The Expendables 2

The film is supposed to be a somewhat silly testosterone movie, but from about the village fight all the way to the airport climax it started becoming fairly nonsensical story-wise and too self-aware. I'm not even talking about the "You're always going to be back. I'M going to be back!" "Yippee ki yah." kind of moments, but the more goofier things like unloading their weapons into the last guy (hilarious, by the way), the body on the x-ray machine and the head in the bag. The final bout between Stallone and Van Damme was satisfying enough, but they had a surprisingly powerful story about how they deal with the loss of one of their own and if the movie didn't get so ridiculous and disjointed it would have been nearly perfect.

Overall while this movie was more satisfying overall, I kind of preferred how the first film mostly just winked at the audience while this was more of a neon sign.

This is a film, it seems, for the generation of men who grew up watching the original 80's action films and their slight resurgence in the 90's.

Or grew up watching those movies years after they came out.

Just got back from seeing E2.

It was loud.

It was violent.

It was excessively bloody.

It was awesome.

Was it perfect? Hell no. But it was definitely worth the price of the ticket, for those who are fine with "put your mind on simmer and watch the shit get blowed up" movies.

I thought all the references to their other movies was a touch heavy-handed, but not game-breakingly so.

The one thing I wish they had done differently? Gunnar actually getting his moment of awesome with the bomb. I mean, through the whole movie he was the Butt-Monkey for non-combat scenes, would it really have been that bad to give him one moment of pure "fuck yeah!" solo badassery (that is, not counting the Dynamic Entry in the first scenario of the film)?

I love action flicks. I love bad movies. I love Cheesy movies. How much you think I might enjoy this flick?

edited 23rd Aug '12 10:05:08 PM by TuefelHundenIV

I haven't seen it. But I think you answered your own question there.

Very likely. I collection action flicks of all stripes and have fun lampooning them.

'I now pronounce you Man and Knife.'

I have to work this into daily conversations somehow.

I read that as "I now pronounce you Mack the Knife"...

Wait, that joke is to intelligent for a movie like this.

^ It also doesn't really work in context, which is a greater problem than intelligence levels.

Tuef, go for it. This movie is "all of the above".

Just make sure that you leave the "common military sense" part of your brain outside when seeing it, cause it might develop a hernia within the first 20 minutes.

Watched it the other day.

Enjoyed it, but I feel I enjoyed the first more. Hale and Toll sort of disappeared toward the end of this one (displaced by Trench and Church undoubtedly, more in a sec), and Yang (obviously) disappeared almost immediately (which is too bad, because Jet Li's fight scene in Nepal was excellent and probably my favourite in the whole movie). Trench and Church seemed to rely on fourth-wall-breaking callbacks, which is fine itself, but sort of left them a little bland especially after building up Billy the way he was (which is fine, as it was the impetus for the plot).

They could have cut out the extraneous romance teasing though, it felt pretty forced (and considering that the movie is a vehicle to bring action stars together with lip-service to a plot, that's saying something).

Christmas is still awesome, the action was still off-the-wall loud and crunchy, Chuck Norris was cool ("..and after five days of agonising pain..."), overall a sweet watch, but could have done with more of the Expendables themselves.

Oh, and Van Damme has not aged well.

Romance is pretty much always forced in action movies. It reflects badly on a character if they can't keep their genitalia in their pants for a few hours to save the world or whatever.

If anything I kind of liked how it didn't try making anything of the romance. In the first film Sandra's relationship with Barney was meant to tie into Tool's "The one I didn't save" story and Maggie in this film was meant to reflect the idea that it is hard to get too close to anyone with that lifestyle. Neither went anywhere past teasing, and both could even be argued as a brother/sister type of love instead of romantic. It's certainly a lot better than the Disposable Woman or purely Token Romance that those 80's movies were known for.

Yeah, it only got as far as teasing, but I would have preferred less of that and more face-smashing.

It's actually better handled than the first movie's teasing, what with Mickey Rourke's hilarious crying.

Just saw it yeasterday.

IT WAS F*CKING AMAZING.

It was the epitomy of high art ..for action movies. Everything just worked so well in the film for me.

The fights, guns, explosions, the plane crash, Chuck F*cking Norris (His cameo was absolutely hilarious, I especially like how his first appearance makes it look like his only appearance only to return for the airport fight and the cobra joke had everyone laughing). Arnie and Willis's expanded roles were great.

Liam Hemsworth worked well as Billy, though I kinda feel bad for the actor appearing in this and the Hunger Games but only for short times. But at least he was pivotal here and his story about his time in Afghanistan sounded pretty brutal.

Maggie is a pretty good character, the teasing between her and Barney was simply meh but she added something interesting to the team dynamic.

JCVD made a pretty good villain and I'll admit his method of killing of Billy was rather unexpected for me and was really rough. I mean just wow. Way to make a killing a hero brutal.

Overall a fun, entertaining and AWESOME movie.

I watched it.

I waited to the very end before giving it a rating, but there it is: 0/10.

Chuck Norris is in the movie, but he never does a god damn Round House Kick? Trash movie, would not recommend.

On a serious note, I loved the movie. It was exactly what I expected from it, and enjoyed every bit of it. Well, almost.

Also, dat Chuck Norris ninja joke.

Saw the movie. Just got back from it. Even my wife loved it. The camp and action were awesome if predictable. The gore was more than expected but still not quite over top in general.

There were some great one liners.

I also got back from watching it. Was pretty good, although you really have to leave your brain out to enjoy it.

Also, every time Stanlone came out from behind a corner to shoot someone, I like to imagine him saying "Good thing it was bad guys."

edited 9th Sep '12 8:21:40 PM by MisterC

The only thing that bugged me a little was the overly-sympathetic New Guy.

When he started talking about his girlfriend and so on, my mates and I all just looked at each other and said 'He's a corpse'.

It was a bit obvious.

Fresh Young guy vs bunch of the older crew yeah he was a dead man walking.

The instant he said he wanted to leave, C leaned and said "He's a goner".

I hoped he wouldnt be, I liked his character. Oh well.

Also, I didnt even realize the Villain was actually called Villain until way too far.

Lol. It was delightfully cheesy.

I am stoked for Dredd I have been hearing good stuff from friends :3

I actually knew he was dead the moment Stanlone said, for the second time in like 10 minutes, how much he liked the new guy. That was just screaming "Here, this is the reason the good guys will go after the bad guys."

The fact he wanted to leave was just the final nail in the coffin.

"I'll be back!"

"No! You've been back already, it's my turn to be back!"

"I'm back!"

That was just absurd. And I loved it.