Rating: **
Review Date: 10/15/23
Cast: Jason Statham, Dolph Lundgren, Randy Couture, Megan Fox,
Curtis "50 Cent" Jackson, Levy Tran, Jacob Scipio, Iko Uwais, Tony Jaa,
Andy Garcia, Sylvester Stallone
After a failed attempt to prevent a terrorist (Iko Uwais) from stealing some nuclear detonators, the Expendables have to stop him from using them to start World War III. But the real villain behind this insane plot is Ocelot, who Barney Ross (Sylvester Stallone) has been trying to expose for twenty-five years. Naturally, the Expendables succeed in averting the global crisis, but at what cost?
Sylvester Stallone said this would be his final "Expendables" movie, which gives it a nice sense of finality. In fact, that's the driving force behind the majority of the film. Unfortunately, the writers failed to commit (or Stallone's ego got in the way), resulting in an infuriating climax that invalidates the entire film. The story is all about Jason Statham's character this time, and he even serves as executive producer. After being kicked out of the Expendables for the botched job in Libya, he goes solo and seeks revenge. Statham does a fine job, even though the overarching theme of the movie is "who can be the biggest prick?" Stallone phones in his performance and has little more than an extended cameo, but Barney is by far the biggest prick of them all. A dubious honor at best, but one that the film celebrates and cherishes.
Having learned from their mistake with "The Expendables 3" (2014), this entry amps up the violence, blood, and gore to ensure its R-rating, and the film is better for it. I found the movie to be entertaining as long as the characters weren't talking. The tone deaf dialog is so incredibly dumb and offensive that you want to take away the writer's keyboard and beat them senseless with it. Although maybe someone already did that, because "senseless" is a pretty apt description of the writing. I can deal with the tried-and-true "save the world from terrorists who have nuclear weapons" plot, but why do the characters have to act so dumb and be so unlikable? It makes me wonder who the film is trying to cater to. Trumpers?
The action is fun and exciting, although it suffers from some weak visual effects, continuity flaws, and bad green-screen compositing. Iko Uwais, Tony Jaa, and Jason Statham pull off some impressive fight scenes, but the shaky camera work and choppy editing robs their performances of their full impact. Megan Fox is the film's wildcard, and it's clear that the filmmakers have no clue how to handle her character. First of all, she's introduced like we're supposed to know who she is, throwing a full-blown temper tantrum because that's apparently how women are supposed to act. Then she takes leadership of the team after Christmas (Statham) is ousted. Her dialog is regrettably awful, but her makeup is worse. Fox is an attractive woman to be sure, but she doesn't need to be made up like a porn star for the entire film. While everyone else is covered with dirt, sweat, and blood, she looks like she just walked out of a salon in every shot. They really should have toned her down to look human and relatable, because she looks like a mannequin and stands out like a sore thumb.
Like the previous entries in the series, the large and strong cast is the film's biggest draw, and it can be a great piece of adolescent escapist entertainment as long as you have a high tolerance for stupidity and really terrible writing.
Notable standouts in the credits: Jason Statham had his own personal chef, and Curtis Jackson had TWO personal security guards, while everyone else only had one.