Lionsgate
It’s been nine years since The Expendables 3 seemingly put the nail in the coffin of Sylvester Stallone’s old-action-star franchise. Nonetheless, despite only intermittently participating himself, Stallone assembles another collection of tough guys (and Megan Fox?!) for Expend4bles, whose title’s silly spelling is indicative of the film’s goofiness. What few fans remain will be happy to hear that, unlike its PG-13 predecessor, Scott Waugh’s sequel fully embraces its R rating. Maturity, however, remains in short supply, as this latest series entry is merely more of the same gung-ho corniness, delivered with a chintziness and wink-wink self-consciousness that undercuts its aggro appeal.
It only takes a single minute for Expend4bles (in theaters Sept. 22) to begin indulging in the fake-looking explosions and helter-skelter shootouts that are its stock and trade. The initial setting is Muammar Gaddafi’s former chemical weapons plant in Libya, where malevolent terrorist Suarto Rahmat (The Raid’s Iko Uwais) and his army of faceless mercs are trying to acquire a nuclear-device detonator. Suarto is the type of one-note villain who promises to spare a general’s son in return for a keycode, and then reneges on the deal once he has what he wants and murders the boy in cold blood in front of his father. Uwais’ martial arts skills are by now the stuff of modern genre-cinema legend, and thus it’s indicative of the film’s incompetence that it barely has him exhibit them before a final showdown that’s most notable for its pedestrian conception and staging.
Back in the USA, Expendables boss Barney Ross (Stallone) interrupts the latest in a long line of romantic squabbles between his best buddy Lee Christmas (Jason Statham) and Lee’s girlfriend Gina (Fox)—who’s also a member of the special-ops squad—in order to have him help retrieve a giant silver ring that he lost in a bet the evening prior. This affords Kurt Wimmer, Tad Daggerhart, and Max Adams’ script with an opportunity to re-establish Barney and Lee’s bickering brotherly bond, as well as to demonstrate that they remain a rock ‘em, sock ‘em force to be reckoned with—even if, as Barney dubiously states, he’s in no shape to fight thanks to a bad back. Their rapport is as strained as the expressions on Stallone’s face, with every joke crashing to the ground harder than the duo’s easily dispatched adversaries.