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The Expendables 3 - Movie Review

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3 stars

I knew we’d get to the third film in this series eventually. I just didn’t think we’d have to live through a disappointing sequel to get to it. While it certainly feels like a better entry in the series of aging action stars, The Expendables 3 doesn’t really learn from the mistakes of its immediate past. Some of the jokes are tired. The pacing is clunky and, while it recovers in the final 30 minutes, the film feels somewhat bloated – including some of the stars – as it races to its explosive finish.

Director Patrick Hughes amps up the vehicular mayhem and actually allows Sylvester Stallone a chance to act with some moments of authentic pathos on his world-weary face. Stallone might be monotone but his face is a chiseled story full of rage and woe and Hughes allows the camera to linger a bit more than usual so the emotion of the story resonates. While Jason Statham largely gets sidelined by his smirking sidekick status, the Stallone-penned script focuses on mortality as Barney’s team of go-to expendables find out that they might just be too old for one more round when one of them is seriously hurt after facing a familiar foe.

Barney has a tough choice to make.

Enter young guns Kellan Lutz, Ronda Rousey, Glen Powell and Victor Ortiz. While they don’t steal the show from beneath new-to-the-franchise players Harrison Ford and Antonio Banderas (who is a riot in his role), they do show a future path the franchise could follow should it continue forward (as it more than likely will if claims from Hulk Hogan and Pierce Brosnan are to be believed). It isn’t the newbies fault, mind you. They just don’t have the material to actually become characters but the glimmer of hope is there. The inclusion of the franchise’s first female is welcomed but Rousey’s witless shtick quickly gets ass-kickingly old.

Mel Gibson as Conrad Stonebanks, a ruthless arms dealer, tries to rationalize all the death he (and villains like him) dish out in conversation and, ironically enough, makes a lot of sense. Oh, he’s insane to be fair but, in this role, Gibson delivers a nice bite. Wesley Snipes essentially plays himself and there are even real-world references to his jail stint and quips and classic lines from other action movies – as the actor passes the screen - allow the audience to become a part of the team.

The old-school beefed up heroics are still there and Hughes does manage to surprise with a few of the action beats. It’s just too bad more fun and blood couldn’t be present on the screen. Outside of an ongoing gag between Statham and Ford and, of course, Banderas, the humor is a bit downplayed or simply a hit-and-miss affair with empty banter. On a curious note, there is very little blood. While the movie is exploding with violence, the lack of blood is shockingly ridiculous, which only adds to Gibson’s point about mass-killings. 

Hey, at least you get what you pay for. False advertising The Expendables 3 is not.

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[tab title="Film Details"]

The Expendables 3 - Movie Review

MPAA Rating: PG-13 for violence including intense sustained gun battles and fight scenes, and for language.
Runtime:
126 mins
Director
: Patrick Hughes
Writer:
Sylvester Stallone, Creighton Rothenberger
Cast:
Sylvester Stallone, Jason Statham, Jet Li
Genre
: Action | Adventure
Tagline:
Never send a boy to do a man's job.
Memorable Movie Quote: "You were stupid enough to get yourself into this mess! And we're the only ones crazy enough to get you out of it!"
Distributor:
Lionsgate
Official Site: http://theexpendables3film.com/
Release Date:
August 15, 2014
DVD/Blu-ray Release Date:
November 25, 2014.
Synopsis: The third installment of the action-adventure franchise that follows the exploits of Barney Ross, Lee Christmas, and their associates. Directed by Patrick Hughes, Sylvester Stallone, Jason Statham, Jet Li, Antonio Banderas, Wesley Snipes, Mel Gibson, Dolph Lundgren, Harrison Ford and Arnold Schwarzenegger.

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[tab title="Blu-ray Review"]

The Expendables 3 - Movie Review

Blu-ray

Blu-ray Details:

Available on Blu-ray - November 25, 2014
Screen Formats: 2.40:1
Subtitles
: English, English SDH, Spanish
Audio:
English: Dolby Atmos; Spanish: Dolby Digital 5.1
Discs: 50GB Blu-ray Disc; Two-disc set (1 BD, 1 DVD); UV digital copy; iTunes digital copy; DVD copy
Region Encoding: A

Like the previous two films, The Expendables 3 makes up for some of its story and acting shortcomings by delivering a technical presentation that can't be beat. In short, this is a truly spectacular high definition transfer. Lionsgate presents the film in its original 2.40:1 aspect ratio and it's a top shelf affair all the way around. Blacks are inky with exceptional shadow delineation. Skin tones look superb and fine detail is exceptional, particularly during the many facial close-ups. Not to be outdone, the audio portion of this Blu-ray presentation is gangbusters insane with thundering bass and explosions that shake the foundations. Lionsgate has gone the extra mile and carried The Expendables 3's Dolby Atmos soundtrack over to its Blu-ray release. If you don't have Dolby Atmos-capable hardware yet, don't fret. The additional height objects and surround enhancements of Atmos get layered on top of a Dolby TrueHD 7.1 foundation. This means that your existing hardware should have no problems with a Dolby Atmos soundtrack. Just be prepared for its power to demolish rooms and pictures hanging on walls.

Supplements:

Commentary:

  • Nope. The fellas got to the chopper before it could be recorded.

Special Features:

The unrated version has about five extra minutes of action and dialogue, and some of the fight scenes feel less choppy because scenes involving knife deaths weren’t trimmed as much as they were in the theatrical version. And while Harrison Ford had the only F-bomb in the original version, there is now a smattering of additional F-bombs. But the gushing crimson is still absent, nobody gets decapitated or eviscerated or blown up into meaty chunks, and the whole thing maintains its weirdly hygienic form of video game-style slaughter. It’s not a radically different edit, and other than the cusses, could probably have snuck by the film classification folks a second time. The special features on the Blu-ray/DVD release include an extended sequence where Jason Statham murders his way through a gauntlet of foes, including new shots where he uses one soldier as a human shield and kills another with a (bloodless, again) knife driven down through the poor sap’s shoulder. There are a few documentary and interview features and a gag reel as well – all perfectly fine, but not particularly surprising or insightful.

  • The Expendables 3 Documentary (52 min)
  • New Blood: Stacked and Jacked (16 min)
  • The Total Action Package (7 min)
  • Gag Reel (6 min)
  • Extended Scene: Christmas Runs the Gauntlet (3 min)

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