The Expendables 2 (5/10)

I do salute Sylvester Stallone for his idea on this project, and his generosity for sharing with all the 80's silver screen heroes (which the characters did play a tease on his selfishness) who were once labeled his "competition". 

There's a saying that goes, "all style and no substance". Unfortunately, this one had no style and no substance.

What it had were a bunch of almost down-and-out action movie stars gathered for another round of very bloody action sequence and fun. Unfortunately the fun were almost only exclusive for they themselves.

Mindless and over the top, in this case it was a good thing. But sometimes it became silly. The enemies that they have to kill appeared to be endless. The drama created were totally artificial and could really have been done without. 

I wanted Stallone to make this even more simpler than it was. If they could not have any more subplots other than Jason Statham's character with his girlfriend, that would have been better. The whole thing about saving the people of the village was quite unnecessary.

Jean-Claude Van Damme was a welcomed villain and I have been wondering why he wasn't part of the team since the first movie. And Chuck Norris' self-depracating jokes were great, though I would have liked to see more of him kicking ass.

But why wasn't there room for Jet Li in this one, I'm still wondering. And where's Mickey Rourke?

The worst addition however, was Yu Nan, who never really found her groove in the acting department from start to finish. Everything that she did was really uncomfortable to watch, especially when she was saying her goodbyes to Stallone's character.

There were a lot of one-liners that referenced the past, which kids today probably wouldn't get, but then again they weren't written in all too well to be most effective. I thought when Bruce Willis said to Arnold Schwarzenegger, "You've been back enough, this time I'll be back," was a dud until Schwarzenegger replied, "Yippee-ki-yay".

Finally, that throw-down between Stallone and Van Damme was really worth everything. The only regret was that they didn't do this earlier when they were both fit-ter.

But no doubt there will be a third one. And I'm even expecting it and will watch it. But who will Stallone bring onboard next? Dare I say, Steven Seagall?