“The Expendables” wants to be a summer blockbuster with a cast of action heroes so famous they can’t be ignored. It mostly succeeds, but only as a noisy, dumb pleasure rather than a tight piece of filmmaking.
Trailer, via Lionsgate Movies.
Bruce Willis’s Mission
Bruce Willis plays the leader of a team sent to a foreign country to stop a warlord. His character sets the mission, and he anchors the team’s approach, though the film doesn’t give him much room to develop beyond that.
Stallone’s Team
Stallone leads the team, and he’s joined by a group of actors playing fighters. Some of the best scenes come when the team trades jokes or banter, because the film knows these men were once stars and lets them act like it.
The Story Falls Apart
The plot is thin. A warlord wants revenge on the team, and the team has to fight back to save the mission. There’s a mission to stop weapons, and a mission to rescue a prisoner, and the film never quite ties them together. It just keeps throwing fights at the screen until the end credits roll.
Fights Without Shape
The fights are big and loud, with explosions and gunfire filling the frame. They’re exciting in the moment, but none of them build toward anything larger. A chase through a jungle gives way to a helicopter fight gives way to a final stand, and each one feels like a separate movie stuck together.
Music That Overpowers the Film
The music swells at every turn, drowning out the dialogue and the action alike. It’s meant to make the film feel epic, but it just makes the quieter moments impossible to hear. The score is the loudest thing in the film, and it’s the weakest part of it.
“The Expendables is a loud, dumb summer movie that occasionally gets a joke right.”
How the Running Order Works
| Scene | Length |
|---|---|
| Team’s first fight | Long |
| Rescue mission | Long |
| Final battle | Longest |
| Credits | Short |
The film runs about 100 minutes, and it moves fast enough to keep attention from drifting away. That’s the film’s greatest strength — it never sits still long enough to let boredom set in.
A Good Time, Not Much More
“The Expendables” is fun to watch, but it’s not a film built to last. The cast carries it, and the fights are easy to enjoy, but there’s no depth to reward repeat viewings. It’s a summer movie that knows exactly what it wants to be — a spectacle for crowds who want to cheer for old stars — and it delivers that with few apologies.
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