Expendables 3

Expendables 3

The original Expendables was like a breath of fresh air to the long since stagnant action genre, an all star shoot em up tribute to the days long past where the action films of the 1980s were true cinematic masterpieces featuring some actual stars from that era proving that they could still kick that ass. But it was something more between the setpieces, a moody meditative drama about the dire effect that a lifetime of violence could have on an individual and his conscience which was especially notable in one unforgettable piece of acting by Mickey Rourke. Rourke (still alive at the conclusion of the first film) and his character would be MIA for the rest of the series (so far) and unfortunately Part 2 would regress back to being amongst the dumbest and most brain dead of action fare, an affair where the surprisingly good writing would go onto the back burner in favor of a mindless, pointless shoot em up plot which only served as an excuse to set up a showdown between Sylvester Stallone’s Barney Ross and Jean Claude Van Damme as the film’s primary villain, not to mention an unwelcome shift towards straight up comedy / self parody as we even got the sight of Arnold Schwarzenegger and Bruce Willis mocking each other with their own trademark catchphrases. Fast forward to Part 3 where Stallone (no longer serving as director at this point but still wielding a lot of power creatively) decided not only to make an honest attempt to bring a quality script along this time but also to beef up the “all star cast” dynamic GREATLY, literally recruiting every action star past and present that he could find to take up a role here. And in that he succeeded, bringing back both himself and Schwarzenegger as Ross and best friend / bitter rival Trench along with Jason Statham as Christmas, Dolph Lundgren as the hulking Gunner, Jet Li (very briefly appearing here as he also barely did in Part 2) as martial arts expert Yin Yang, Randy Couture as the dim witted but wanting to be smart Toll Road, and Terry Crews as the supergun sporting Hale Caesar. But when Willis (as shadowy CIA contact Church) balked at an offer of $3 million dollars for only 4 days work and counteroffered that he would do it for $4 million instead, the producers balked right back at him and quickly brought in Harrison Ford (if anything an even bigger name) to replace him as the new CIA guy. But there was more casting work to be done: the writers conceived a character of a misfit operative whom nobody wanted to work with who has a bad habit of constantly talking and always acting like a little kid and then cast that part with Antonio Banderas, using him as comic relief here whom Stallone begrudgingly allows to come along even as he proves to be more than proficient in the action scenes when it comes to killing people. Then there was Kelsey Grammer being brought in (in what a lot of people figured must have been Rourke’s spot) to play a sort of recruiter for Black Ops Special Forces guys (which is all these characters really are anyway) playing it sly and close to the vest as he rounds up new team members. The movie opens with the crew attacking a prison transport train which contains onboard someone who turns out to be a long lost member of Stallone’s crew, none other than the very welcome Wesley Snipes as Doctor Death (or just plain Doc), like Statham a knife throwing extraordinaire who not only brings some much welcome attitude to the film, but within the first 20 minutes (even though this is Snipes’ first appearance in an Expendables film) becomes fully established as being as much a member of the team as Lundgren or Couture (and introducing Snipes by breaking him out of a non existent prison for Black Ops over a botched political assassination is especially ironic since in real life Snipes had actually just served 3 years in prison for tax evasion which is actually referenced in the dialogue jokingly). As stated, Stallone goes to Grammer at one point for help in recruiting new team members (Glen Powell, Victor Ortiz, Kellan Lutz and Ronda Rousey) and this is where the film stumbles and falls badly as three out of the four new team members are quickly forgotten by the viewer almost immediately after their first scene (but stick around anyway) with the obvious exception being Rousey with her badass tough as nails but still a babygirl charisma that might just carry her a long way through an acting career (as she is currently wasting her potential by being part of the wrestling industry) but the unhealthy vibe being given off by the film that what we are seeing is the “next generation” of Expendables (presumably when the current crop either dies or is just too damn old to continue making these films) is offset by the very real idea that none of them (except Rousey) could ever carry these types of films on their own and even with Rousey it’s kind of ridiculous imagining her as a member of any kind of elite Black Ops Special Forces Unit. But the best part of all of this is saved for last: whereas Van Damme did an adequate job in Part 2 of playing the bad guy (and both Eric Roberts and Stone Cold Steve Austin were exceptionally good at filling those roles in Part 1), here in Part 3 Stallone would run with the idea at not only having the primary villain be a former Special Forces guy, but also having him be the literal co founder with Stallone of The Expendables themselves before leaving to become an international arms dealer only to have had (as expected) Stallone sent after him, causing the deaths of three team members who were like brothers to the both of them, leading to a seething hatred that would never die and the absolutely brilliant casting choice of Mel Gibson in the part. Gibson manages the not so mean feat of not only playing the hatable bad guy but also taking on the role of being (arguably) the voice of moral outrage in the story, perhaps rightfully labeling Stallone as being a hypocrite who makes a living in killing people for money yet still thinks of himself as being a good guy or at least a better person than Gibson. But the irony is that Gibson got tired of living the life as a ruthless mercenary for hire accepting “low end money” in order to do The American Government’s dirty work for them and sees himself now as having merely moved up to the next level (although as an arms dealer he’s shown as having a reluctance to sell nuclear weapons for obvious reasons), ironically seeing Stallone as the real traitor for having come after him previously and gotten three of their guys killed in doing so (something that Gibson seems to take legitimate offense at Stallone having done) and thus having his own motivation for revenge as well. In fact, a scene on a transport truck featuring a bound Gibson telling Stallone how he feels about him stands out as being the single best bit in the whole series, which all stands to raise the question that while yeah sure, Gibson “went dark” and chose to become very, very rich in selling weapons to anyone who could afford them, we as viewers start to cast a very severe eye on Stallone himself (close to 70 at the time of filming as no doubt his character is too) and wonder just how exactly (also as per Rourke’s monologue in Part 1 about why he got out of it) he can still choose to live this life doing what he’s doing at his age, something which is not so much a problem for the younger guys but then there is also the disturbing possibility which is raised that he only recruited the newer team members to use as cannon fodder in his personal quest of vengeance against Gibson (who if not necessarily a good person at least has his priorities in order) which of course all leads up to the Main Event as God intended in Rambo vs Riggs, again with this being a battle not just between two movie characters but also the personas of the two actors playing them. Gibson made a very smart decision taking on high profile bad guy roles after his recent alcohol related scandals of the last few years (although he doesn’t get to call Rousey “sugar tits” when given the chance) and the fact that he gets more cerebral with his villainy (unlike Van Damme or Austin who were just flat out killers and Roberts who was a suit and tie capitalist exploiting poor people) once again gives this story the intelligence that it was lacking in Part 2, easily taking the prize as having the franchise’s best villain and leaving open some hope that there’s still enough gas in the tank here with the new cast additions to keep this thing rolling along…

8/10

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