks (Mel Gibson) is behind the arms trading. The mission goes badly and an Expendable does indeed seem to be so much "red shirt" disposable material.

With one man down and other former ally seemingly gone to the dark side, Barney is in a quandary, though ironically it's Harrison Ford, no stranger to dark side drifters, who sets the main plot in motion. Ford's character Drummer is Barney's black-ops mentor, and he not so surprisingly if oh, so coincidentally tasks Barney with capturing Stonebanks and bringing him to justice. Barney decides he needs a younger crew to accomplish the feat, and so the film actually becomes a kind of The Expendables: The Next Generation, with a gaggle of young hunks (and hunkettes) added to the mix of geriatric and middle aged stars.

Virtually every subsequent plot point works out pretty much as might be expected. The young Expendables (played by Kellan Lutz, Glen Powell, Victor Ortiz and Ronda Rousey) actually do help Barney capture Stonebanks, at least for a time, but then of course the tables are turned, the young 'uns are put in peril, and Barney has to call the old gang together again to put everything right.

Stallone, who reportedly has a rather altruistic view of casting for these films, wanting to offer work to people supposedly past their cinematic prime, once again stuffs the film full of little quasi-cameos. Returning Expendables vets Kelsey Grammer and Arnold Schwarznegger are joined by newcomer Antonio Banderas in supporting roles. But even this element grows tiresome after a while, especially since no character development is ever offered. That's especially ironic given the fact that even in its somewhat shorter theatrical version the film runs over two hours.

The lame, increasingly unnatural "camaraderie" of The Expendables 3 would perhaps be tolerable, or at least more tolerable, if the film had attempted to deliver more than types for its "new, improved" (and younger) Expendables. Instead it's as if Stallone simply went over a bunch of Q-ratings and decided on age appropriate actors to fill completely generic roles. That leaves whatever momentum the film manages to fitfully attain to the action sequences, and again unsurprisingly, the film more than lives up to its boisterous predecessors. Excellent stunt work and lots of floorboard shattering gun power help to at least divert attention from the fact that other than these relatively brief moments of flash and noise, there's not much else going on here.

The Expendables 3 will almost certainly satisfy any action junkie's need for things that go "boom", but by the third film in a franchise, there's only so many gunfights and demolition derbies that can be sat through before everything just starts to feel old hat. There's the expected amount of banter in this film, which boils down more to blather quite a bit of the time, but director Patrick Hughes knows where his bread is buttered and serves up some slickly packaged action sequences every few minutes. The Expendables 3 is resolutely unambitious, lowbrow action fare, and taken on that level, it succeeds perfectly well. Technical merits here are first rate, and for those jonesin' for wild and crazy guys marauding through yet another overseas locale if for no one else, The Expendables 3 comes Recommended.

[CSW] -3.4- It is all action, with very little dialogue, which is just as well. You will have at least 17 reasons to watch this. Hard to believe that almost all of them have headlined their own movies at one time - in the past. This one mixes it up with young'uns in the mix. Bless Statham and Banderas for looking so young in comparison. This is truly an enjoyable rainy Friday afternoon popcorn movie.
[V5.0-A5.0] MPEG-4 AVC - No D-Box yet.


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