Rent The Expendables 2 (2012)

An absolute riot of a film, with great action, humour & story - The Expendables 2 review by TB

When the first Expendables came out, it was a real mixed bag. There were plenty of flashes of brilliance, but the heavy & dour tone of the film dragged it down & proved to be a weight around its neck it could never fully escape from. However, with this film, 2 things have changed: as the first movie was extremely successful, there is now more money to play with/more confidence about what they are doing; secondly & most importantly, they have brought in Simon West to direct. West, who among other films, directed the brilliant & classic Con Air, totally gets what this series is about, what it needs to be & what went wrong with the first one. The result is nothing short of brilliant.

In the second film, the team are joined by a new member, Billy the Kid. He is a youthful, good-looking, moral man who became disenfranchised after serving in Afghanistan; horrified at the slaughter all around him, he decides that the only logical response is to join a mercenary organisation where he is paid eye-watering sums of money to slaughter "bad guys." He also intends to leave after his final mission with the Expendables & retire with his beautiful girlfriend. Obviously, as he has all these morals, good looks & plans, he gets slaughtered within the first 20 minutes by Vilain, the big bad of this film. The remaining Expendables then vow to avenge his death, setting off a chain of events that eventually leads to stopping nuclear material being sold to the bad guys.

Everything about this film is so stupidly funny & silly, it is brilliant. Yes, there are some heavy moments, but these are perfectly offset & complimented by the rest of the film. The stunts have been taken up a notch & it must again be praised how much of them are largely real/not CGI and many are done by the actual cast themselves, including by Stallone who has his neck broken in the first film...

But most importantly, it is so much fun to sit & watch all these old actions stars ham it up and have a ball on screen. We finally, after many many years, get Stallone, Willis and Schwarzenegger on screen in an action scene fighting alongside each other. There are also welcome additions, such as Chuck Norris, who actually quotes a Chuck Norris fact as dialogue. Van Damme is also perfectly cast, fully learning into the silliness of Vilain.

Yes, this film won't be for everyone, although I feel that as it wears it's themes & intentions so proudly/as a badge of honour, if you rent this, you should know what you're getting yourself into. Sadly, things go downhill again with the 3rd film, but this one is an absolute riot and fully uses it's premise to great effect.