The Expendables 3

By: Robert Murphy

For a long time I would laugh and gruff at the idea behind The Expendables movies for the sheer fact that it is hard to combine so many big names on one picture but after the first movie I was pleasantly surprised and once again was proven wrong about big names in Hollywood not being able to share screen time. The latest addition to this film trilogy, The Expendables 3, seeks to add even more names to it's already full roster and returns for another go for the old dog  group of mercenaries. At this point though, Sylvester Stallone should change the title because we seem to see more people joining in on the film rather than being killed off.

Fresh out of prison, literally and fictionally, we see Doc (Wesley Snipes) come to rejoin Barney (Stallone) and his new team as they break him out of a prison transport after a 8 year lock up in God only knows where. But this isn't the only familiar face that comes out of the wood work oddly enough as the team gets a chance to meet another member of Barney's old team alongside Doc as a routine supply raid turns south. Conrad Stonebanks (Mel Gibson) plays our resident bad guy who was allegedly killed by Barney a long time ago when he found out that Stonebanks was turning into the very people that they often were sent to kill. Needless to say this reunion is not only shocking but also devastating as Stonebanks proceeds to make things personal and unloads a rifle round into Caesar's (Terry Crews) behind to make Barney go on the war path. This though is just the tip of the iceberg now that Stonebanks is back, he has been making a lot of noise and frankly pissing off some important people, this include the United States government and cue Bruce Willis...oh wait, no that's not Bruce that's Max Drummer (Mel Gibson), our new CIA spook who wants to see Stonebanks six feet under, for good this time. This is something Barney is more than happy to accommodate, he would have done it even if he wasn't asked too but with Caesar in the hospital it leads Barney to set out and make a new team for a most likely suicide mission against Stonebanks. 

Stonebanks or rather Gibson was someone that I absolutely loved in the film, he may have had some stumbles over the years and taken some professional hits but God did he acts his heart out in this role. Gibson was meant to play a villain in my mind as he plays the cross and demented Stonebanks beautifully, you could just tell that he wanted to prove a little something since his name hasn't been on a major title in a long time and I'm grateful for the performance.  You could also probably tell by this point in The Expendables franchise that things are far less stern and serious than they were in the first movie, it seems that with every new addition things became lighter and more fun with all our big name actors making one liners from past movies and generally just being more humor based with action taking more of a backseat. This really shows in The Expendables 3 with the jokes about Wesley's previous jail time, they jokingly talk about it being for tax evasion or later when we once again see Trench (Arnold Schwarzenegger) make a "Get to the chopper" reference. Mel Gibson's new and welcomed addition to the cast in replacement of Bruce Willis also allows for some humor which was nice because I never cared for the stern and effortless antics of Willis in The Expendables. 

My faults for the movie honestly came from the addition of Barney's new team that he forms after firing his old one. This team actually was meant to take the word "expendable" literally and were never expected to survive the assault against Stonebanks and neither was Barney. This group included two MMA fighters, Mars (Victor Ortiz) and Luna (Ronda Rousey) which works out fine, then there is our resident Twilight pretty boy Smilee (Kellan Lutz) which I guess is okay and then a lacrosse player....Krug (Ivan Kostadinov). This team was honestly idiotic in retrospect because it was just pointless to even have them in the film to begin with especially when we knew they wouldn't be left to die or be killed and Barney's old team were going to come back in the end to save the day. The script for the movie just was not harsh enough to let the group die in the end and Barney and the whole team would inevitable all team up in the end to save the day, so really you could have gone to the restroom for the entire part where the "new" team was established and wouldn't care. The one thing that the younger faces did do for The Expendables 3 was add some more snickering and jokes about just how old fashioned Stallone and the others are. For instance at one point the new group complete dismisses the "wild west" style plan that Barney comes up with and replaces it with a better/more technology driven plan filled with gadgets and devices rather than blowing in the doors and shooting wildly. 

When you get right down to it I think that what I said before rings true, things are getting to be less and less serious when it comes to The Expendables movies and you have to judge it less as an action movie and more of a comedy with a lot of action in it. Stallone has been realizing more and more that it's better to make jokes about the age factor that many of the cast suffer from as well as throwing in one liners and references to their combined careers. Because when you get down to it, Mel Gibson raises a good point in the film that I think rings true and that's "How hard is it to kill 10 men?!" and you know what it really shouldn't be that hard. It's simply crazy near the end where there are tanks, soliders and helicopters all trying to kill Barney's team and none of them even get remotely hurt, so you just can't take this seriously. I myself though enjoy laughing along especially in this installment for The Expendables but this should probably be the last call for the franchise or at least I hope. 

Good:

- The action is still here and was extremely awesome

- The wit and humor strewn throughout the film was top notch

- Gibson's Stonebanks was a stellar villain and a role I think Gibson was meant to play

Bad:

- The new/younger team were just plan pointless having around

- It may be curtain call time for The Expendables movies but they went out on a good one here

Scully Rating: 7.0 out of 10