The Expendables 2

[Ozymandias]

I never really weighed in on this movie(probably because I was crying), but Stallone seriously dropped the ball with this film IMO.People showed up for The Expendables for 2 reasons. Thats for the stars and R-rated 80s style action with expletives being thrown around. What did Stallone do for the sequel? He shot a PG-13 comedy instead. Yes, it was cool seeing all the new people in the movie, but it just fell flat because everything was just really half-assed due to the initial PG-13 rating the movie was aiming for.When I saw the first Expendables on OD, there was so much energy in the theater. With this, it was noticably different.If an Expendables 3 happens, I seriously hope Stallone remembers who he is.6/10Good thing Dredd came along and satisfied my hard R-rated action junkie needs. And man, did that one satisfy!

Edited October 18, 2012 by Shpongle

[The Toymaker]

I agree with most of what you just said, Sphongle, but remember that Stallone did not direct this one. Simon West dropped the ball with TE2, not Stallone. Stallone co-wrote the script, and we all know that scripts can be good on paper but if the director has a different vision then things can change thematically on the screen. But I agree with this part:

People showed up for The Expendables for 2 reasons. Thats for the stars and R-rated 80s style action with expletives being thrown around. shot a PG-13 comedy instead. Yes, it was cool seeing all the new people in the movie, but it just fell flat because everything was just really half-assed due to the initial PG-13 rating the movie was aiming for.When I saw the first Expendables on OD, there was so much energy in the theater. With this, it was noticably different.

[BiffMan]

Not sure why I didn't end up seeing this in the theater, I enjoyed the first one well enough, just never got around to it. Been looking forward to this one for quite a while though and hoping that the performances are a little better this time around. Stallone did a damn fine job directing fast-paced action, but he really didn't get good performances out of his cast, particularly himself. Arnold's scene in the first one was initially awesome and then quickly became irritating as soon as he started talking. I know the dude was only on set for 4 hours, but wow. Need to at least try.

For the most part, I really enjoyed this. There was the occasional bit of questionable acting and the CGI blood splatter was distracting, but all in all I think they pulled it off very well. I like that they took their time much more than the first one. The action is great, but it's the character moments and banter that I wind up remembering most. Very satisfying in that regard and much less forced than the first time around. I actually quite liked Gale in this and thought he was a great addition to the crew and did an excellent delivery of his background story. His genuine manner made that scene play much better than I expected when he started into it, they just offed him too quickly, and it was a jarringly stupid thing for Jean-Claude to do right then. I'm good with him not surving the movie, but we were just beginning to see the fun potential of contrasting him against the veterans when he's suddenly gone.

Too many fun moments to list, but highlights for me were Arnold showing up at the beginning with a great delivery of the "Oh, this is embarrasing" line, Chuck taking out everything including the tank (and the reactions of everyone else), Jet & Jason's respective fight sequences, and of course the end battle with Arnold, Stallone, and Bruce all kicking butt together. Much much less forced having them together in this one than it had been previously. I sincerely hope they can have all 3 of them share equal time the next go around, get past all of the admittedly fun one-liners, and just have them play off of each other as straight up co-stars. We've still never really had that yet, but this was a great step in the right direction.

As for Arnold, he seemed to be having fun, but was bordering on phoning it in from an acting standpoint. He had some great one-liners and his comedic timing was excellent, but the lines where he's just talking were really flat and stilted, even for him. I'd imagine much of that is due to his not having been around for much of the production, but his scenes didn't feel out of place compared to the first one. Still showing excellent physical acting chops after all this time was fantastic to see him taking out folks with the automatic cannon.

Special nod to Jean-Claude, who really made the most of his opportunity to be back in the limelight. His portrayal of Stereotypical Bad Guy was excellent and he kept his character's motivations tight and simple. Other than stupidly killing off Gale (which could serve no purpose than invite revenge), everything he did was perfectly plausible and he did just enough talking about money to let us know what he was all about. I do like that he got a chance to do his high kicks and roundhouses, and as much as I really enjoyed his fight sequence with Stallone, I felt that was a completely blown opportunity. When he's out of ammo and taunting Stallone with "Man or sheep", I wanted to yell "kill him!" at the screen. It's so obvious we're going to have The Fight like every other damn movie, it would have been so fun for Stallone to just say "Sheep" and shoot him between the eyes. Argh. Alas, such are the conventions of the genre and at least we did get to see a fun fight sequence.

Ahnold Quotient - 8

Wasn't showing off the bod (not necessarily a bad things these days), but plenty of hamming it up, one-liners, and shooting the crap out of people. Much much more satisfying in that regard than the first and glad we finally got that action scene we were hoping for out of the trio.

Rewatchability - Sure

Very entertaining and I'd certainly recommend it to anyone who hasn't seen it. I can see myself popping this one in again before long and might find a place in my extended rotation of movies.

[Phil in the Blank]

The expendables 2 got the tone right IMO. I certainly dont want to see these old guys together in a serious, Rambo style movie, but in an over-the-top, tongue in cheek Commando style. And Expendables 2 delivered that in spades, where number 1 failed. What it got wrong was the lack of fucking swear, and the CGI parts (most noticeably the blood splatters). Give us more fucking swearing and more practical effects in number 3 please.

 

With that said, the movie overall succeeds in what its trying to be and is a must watch for any action fan out there,

[Crusader]

My biggest quarrels were this 

 

- PG-13 ... yeah I know its rated R but its blatantly clear it was meant to have a PG-13 rating since curse words were downgraded to few 'shits' and the blood was CGI 

 

Major ball dropping right there ... and you can bet it was Sly's and studio's decision not West 

 

- Van Damme was awesome ( he needs to play villains in the future too ... his face got so dark and gloomy with the years of drinking and doing coke he really is villainous looking ) therefore he should have had a more expanded and thought out role ... you can tell he was making stuff up and his one liners I bet were his own. And they were the best part of the movie along with Lundgren 

 

 

 

- Final fight was just lazy and wrong and I cannot forgive them for that ... a bunch of throwing around 2 kicks from Van Damme and that's it ???? Fuck you whoever choreographed that shit ... hell from all the action movies I saw in my life ( and I saw A LOT ) I would have done a better job that shit is just inexcusable ... if it wasn't for Van Damme and his lines that scene would have been downright embarrassing 

 

In case you didn't notice I love JCVD 

 

- The plot could have been tighter ... I mean it just was a little over the place and not structured well at all ... came close to completely crashing down during the middle and the Chuck Norris cameo 

 

Overall I guess I liked it ... and I did thought it was better than the first which was a letdown to me ... but I can't get over things mentioned above 

[Kvikk Lunsj]

I thought the it was slightly better then the first but nothing great. I do not care to see this film again but it was better then I expected it too be. 

5/10

[DAR]

Finally saw it and it was a lot of fun. A-Btw worst mustache ever on Stallone

[RobinHood26]

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Edited May 6, 2018 by Jay Hollywood

[Dementeleus]

Hrm. There are a couple of fun moments, but on the whole it's pretty boring.

[The Stingray]

Hrm. There are a couple of fun moments, but on the whole it's pretty boring.

 

Imo, the only fun moments are when JCVD is on screen, and he isn't on screen long enough.