Once again, action megastar Sylvester Stallone has assembled a ragtag bunch of hard-luck heroes to save the world by killing as many people as cholera, but in a much shorter timeframe. Hang onto your berets, action fans, because Expend4bles is hitting cinemas on September 22.
This time Sly’s Barney Ross is taking a back seat, with Jason Statham’s knife-wielding Lee Christmas leading the gang on a mission to thwart a terrorist mastermind from starting a nuclear war between Russia and the US.
Unfortunately for all involved, said terrorist, Suarto, is played by The Raid’s Iko Uwais, which realistically means the entire Expendables roster is wiped out and the total runtime is about 20 minutes, including trailers. As anyone who’s seen Mile 22 knows, having run-of-the-mill action stars hold their own against Indonesia’s deadliest export is hell on the audience’s suspension of disbelief.
It should be a fun 20 minutes, though! Expendables mainstays Dolph Lundgren and Randy Couture are back in the fold, while Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson, Jacob Scipio (Bad Boys for Life), and Levy Tran (The Haunting of Hill House) are new members Easy Day, Galan, and Lash, respectively. We also get Andy Garcia and Megan Fox as a couple of CIA agents, plus Ong Bak legend Tony Jaa in an as-yet undisclosed role, presumably on hand in case Iko needs any help reducing the core cast to a fine, pink mist.
While they’re never as good as the concept and trailers suggest they should be, the Expendables flicks are dependable meat ‘n’ potatoes action fare, and there’s always an audience for well-orchestrated cinematic chaos. Plus, reports indicate that this will be Stallone’s last outing as Barney Ross, with any future instalments centring on Statham’s Lee Christmas. So, if you want to see Barney on the big screen one last time before he’s eviscerated by Iko, this might be your only shot.
