This is the film that gives fisticuffs 'n' fireballs lovers what they never knew they wanted: more Kelsey Grammer.īruce Willis' squinting CIA operative from the earlier films is "out of the picture," as his squinting CIA replacement, Harrison Ford (Harrison Ford!), tells Stallone, reprising his role as the mercenaries' beret-wearing ringleader, Barney. Which is why The Expendables 3 is easily the pick of whatever the old-age analog of "the litter" is. Individual entries are distinguished solely by who-all Stallone has managed to coax into spending a few shooting days in sunny, economical Bulgaria this time. Interchangeable even within the narrow confines of their genre, each Expendables picture features indifferently shot and edited shooting and exploding, punctuated by interludes of jockish jocularity that screenwriters like William Goldman or Shane Black would've been called in to punch up back in the good old days. Now our best hope is that 'twas his silver pen that gave Jason Statham's knife-throwing specialist the line, "I now pronounce you man and knife!"īut this is not the Mission: Impossible series, wherein each iteration gives us a different strong filmmaker's recognizable, if minor, variation on the formula. Once upon a time, he wrote Rocky, a more mournful and sensitive film than you remember. Arnold Schwarzenegger, sporting an impressive array of loud shirts, an Oh God Don't Sneak Up on Me Like That haircut, and the estimable movie name Trench Mauser, emerges as the most GIFable of this swollen-necked band of brothers.Įach of the biannual Expendables missions has come from a different director, only one them named Stallone, who has writing credit on them all. Its latest iteration is best appreciated as the rich library of GIFs it seems destined to become. The Expendables series - basically what we'd get if Marvel released Iron Man, Thor and Captain America and then sat on The Avengers for 25 years or so - aims low and somehow still manages to underwhelm. The third installment in Sylvester Stallone's jobs program for expired action heroes is easily the best of the bunch, which is not to say it's any good. Just be glad it isn't The Expendables 3-D.
Kelsey Grammer (right) plays Bonaparte, a retired mercenary who assists Sylvester Stallone's Barney with recruiting new members of the Expendables team.
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