‘Expendables 3’: slammed with stacked cast

Sylvester Stallone’s third installment of his “Expendables”  movie franchise is a good way to round out the action-packed trilogy.

Combining all of the films, the trilogy has almost every major action star from the past two-and-a-half decades.

Yes, the script is simple and filled to the brim with classic action movie one-liners – such as Arnold Schwarzenegger yelling, ”Get to the chopper,” or Wesley Snipes responding, “Tax evasion,”  on why he was thrown into a military prison. That’s what you want in a good action flick. Harrison Ford is a good replacement and pulls off a better performance than Bruce Willis, his predecessor from the past two films. Ford’s sarcastic wit and serious undertone makes for a more believable C.I.A. boss.

Most of the gang (Stallone, Schwarzenegger, Jason Statham, Dolph Lundgren, Terry Crews, and Randy Couture are back, along with some new additions (Snipes, Kelsey Grammer, Antonio Banderas, and Victor Ortiz) for “The Expendables 3.” Mel Gibson plays the main antagonist, as a former Expendable from years prior, who was believed to be dead and is now an arms dealer.

With no love lost between him and Stallone (they banter back and forth in a helicopter, with Gibson goading Stallone to let him go or settle it all), it makes it easier for Stallone to have a personal vendetta against Gibson.

Gibson’s villain performance is pretty damn spot-on. His character shows ruthless aggression against anyone and everyone, even shooting a half-dozen of his own men point-blank just to prove a point – definitely comparable to Jean-Claude Van Dammes’ performance from “The  Expendibles 2.”

Snipes is a good addition, to cast a dry sense of humor while kicking ass. But it was none other than Bandaras who steals the show with great comedic timing. His character also pushes for someone to hire him, even though he is over the hill. It was good to see both Bandaras and Snipes back in an action movie. The action was over-the-top, and the ending was decent, employing a mildly clever plot twist.

All in all, you can tell the cast had fun making the movie, which makes it worth seeing in my opinion. That’s why I give it a 3.5 out of 5 stars.

Seen better. Seen worse. You be the judge.

Advocate Staff