A Matter of Humiliation and Human Kindness.
★★☆☆☆
Directed by Scott Waugh
The Expendables are the world’s last line of defence and the team that gets called when all other options are off the table. But new team members with new styles and tactics are going to give “new blood” a whole new meaning.
My expectations weren't exactly high for Expend4bles even with its beautiful title that crams a 4 in regardless if it fits or not, but even if you wanted a loud and bold action flick this unfortunately still manages to underdeliver.
A wafer-thin plot is somehow stretched to create an almost 2-hour film that fails to build any stakes which is mighty impressive with a world war-inducing nuke as a central plot point. Besides a few impressive hand to hand combat scenes, Expend4bles is filled with cheap, laughable CGI, forgettable action and fails to pull together a cast half as remarkable as its predecessors which were once this series' main selling factor.
What was once the epitome of cheesy action has been boiled down to lazy cliches - one of the only benefits of having a lacklustre ensemble cast is that the shining light <I>Jason Statham<i> gets the spotlight. Taking up most of the screen time, the film almost entirely forgets its an Expendables film for the second act, which oddly isn't a bad thing.
A fun film to watch late on a Saturday when you find it on TV at 11:30pm? Sure.
Worth your time on the big screen? Save your money.
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