CONTINUED...
Basically, in a nutshell, from here on in, Stallone and his boys come back to South America to finish this job that ends up not being about the money, but about saving this girl from the clutches of the evil regimes and such down there; the idea is clichéd and corny and Stallone doesn’t quite execute it right, but the action set pieces more than make up for this weak script – Roberts plays a convincing villain, as he did in The Dark Knight, and Steve Austin is simply over the top as Roberts’ bodyguard, not speaking much but greatly feared as an awesome fighter with seemingly unlimited strength. The hand to hand combat and fight sequences between Austin and Stallone were some of the wildest ever put to celluloid, the two of these muscle headed freaks pummeling each other until they’re bloody pulp. In the meanwhile, the acrobatics and martial arts exhibited by the other guys in Stallone’s gang, specifically Jet Li and Jason Statham, are absolutely jaw dropping as these guys take out the dictator/general’s legion of soldiers and Roberts’ guys one by one in breathtaking action shots.
In the midst of all this chaos is a subplot involving Lundgren’s character and the possibility of his being a traitor to Stallone and his own men plus the aforementioned exciting sequence in which Statham’s character visits his gorgeous girlfriend only to find her with another man – when he later finds out she’s been smacked around by this guy, he tracks him down on a nearby basketball court and beats him and his buddies nearly to death in a great nail-biting scene guaranteed to get you on the edge of the seat.
On the surface, The Expendables seems like it just wouldn’t work – I mean, Stallone, Lundgren, Austin, Statham and Jet Li working together as some tough guy circus? Most of these guys should be drinking Metamucil and looking at Depends…but surprisingly, the end result was loaded with exciting action and didn’t disappoint on that front. There were a ton of plot holes you couldn’t even stuff up with Jennifer Lopez’s derriere, plus disappointing, empty “performances” by Willis, “The Governator” and Rourke, but the film as a whole wasn’t nearly as bad as I expected.
If nothing else, it was cool to see Lundgren and Stallone on the screen together again, albeit as two aging prunes.
VIDEO QUALITY ANALYSIS: HOW DID THE DISC LOOK?
Shot in a 2.40:1 frame, Stallone’s The Expendables comes from Lionsgate as a mostly solid effort – of course, the usual brightly lit, outdoor sequences exploded with detail and color, and the close-ups of characters’ faces were astounding in how the 1080p encode brought out the blemishes of these aging action stars. Unfortunately, this was also the downfall of the transfer in many ways, in that we don’t really need to see every bump, mole, nick and crevice on the faces of old war horses like Stallone and Rourke – and this transfer exposed them in all their nauseating glory. There was one sequence in particular that oozed with eye popping detail and clarity – well, actually, it was more like a moment, when Stallone’s character is in South America talking with the dictator’s daughter, and he looks towards the sky. This brief clip really showed the scope of the 2.40:1 frame, displaying the striking contrast in the blue and cloud mixed sky beyond, the dazzling greens of the fields behind the characters and an overall depth and immersion that’s difficult to explain.
Black levels exhibited minor moments of crush, but other sequences displayed solid shadow detail. There were moments during the transfer in which a foggy, wispy softness crept into the image, rendering the overall effect a bit…well…soft, and un-high-def-like, but I am chalking this up to photography issues/choices, and not necessarily a fault of Lionsgate’s transfer.
AUDIO QUALITY ANALYSIS: HOW DID THE DISC SOUND?
With all the hoopla swirling around the surround enthusiast camps with regard to which A/V receiver or processor manufacturer is going to launch the unit with the most available amp channels – compounded by the explosion of the “height” and “width” channel algorithms and support – one would think the latest media would be coming out in 11.1 channels on the soundtrack side. Amazingly, the staple 5.1 arrangement soldiers on, accounting for nearly every new release with regard to their accompanying soundtrack mix – here, Lionsgate has included a 7.1 DTS-HD Master Audio track in English, which was collapsed In my system for 5.1. No matter, the sonic mayhem that you’d expect to parallel the visual mayhem on the disc was here in spades, albeit with that “restrained” quality Lionsgate seems to release their titles with.
It’s not something I can readily explain in words, and it’s very tempting to of course jump to blame my setup and gear – but there’s just something “off” about most of the Lionsgate tracks I review. Now, this could possibly be due to the “dumbing down” effect of going from a 7.1 channel encode to a 5.1 variant, but I don’t put a lot of stock in something like this accounting for what I actually experience. The effect is akin to as if there’s a sonic blanket on the audio, not really allowing it to open up and breathe – don’t get me wrong, The Expendables’ audio track wasn’t lacking. There was just something that could have given it a bit more kick.
At any rate, all the variables are here for a memorable action experience – the gunfire, score, explosions, plane flyovers…all these elements are thrown into the appropriate channels by this Master Audio mix, making good use of the rear soundstage to fortify the onscreen action. Dialogue wasn’t a problem – but I did find this to be an issue on the other disc I demoed before this, Warner Bros.’ Inception, which I am reviewing next. Getting back to The Expendables, the Master Audio track was pretty much explosive from beginning to end, really opening up and strutting its stuff during the final action sequences involving the renegade mercenaries and Roberts’ bad guys. Here, audible lunacy ran wild, what with shattering glass, zinging bullets and pounding machine gun fire and percussive explosions wrapping around the soundstage in quite the coherent manner.
EXTRAS:
Ultimate Recon Mode; Audio Commentary; Inferno: The Making of The Expendables; From The Ashes: Postproduction and Release Documentary; Comic-Con 2010 Panel; Deleted Scene; Gag Reel; Marketing Archive
SUMMARY & RECOMMENDATIONS:
Good, solid, braindead action – and I vote it action film of the year. As for a buy – well, the verdict is still out on that one in my household. Discussing it with my wife, we just don’t know if this was worthy of a purchase, regardless of the mind numbing action sets; it was good, just not that memorable…that may be a bit harsh, and I don’t mean to make it seem that way, but give it a rental and tell me what you think.
