The Expendables 3
Starring Sylvester Stallone, Mel Gibson
Directed by Patrick Hughes
Sly and his merry band of weathered mercenaries are back for another testosterone-fueled adventure but things are getting a little tiresome this time around.
Most of the original gang has returned, alongside new series additions like Wesley Snipes, Kelsey Grammer, Antonio Banderas, and Harrison Ford, with a few somewhat unfamiliar faces representing the plucky young guard. Mel Gibson serves as the central villain but he's never quite manic enough to pull it off effectively.
The Expendables 3 has most of the elements fans have come to expect from these movies – bombastic action, sexual performance jokes, and a cacophony of star power.
Stallone himself stated from the beginning that these films were meant to pay homage to the over-the-top macho flicks of the '80s. It's an intriguing idea that never quite succeeds.
Much of the action is cloaked in a haze of CGI and many sequences are shot far too tightly to give them any sense of depth or scale. Would it have killed them to take a page from John McTiernan's expertly crafted scenes in Die Hard or Predator?
The whole exercise smacks of manufactured gloss; nothing feels organic. An early meta joke poking fun at Snipes' recent prison stint works initially but Banderas' comic relief is too forced and Ford piloting a helicopter in the finale reeks of a primer for his upcoming return to the Star Wars universe.
There is no doubt these grizzled veterans can still pull off this genre but a little innovation wouldn't have hurt.
