Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.

Expendables 2, The

Collapse
X
Collapse
  •  
    Ian Jane
    Administrator

  • Expendables 2, The



    Released by: Lionsgate
    Released on: November 20, 2012.
    Director: Simon West
    Cast: Sylvester Stallone, Jason Statham, Dolph Lundgren, Jean-Claude Van Damme
    Year: 2012
    Purchase From Amazon

    The Movie:

    Directed by Simon West after Sylvester Stallone, who wrote, directed and played the lead in the first film 'almost killed himself' working on that earlier film, The Expendables 2 more or less picks up where the first movie left off and throws a few new cast members into the mix for a second story packed with action, humor and carnage.

    After a pretty impressive intro where Barney Ross (Stallone) and his band of mercenaries - Lee Christmas (Jason Statham), Yin Yang (Jet Li), Gunnar Jenson (Dolph Lundgren), Hale Caeser (Terry Crews), Toll Road (Randy Couture) and Billy The Kid (Liam Hemsworth) - rescue Trench (Arnold Schwarzenegger) and blow up a bridge, they head back to friendly territory for a little rest and relaxation. Billy tells Barney that he's going to leave the group to get married but soon Ross gets a phone call from C.I.A. operative Church (Bruce Willis) strongarming him into taking his team on a mission for him. It seems that a plane has gone down near China containing a safe and that in that safe there is something Church needs. He's going to send along an expert, Maggie (Nan Yu), to help them crack that safe and they're going to return the contents to him. As Church says, this should be an easy mission for the team and in return, he'll keep them out of Gitmo.

    Without any other real option, the team saddle up and take the next flight east. They find the plane, get the goods and head on their way… until they run into a group of mercenaries lead by a man named Vilain (Jean-Claude Van Damme) who kills Billy and takes the contents of the safe. Apparently these are blueprints for an old uranium mine leftover from the cold war and he's going to use them to cash in on the plutonium that still exists there. Ross and his team swear revenge and head into Eastern Europe to stop Vilain but soon wind up having to help the female residents of a nearby local in saving their men, who Vilain has kidnapped and forced to work in the mine. Lots of stuff blows up, lots of people get shot.

    Heavy on action and light on story, as imperfect as The Expendables 2 may be, it's hard not to have a good time with this one. Yes, the story is riddled with clichés and logic gaps, even a few unresolved storylines (Jet Li jumps out of a plane in the opening sequence and never reappears - what?) but there's so much gratuitous ass kicking and carnage on screen that you can't help but enjoy it. Those raised on the eighties action films that inspired the movie will doubtlessly get the most out of this, though the numerous references to the past films of the key cast members seem out of place and forced.

    As far as the performances go? They're fun. Stallone leads the charge and is his typically charismatic self. He's got the right balance of charisma and courage to make the part his own and the back and forth between he and Statham, his right hand man, is the source of much good humor. Supporting efforts from Lundgren, Crews and Couture are also good, though as mentioned, Jet Li is really underused here and despite being billed near the top his appearance is little more than a cameo. Nan Yu is likeable enough as the only real female character in the movie (Charisma Carpenter shows up briefly but doesn't have much to do), handling herself very well in the action scenes and supporting efforts from Willis and Schwarzenegger are enjoyable if way too self referential (subtlety is not a strongpoint of this movie or of its cast). Chuck Norris shows up a few times, making a 'Chuck Norris facts' joke and puzzlingly accompanied by cues from Morricone's score from The Good, The Bad And The Ugly. Again, it's amusing but forced, the point was seemingly to have Norris in the movie rather than have him add to the movie, but it's Chuck on the big screen kicking ass again and that counts for something.

    The real scene stealer here is Jean-Claude Van Damme. Clad all in black and sporting dark sunglasses he's not really stretching much as an actor here but he brings a distinct sense of cool to the role, taking it just seriously enough to work. He was the right choice for the villain and he's got a great fight scene in the film's 'big finish' that makes you wonder if maybe the time has come for him to headline another theatrical feature after his string of straight to video movies (many of which are quite good).

    Simon West's flair for staging impressive action set pieces is a driving factor here, as the film starts off with a bang and surprisingly manages to keep that pace going pretty much throughout the rest of the film. Logic and realism be damned, they don't really matter here so it seems pointless lamenting their absence. The film is impressive on a technical level, loaded with a lot of great stunts (and, it has to be said, some goofy CGI) as it barrels at you full steam ahead delivering pretty much exactly what you'd expect and what you'd want out of a movie like this.

    Video/Audio/Extras:

    The Expendables 2 arrives on Blu-ray from Lionsgate in an AVC encoded 2.35.1 widescreen presentation in 1080p high definition. Image quality is very strong here in a lot of ways, though the movie has obviously been heavily filtered a bit to give it a gritty look. This works well in the context of the story that is being told but sometimes makes things look a bit off. Detail can generally be very strong, color reproduction is excellent even if the movie sometimes makes use of a dark color palette while skin tones usually look pretty good here (if occasionally a little leathery? Look at Sly's face in the movie then compare it to his face in the featurettes!). Black levels are good but the movie as whole just has an odd sort of soft look to it. With that said, this seems to be a pretty accurate represention of how the movie is supposed to look.

    The main audio option for the movie is an English language DTS-HD 7.1 Master Audio track, though there is also an English language Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo mix included and a Spanish dubbed track in Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound. Optional subtitles are provided in English, English SDH and Spanish. It's also worth noting that this disc is the first Blu-ray to be encoded with DTS Neo:X, which apparently optimizes the audio encode for those capable of playing back 11.1 audio.

    As to the merits of the 7.1 mix here, it's just as bombastic as you'd expect it to be. Bullets fly past you in all directions, explosions hit your subwoofer hard and result in some very strong bass and there's loads of surround activity throughout the entire movie. Dialogue somehow manages to stay clear throughout, there are no problems understanding the performers here at all. The score is mixed in perfectly with the music accentuating things very nicely and of course, as should expected, there are no problems with any hiss or distortion here. This is very impressive stuff.

    Extras start off with a commentary track that comes courtesy of director Simon West. One thing that's obvious very early on is that West loves action movies. He's very much a fan of the past output from his cast and he's got a lot of respect for the action movies that came before him. At any rate, West has some good stories to share here as to how he came on board to direct, what it was like working with so many action movie legends, difficulties in some of the action scenes and effects intensive scenes, shooting on location and more. He's a pretty affable guy and easy enough to listen to, which makes this track an enjoyable one.

    From there, we move on to the featurettes, the first of which is Gods Of War: Assembling Earth's Mightiest Antiheroes. This piece lets Stallone talk about how he went about assembling the cast for the movie, why he bowed out as director for this second film, the difficulties that arose in trying to get so many working actors on the same schedule for the movie and more. It's a decent look behind the scenes of the movie and worth checking out.

    Also quite fun is Big Guns, Bigger Heroes: The 1980s And The Rise Of The Action Film. Here we get some cultural and historical input from a couple of authors and historians as to why action movies took off the way they did. We start with a bit about the increase in violent films in the seventies before exploring the rise of patriotism when Reagan took office, after which comparisons are made to the old westerns that played a part in inspiring movies like First Blood and Commando. Discussions here cover how and why Schwarzenegger was made for roles like The Terminator and Conan and how he wanted to branch out a bit with Commando and the appeal of anti-communist films at the time. Ron Reagan Jr. even pops up here to talk about his father for a bit. It's a good piece that lends some cultural insight into the history of the guys who made the feature.

    Getting back to reality, we get a featurette called On The Assault: The Real Life Weaponry Of The Expendables. This isn't as interesting as it might sound but those with an interest in firearms will appreciate it. Basically this is Randy Couture at a firearms range in Las Vegas trying out and explaining the intricacies of the various guns that are used in the movie. Guns For Hire: The Real Expendables is a look at some real world mercenaries and their exploits and the dangers involved in their careers.

    Rounding out the extras are a few deleted scenes (none of which change the film all that much but are worth watching), a legitimately amusing blooper reel and trailers for a few other Lionsgate properties. A Digital Copy and an Ultraviolet version of the feature are also included as are menus and chapter stops. All of the extras on the disc are presented in high definition.

    The Final Word:

    The very definition of a big dumb action movies, The Expendables 2 doesn't take itself too seriously and neither should you. Yes, certain cast members are underused and yes the movie deals in one cliché after another but that doesn't really take away from the fun. Fast paced, humorous and chock full of stuff blowin' up real good, the movie is a kick and Lionsgate's Blu-ray looks and sounds just as awesome as you'd hope it would. Throw in some quality extras too and this release earns top marks all around.

    Click on the images below for full sized Blu-ray screen caps!












































      Posting comments is disabled.

    Latest Articles

    Collapse

    • Hot Spur (Severin Films) Blu-ray Review
      Ian Jane
      Administrator
      by Ian Jane


      Released by: Severin Films
      Released on: April 30th, 2024.
      Director: Lee Frost
      Cast: Joseph Mascolo, Virginia Goodman, John Alderman
      Year: 1969
      Purchase From Amazon

      Hot Spur – Movie Review:

      Director Lee Frost and Producer Bob Cresse's film, Hot Spur, opens in Texas in 1869 with a scene where a pair of cowboys wanders into a bar where they call over a pretty Mexican waitress and coerce her into dancing for them. She obliges, but
      ...
      03-22-2024, 11:53 AM
    • Death Squad (Mondo Macabro) Blu-ray Review
      Ian Jane
      Administrator
      by Ian Jane


      Released by: Mondo Macabro
      Released on: April 9th, 2024.
      Director: Max Pecas
      Cast: Thierry de Carbonnières, Jean-Marc Maurel, Denis Karvil, Lillemour Jonsson
      Year: 1985
      Purchase From Amazon

      Death Squad – Movie Review:

      Also known as Brigade Of Death, French sleaze auteur Max Pecas’ 1985 film, Death Squad, opens with a night time scene outside of Paris in the Bois de Boulogne Forest where cars pass by a small gang of transsexual
      ...
      03-22-2024, 11:46 AM
    • Roommates (Quality X) Blu-ray Review
      Ian Jane
      Administrator
      by Ian Jane


      Released by: Quality X
      Released on: February 28th, 2024.
      Director: Chuck Vincent
      Cast: Samantha Fox, Vernoica Hart, Kelly Nichols, Jerry Butler, Jamie Gillis
      Year: 1982
      Purchase From Amazon

      Roommates – Movie Review:

      Directed by Chuck Vincent and released in 1982, Roommates opens with a scene where a young woman named Joan Harmon (Veronica Hart) gets a hotel room with an older man named Ken (Don Peterson, credited as Phil Smith),
      ...
      03-15-2024, 01:10 PM
    • Night Of The Blood Monster (Blue Underground) UHD/Blu-ray Review
      Ian Jane
      Administrator
      by Ian Jane


      Released by: Blue Underground
      Released on: March 26th, 2024.
      Director: Jess Franco
      Cast: Christopher Lee, Maria Rohm, Dennis Price
      Year: 1970
      Purchase From Amazon

      Night Of The Blood Monster – Movie Review:

      Directed by Jess Franco, The Bloody Judge (or, Night Of The Blood Monster, as it is going by on this new release from Blue Underground) isn't quite the salacious exercise in Eurotrash you might expect it to be, and while it
      ...
      03-15-2024, 01:07 PM
    • Phase IV (Vinegar Syndrome) UHD/Blu-ray Review
      Ian Jane
      Administrator
      by Ian Jane


      Released by: Vinegar Syndrome
      Released on: March 26th, 2024.
      Director: Saul Bass
      Cast: Nigel Davenport, Michael Murphy, Lynne Frederick, Alan Gifford, Robert Henderson, Helen Horton
      Year: 1974
      Purchase From Amazon

      Phase IV – Movie Review:

      Saul Bass’ 1974 sci-fi/thriller Phase IV is an interesting blend of nature run amuck stereotypes and Natural Geographic style nature footage mixed into one delicious cocktail of suspense and
      ...
      03-15-2024, 01:02 PM
    • The Bounty Hunter Trilogy (Radiance Films) Blu-ray Review
      Ian Jane
      Administrator
      by Ian Jane


      Released by: Radiance Films
      Released on: March 26th, 2024.
      Director: Shigehiro Ozawa, Eiichi Kudo
      Cast: Tomisaburo Wakayama, Minoru Ôki, Arashi Kanjuro, Bin Amatsu, Chiezo Kataoka
      Year: 1969-1972
      Purchase From Amazon

      The Bounty Hunter Trilogy – Movie Review:

      Radiance Films gathers together the three films in Toie Studios’ Bounty Hunter Trilogy, starring the inimitable Tomisaburo Wakayama. Here’s how the three movies in this
      ...
      03-13-2024, 11:30 AM
    Working...
    X