'Expendables' franchies gets older, not wiser

Movie: Expendables 2
Rating: Action/Adventure R
Run-time: 1hr. 43min.
Directed by: Simon West
Written by: Sylvester Stallone

http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/the_expendables_2/

Shades of Sylvester Stallone’s “Expendables” franchise. Sure, there’s inherent interest in seeing old-school action icons tossed together in the same sandbox, but imagine what a blast it could be if the movies gave them genuinely inspired material. As it stands, “The Expendables 2” is lazily satisfied with repeating the first movie’s formula, shortcomings and grisly strengths alike, just as the first movie was content to slavishly, ploddingly cover the hits of the ’80s.

 The writer compares Expendales 2 to Expendables as being "lazily satisfied with repeating the first movie's formula, shortcomings and grisly strenghts alike". Tom Russo appears to strongly suggest that the movie might have been better if the material had not been cloned from the first Expendables.

Directed by genre journeyman Simon West (“Con Air”), the sequel reunites Stallone’s grizzled mercenary with his bulletproof core crew: right hand Jason Statham, loose-screw Dolph Lundgren, backup muscle Terry Crews and Randy Couture, and (briefly) Jet Li. Wunderkind sniper Liam Hemsworth (“The Hunger Games”) and Chinese actress Yu Nan are the group’s new recruits. And for those keeping a fanboy scorecard, the lineup again includes Bruce Willis and Arnold Schwarzenegger, in slightly expanded roles. Jean-Claude Van Damme plays bad guy, with semi-intentional panache. (It’s partly just the sunglasses.) And Chuck Norris is the most busily social “lone wolf” around. If there’s one way the sequel does try harder, it’s in the lots-of-moving-parts department. Slow-moving parts, but still.

  In this paragraph the writer rehashes the character's roles. The same crew is back with a couple of new characters (Liam Hemsworth and Yu Nan). In Expendables 2 Bruce Willis and Arnold Schwarzenegger are given bigger roles whereas Jet Li makes a cameo appearence not to be seen the rest of the movie. Jean-Claude Van Damme comes in as the lead nemsis of the Expendables.

The initial setup involves CIA man Willis dispatching Stallone and company to Eastern Europe on a safecracking job, but when the group is ambushed by Van Damme, they’re soon ordering up a combo meal of plutonium recovery and revenge. Along the way (and in a breakneck hostage-extraction opener), there’s enough chunky bloodshed and creatively choreographed knife-throwing to equal the first installment’s grungy thrills. What’s also the same, though, is the disappointing lack of cleverness. Lundgren is divertingly kooky, and Van Damme flashes an annoyed, Eurotrashy attitude that could be better leveraged. But more clunky “Ah’ll be bahk” jokes? Please, say they won’t be, even the self-referential ones.

 Tom Russo gives insight about the initial assignment without spoiling the movie. He gives enough information to make it interesting if you like action type movies. He also says that the sequel is the same as the first movie and lacks cleverness.