The Expendables 2 (2012) - Retrospective Review

Director: Simon West

Cast: Sylvester Stallone, Jason Statham, Jean Claude Van Damme, Scott Adkins, Chuck Norris

Country: United States

Rating: R

Run Time: 103 min

The Expendables 2 is a fun but albeit flawed sequel to the equally flawed but noticeably more serious The Expendables. Stripped of the previous film's bleak tone and character driven nature, The Expendables is an all out action and cameo fest with little attention to character or common sense. The sequel does exactly what one expects from a sequel to such a franchise: amp up the stakes, deliver bigger set pieces, and introduce more action icons. However, the film's quality takes a hit due to such things. Even though the film's action scenes and stars are bigger and more plentiful, that doesn't necessarily mean that the sequel is a better film. 

With Stallone no longer at the helm of the director's chair, The Expendables 2 is a noticeably lighter affair that aims purely for action and nothing more. If the first film was made mostly for die hard action fans, than the sequel is made exclusively for action fans, as non-action fans and esteemed critics alike will find nothing to enjoy here. If Stallone, Statham, and Schwarzenegger aren't your buddies, than this is not the film for you. Action fans will be pleased to discover that the sequel features a stronger duo of villains and nearly triple the body count in exactly the same run time. 

The boys are back and ready to kick more ass.

The Expendables 2 opens with an insanely long and ridiculous action scene that trumps the finale of first film within minutes. One can immediately sense the difference between this film and its predecessor as characters crack jokes as they gun down nameless henchmen. After the Expendables survive said mission and head home, Barney is confronted by a very pissed Church (Bruce Willis) who is upset over the events of the first film. Church is frustrated that Barney and friends destroyed half of Vilena in the process of eliminating James Munroe. Therefore, Church tells Barney that he must retrieve a computer device from a downed plane in Albania or else he and the entire team are going to jail. Church also appoints an advisor, Maggie Chan (Yu Nan), to the team. After successfully retrieving the computer device, the mission goes from sour to worse when the mysterious Jean Vilain (Jean-Claude Van Damme) murders one of the Expendables and steals the device. Barney's simple retrieval mission quickly turns into a full blown quest for revenge as the Expendables team up with several old and new faces to take down Vilain.

The cracks in the Expendables franchise appear within minutes of sequel's start as the jokes and cameos come quicker than ever before. It's clear that with Stallone no longer directing, the Expendables franchise has more or less turned into a pure action fest, plain and simple. The bleak tone and mournful nature of Stallone's somewhat mature original is completely absent in this picture. Viewers are instead treated to a ridiculous amount of self referential comedy and lame humor that will only get a kick out of the dads in the audience. Here are some lines from The Expendables 2 that make me cringe in my seat:

"Fine, but if I don't get this back, your ass is terminated!" - Crews to Schwarzenegger

"Now that's what I call Chinese takeout!" - Statham to Jet Li parachuting out of plane

"I could really go for some Chinese food." - Lundgren to Nan

"After five hours of excruciating pain, the cobra died." - Norris literally making a Chuck Norris joke

"I now pronounce you, man and knife." - Statham as he throws a knife into a guy

"You've been back enough, I'll be back." - Willis to Schwarzenegger

"Yippe Ki-Yay." - Schwarzenegger to Willis

"Who's next, Rambo?" - Schwarzenegger to Norris

These are truly some of the worst lines of dialog that I have ever heard in a feature film. The biggest problem with cracking jokes like these during action sequences is that it deflates all of the tension out of the film's otherwise violent and gory proceedings. In the original Expendables, Stallone and friends only cracked jokes during down time or when they were away from their missions. This made sense, as trained mercenaries are nothing more than human. In the sequel however, no moment or action scene is sacred. A character can crack a joke or laugh about killing someone at a moment's notice and ruin what was otherwise a fun and awesome action scene. It is for reasons like these that The Expendables 2 is a noticeably weaker film than the original.

The action Gods smile upon us by reuniting both Van Damme and Adkins!

However, The Expendables 2 makes up for its flaws in certain areas that ultimately makes the film as watchable as Stallone's original. The sequel introduces a plethora of new characters and action icons that puts the original film's cast completely to shame. However, the screen time for each character seems more unbalanced this time around than ever before. After all, only so much screen time can be given to the same characters from before, along with the new ones, within a 103 minute film.

Sylvester Stallone completely phones in his performance this time around with a lazy and emotionless turn as the once bleak and human Barney Ross. Stallone barely conveys an honest human emotion throughout the film. He seems fit to maintain the same mildly tense attitude throughout the entire film. It's clear that Stallone's heart was not in the sequel as much as it was in the original.

Besides Mickey Rourke, all of the surviving members of the original film return with worse material to work with than before. One odd element of the sequel is that Jet Li is downgraded from being a significant supporting player to that of a mere cameo. It's a damn shame too, as Li is one of the few members of the franchise who can actually carry an action scene on his own. The Expendables 2 also introduces the first female ass kicker of the franchise, played by Yu Nan. Nan is given very little to do throughout the film and barely leaves an impression. Newcomer Liam Hemsworth, formerly Miley Cyrus' fiance, gives a surprisingly great performance as the teams' newest member. It's a shame that his character is killed off so soon, as Billy the Kid showcases more humanity and likability than any other Expendable in the entire sequel. Therefore, the sequel introduces very few new members to the core Expendables team.

"I now pronounce you, man and knife."

However, the sequel does step up both its cameo and villain game even more than the original film. Chuck Norris (Invasion U.S.A.) of all action stars makes a cameo appearance during the middle and end of the film as a lone mercenary who joins in on the action because...why not? His cameo is pretty ridiculous, but at least it gives Norris one last chance to up his total career kill count if anything else. Both Arnold and Bruce get in on the action this time around too. After merely standing still in the original film and cracking awful jokes, the two get to mow down bad guys this time while also cracking awful jokes. Upgraded from merely cameos, the two sort of become honorary members of the Expendables team. I am particularly embarrassed to admit it, but I kind of love the smart car bit where the two cram into a car and drive around shooting bad guys. It's incredibly silly but also bad ass at the same time. I especially love the shots of Arnie and Bruce leaning out of the car to pick up more guns to fire. However, The Expendables 2 drops the mic when it comes to its villain duo played by none other than Jean-Claude Van Damme (Hard Target) and Scott Adkins (Ninja, El Gringo). 

Van Damme and Adkins had already appeared in action films such as The Shepherd: Border Patrol, The Assassination Games, and Universal Soldier: Day of Reckoning together. Adkins is more or less the new Jean-Claude Van Damme too. Therefore, their pairing in The Expendables 2 was a stroke of genius. Van Damme plays a villain literally named 'Vilain." You can't get more silly and on the nose than that. Van Damme steals the show and gives one of the best performances of his career as a psychotic and sadistic criminal who takes pleasure in killing people and admires the symbol of the goat. Adkins plays Van Damme's right hand man and makes for a nice foil to Statham's Lee Christmas. The two have an especially intense moment early on in the film where Statham disrepects Adkins, only to be forced to respect him back right afterwords. Van Damme and Adkins, two of my favorite action stars working today, are the main reason that I find myself returning to The Expendables 2 every now and than, not Stallone and Statham. 

And yet, for all of The Expendables 2 silliness, there is still an underlying story about redemption amongst its revenge plot. Barney sees Billy the Kid as himself, only younger and smarter. Billy admits early on in the film that the Expendables life is not for him, and that he is going to leave the team in order to be with his girlfriend. Barney admires this because he wish he had done the same early on in his life instead of wasting the years away killing people. Therefore, when Vilain kills Billy, Barney feels responsible and saddened because Billy had a chance to live a good life. Barney's quest to avenge Billy's death is more than just simple revenge, but a personal journey about redemption for himself and Billy's lost life.

Willis and Arnie get in on the fun.

From an action stand point, The Expendables 2 is pretty solid. The film is jam packed with more action than even the first film. In fact, the final hour of the film is more or less one action scene after another until the credits roll. Unfortunately, the sequel lacks the small scale and personal nature of the first film. The sequel's massive set pieces lack a considerable amount of direction or purpose and tend to come off as montages of violence at points. The final air port battle, while entertaining and jam packed with as much fan service as possible, is honestly a mess of an action scene. Characters simply pop up out of nowhere and gun down nameless henchmen even though they rarely take cover and leave themselves open to gun fire. What kind of trained mercenary would make such an error?

The sequel also opens with an insane action scene where every character must kill 10 to 100 people each. Statham alone kills more people here than most other actors get too in their entire careers. The film's action tends to be at its strongest when the attention is shifted towards a small scaled fight that takes place during a larger battle. For example, Jet Li's fight against a number of guards in a kitchen during the opening mission is infinitely more satisfying and awesome than the entire mission itself. The same can also be said for Statham's fight against the Sangs inside of a church while the rest of the Expendables gun down the various intruders in a village. Small scaled fights like steal the show every time.

One of my problems with the first Expendables is that the film didn't feature any great one on one fights. Nobody wanted to see Dolph go up against Jet Li or Stallone go up against Steve Austin. These fights are fine, but they in no way take advantage of the previous history or skills attached to said fighters. Dolph is too tall to fight a skilled martial artists like Jet Li and Stallone is the last person who should be taking on a professional wrestler. This is why I think that the three way fight between Jet Li, Statham, and Gary Daniels is the best fight in the original film because all three of those actors are middle aged martial arts centric actors who should be fighting one another. Fortunately, The Expendables 2 gets this aspect right and features two awesome fights that pit four separate icons of action against one another.

The first notable fight that takes place during the finale pits Statham against Adkins. Both Statham and Adkins are young action stars who perform martial arts in many of their films. Therefore, it makes sense for the two to duke it out at the end of the sequel. While it is unfortunate that their fight is exceptionally short, I'll take a short fight between the two any day over no fight. The Expendables 2 also pits two of action cinema's greatest titans, Stallone and Van Damme, against one another in the final fight of the film. Both Stallone and Van Damme are particularly elder actors who have been working in the genre for several decades now. Therefore, the two more or less brawl it out with one another and resort to lots of gut punches and takedowns in a fight that benefits from some excellent build up. This is exactly what the first Expendables film was lacking, a significant and long awaited one on one fight between two of action cinema's greatest titans. Fortunately, The Expendables 2 understands this and delivers.

"Do you wanna fight me like a man or like a sheep?"

Simon West's sequel to Stallone's ode to action packs in more action and cameos than previously thought imaginable. The face offs are better, the body count is higher, and the villains are even more memorable. Even Brian Tyler's excellent score from the first film is back too. Unfortunately, the film falls hard in other areas of the picture, thereby making The Expendables 2 a weaker but still satisfying sequel. The horrendous digital effects are back and even worse this time. Computerized helicopters have never looked so terrible. The sequel also features an added helping of comedy, but at the expense of the film's tension. 

The Expendables 2 aims purely for action and comedy, but nothing more than that. If the sequel had kept its focus on the characters and scaled down the action, than its testosterone infused proceedings might have been more enjoyable and gripping. How many times are viewers expected to join these guys on these adventures if no attention is given to the characters and no filmmaker takes the material seriously? Let that be a warning to all future filmmakers of this franchise. Otherwise, The Expendables 2 is a flawed but highly enjoyable sequel that all action fans have probably already seen two or three times already.

Rating: 6/10 - A noticeably weaker albeit more fun and action packed sequel to the most testosterone infused franchise around.

Franchise:

The Expendables (dir. Sylvester Stallone, 2010)

The Expendables 2 (dir. Simon West, 2012)

The Expendables 3 (dir. Patrick Hughes, 2014)

In Anticipation - The Mechanic (2011)

Director: Simon West

Cast: Jason Statham, Ben Foster, Donald Sutherland, Tony Goldwyn

Country: United States

Rating: R

Run Time: 93 minutes

Just like Bronson, it has been a long time since I revisited Jason Statham (The Transporter Trilogy) on my blog. I guess it's hard to give every single action icon attention all year round. Maybe I should cut back on the Bruce Willis and Chow Yun Fat reviews since I tend to give them plenty of exposure.

While I think that it was unnecessary to remake a film as good as The Mechanic, I think that it works fine as a Statham vehicle. If you're going to have the balls to recast a Charles Bronson role in a film, than I think an action devotee like Statham is a suitable replacement. Unfortunately, this remake is essentially the same film but with different action set pieces and far less subtlety. Director Simon West makes almost everything in the film as obvious, loud, and simplistic as possible for dumb contemporary audiences. This simplifying of the material hurts the film and takes away what made Winner's subtle and nuanced original so special. Warts and all, The Mechanic remake still shows Statham in prime ass kicking form and has a couple cool action scenes to boot. 

I also have to say, just look at that awful tagline on the film's teaser poster. It might as well say, "someone has to write these taglines, so here you go." It's so bland that anyone could have thought it up. And while you're at it, check out that awesome collage of guns on the poster that won't appear in the film. I wished that old Western revolvers, mini-guns, sawed off shotguns, and RPG's showed up within the film. At least it would have been a little crazier and fun. Fortunately, F2000's and P90's do pop up, so the poster isn't a total lie.

The Transporter becomes The Mechanic.

The Mechanic remake has essentially the same plot as Winner's original but with a slight difference or two. Arthur Bishop (Statham) is an assassin who kills people for a mob-like company. When Bishop's boss Dean Anderson (Tony Goldwyn) asks for him to kill his mentor Harry McKenna (Donald Sutherland), he calls a meeting for proof of McKenna's deservedness to die. Anderson shows Bishop evidence of McKenna betraying and murdering five of his agents in order to make off with loads of money. Even though he regrets it, Bishop does the dirty work and guns down McKenna.

Bishop eventually meets Steve (Ben Foster), McKenna's son, who takes his dad's death pretty hard. After much pressing from Steve, Bishop reveals that he is an assassin and decides to take him under his wing feeling bad for him (this is what I think happens, the film doesn't explicitly state Bishop's reasoning in the remake). As the two start to assassinate targets together, they attract the attention of Anderson and eventually find their lives in danger. However the two eventually learn that their greatest threat is not Anderson, but one another.

In this remake, West and screenwriters Lewis John Carlino and Richard Wenk give a reason for every targets' death. One target is a ruthless warlord, another is a perverted cult leader with a drug addiction, and another is a big guy who likes young men. One of my biggest problems with this remake is that West and the screenwriters try to justify each targets' death. You see in the original, Winner never gave a single reason as to why a target needed to be eliminated and never tried to justify Bronson's Bishop as a good guy. It was simply a film about a guy who kills people because he is told too, plain and simple. This seems to be the big difference between the original and the remake. Back in the day, filmmakers didn't go out of their way to explain things. Their films flowed and audiences went along with it. But now, filmmakers are concerned with making sure audiences understand everything. In doing so, contemporary filmmakers over explain their film's motives and thereby ruin the experience. If West let his film play out and breathe like Winner's original, than it would have been a far better film.

Foster gives 100% to a role that could've been so much more.

Beginning of spoilers for original and remake!

West also ruins The Mechanic's great twist ending by taking all of the surprise out of it and making each character's awareness of one another's eventual betrayal extremely obvious. However, West doesn't just take the surprise out of the twist ending. He ruins it entirely by setting up Steve to enact vengeance on Bishop for killing his father. We also learn that McKenna was innocent! Anderson set up McKenna to be killed by Bishop all along. Therefore, Bishop feels horrible for killing McKenna when he realizes that he was innocent. So when Steve tries to kill Bishop in this film, he is doing it because Steve was wrongfully set up to kill an innocent man.

But it doesn't stop there! Bishop survives! Even though Bishop dies in the original, he was on to Steve's plans and set up a trap to kill him back at his home. In this film however, Bishop does the same thing but gets away to live on in an unnecessary sequel. But now it's horrible that Bishop kills Steve because he never took the time to explain to him what happened with his dad! In the original, Steve never cared about his father's death because he was a heartless bastard. His betrayal of Bishop was great because it showed a young man trying to take his mentor's place. This film on the other hand completely removes that character dynamic and opts for basic revenge instead. Riveting.

End of spoilers for original and remake!

I could go on for a while about why I dislike this revised ending so I'll keep it short and sweet: the original ending is subtle, rewarding, and great while the remake's ending is contrived, a cop out, and disappointing.

That guy in the middle is going to have trouble aiming since his gun is above his eye line.

Another issue I have with this remake is that it gives a face to the villain. In the original, the head of the organization is seen in one scene. He is never heard from again and mostly kept in the shadows off screen. In the remake however, the villain, Anderson, is given a face and repeatedly appears throughout the film. Instead of focusing on the relationship between Steven and Bishop, West crafts a sub-plot where Steve and Bishop eventually go after Anderson in order to stop him and destroy the organization once and for all. This giving the villain a face is totally unnecessary. The original was great because there was no set villain and the original organization's figure head was mysterious and elusive. Now the villain is simply a rich bumbling businessman with an earpiece and a nice suit. As I stated before, this remake is all about making everything loud and obvious. It lacks Winner's nuanced subtlety that allowed the audience to think for themselves.

After all my complaining and moaning, you would probably think that I hate this movie. Well, I don't. Even though I was disappointed in it as if it were a child of mine, I still found it to be entertaining in parts and worthy of a rental at least. If there is one improvement to the original, it is that West's remake has bloodier action, crazier stunts, and a higher body count. I yelled, "Oh!" numerous times throughout the film, so that is always a good sign that the film entertained me somewhat. Statham and Foster show off their skills in numerous action scenes that incorporate cars, boats, fist fighting, and shootouts. It is unfortunate though that most of the blood is painfully digital a-la The Expendables.

There is a fantastic stunt worthing singling out during the final action sequence where Foster drives a bus towards a convoy of cars. After Foster collides with Anderson's convoy, he runs towards the back of the bus as a fireball travels down the middle of it. Foster leaps towards the back and window and rolls out just as the fire explodes out of the bus' window. For all of my complaints about the film, at least I can say that Winner knows how to direct an exciting action sequence.

"May the odds be ever in your favor Bishop."

The film also has a great set piece around the hour mark where Statham and Foster have to take on numerous guards inside of a hotel. This scene also features a great stunt where Foster and Statham free fall down the side of the building while attached to a rope. The scene is shot with cameras attached to the actors in order to immerse the audience in the free fall experience. It is a great little touch that went a long way for me.

Both Statham and Foster's performances can't stack up to Bronson and Vincent's from the original. However, I don't blame this entirely on the actors. I blame it purely on the material they were given to work with. Regardless of the material, Statham and Foster make for a really cool team. They both do a great job during their action scenes and fit well into the world of the film. I usually love Ben Foster in every performance of his. He has the ability to completely steal a film from whomever else is in the picture. Just look towards his appearances in 3:10 to Yuma, The Punisher, Lone Survivor, and The Messenger if you want to see what I mean. Unfortunately, he isn't given much to work with here. Instead of stealing the film as he could have, Foster matches Statham every step of the way.

And how about Statham? Statham is sort of our contemporary Bronson nowadays, so it is ironic that he is in a remake of a Bronson classic. In all honesty, Statham does what he always does; talk in a menacing voice and kill bad guys with style. His performance lacks the silence and subtlety that made Bronson better though. Honestly, Statham's performances rarely ever differ. All of his characters tend to blur and feel like the same guy after awhile. It is usually the plots and action scenes that separate one Statham film from the next. You know exactly what you are getting into with each Statham performance and that is just fine with me. I like the guy and think he is relatively bad ass in all of his films no matter how boring or bad they are (Parker anyone? All I remember is lots of real estate talk in that one).

The mentor and the apprentice wasting round after round on one guy.

I am surprised I wrote an abnormally high amount of words for a remake few people even saw or care about. I guess that is what happens when the action genre is your passion. Anyways, West and Statham do a good job at kicking ass and delivering good action scenes. However, they fail in almost every other area. The Mechanic remake is as by the numbers as they come. It takes a unique and silent film from the 70's and turns it into a dumb headed and loud film from the 2010's. This one is definitely a rental and not worth a second watch.

Rating: 5/10 - An unnecessary remake that offers up nothing new but cool action scenes. Otherwise, this is a by the numbers action film that will displease fans of the original but possibly thrill newcomers.

Franchise:

The Mechanic (dir. Michael Winner, 1972)

The Mechanic (dir. Simon West, 2011)

Mechanic: Resurrection (dir. Dennis Gansel, 2016)