Cert – 15, Run-time – 1 hour 44 minutes, Director – Scott Waugh
The Expendables find themselves in a race against time to stop a nuclear bomb from being detonated and starting World War 3
While the returns may not have always been great The Expendables franchise up until now has relished in its aging action stars grinning from ear to ear whilst quoting their most iconic lines back to each other. Part of the appeal has been the likes of Stallone and Schwarzenegger, not to mention Norris, Willis, Lundgren, Van Damme and a plethora of other stars recognisable by their last names (alongside Jason Statham and Terry Crews), simply having a good time creating action havoc. There’s been a slightly jokey nature about the ridiculous nature of the missions, even if the joke isn’t always as aware of itself as it should be.
With this fourth entry – only seeing the returning faces of Stallone, Statham, Lundgren and Randy Couture – there’s an implication that the baton is being passed to a younger generation, a new team of Expendables. Such an idea could make for a self-aware piece in line with modern actioners, and potentially legacy sequels (which this certainly is not). However, the likes of Megan Fox, 50 Cent, Jacob Scipio and Levy Tran fall flat and simply brought together for the sake of needing a team. There’s no knowingness to any of the exaggerated performances at hand making for a humourless set of one-dimensional figures. Even the returning faces suffer from blandness.
As artificial as the titular team might be they’re no match for the green screen backgrounds and visual effects throughout. A number of shots, whether explosions or close-ups which make the characters stick out even more from the background, feel particularly like test animations. Just another push for the idea that the film feels rushed.
We follow the team racing against time to track down nuclear detonators which if used could trigger World War 3. Much of the action is restricted to a couple of locations, which while not necessarily a bad thing makes for a number of drawn-out sequences in this film where there feels like little order to the events. Again, as if rushed or made up on the spot – assisted by noticeable, and equally disengaging editing. Everything simply falters into a messy pile of blandness. Like with the central cast, there’s little connection between the audience and the film as it crawls through its uninspired events.
Expend4bles is a tired mess of blandness lacking the starry smiles, and any awareness, of those before in exchange for a group with little chemistry, charisma or humour.
Just A Little Bit Random 