The Expendables II-review

This movie is hilarious.  If you go into “The Expendables II” knowing that what you are getting is aging, action, stars kicking ass and throwing one-liners, then this movie will be a real treat for you. If you want an action movie that you can take seriously, this is not going to be your cup-o-tea.  Suspension of disbelief is needed along with a desire to see huge men shoot, stab, and maim their enemies like the days when meat-headed action movies roamed the cinema like dinosaurs in a Jurassic jungle.

The Expendables are back.  After a successful mission to Nepal the team is called to retrieve an item from a safe inside a plane that was shot down in Albania.  Once they get the item the team is captured and the newest member, Billy, is killed by the villain Jean Vilain, played by Jean Claude Van Damme (a character with one of the funniest names for a villain outside of a Bond movie).  The Expendables vow vengeance for their fallen comrade and the hunt begins to find and kill Vilain.

The action in this movie is intense.  There is a ton of fun shoot-‘em up scenes, intense fights, and great one-on-one mashes that make this pretty damn cool.  Loads of explosions followed by one-liners that would make any action fan proud.  Sylvester Stallone and Jean Claude Van Damme have a really awesome fight at the end that is like something out of the movie “Commando.” Jet Li is impressive as usual, but sadly he is barely in the movie as his character gets written out fairly quickly.

New to the team we get Maggie, played by Yu Nan. She does a good job playing the tech girl with some romantic interest in Stallone.  Van Damme is hilarious; always surrounded by a minion who looks like the Soup Nazi. He is over the top in the best way possible.  He says his lines like they were crafted by Shakespeare. Then, even when it’s truly inconvenient, he delivers a roundhouse kick for no reason except that it looks cool.  He is sinister; a lot of fun to watch, and much more of a threat then Eric Roberts and Stone Cold Steve Austin were in the previous film.

The original “The Expendables” seemed to be trying a more serious tone.  This one went right for the comedic jugular and it works in a big way.  It is way better action movie and it feels like it’s well put together with less faux maudlin scenes to try to evoke a “war is hell” attitude out of the audience.  If you are a fan of action comedies from the 1980-90s then “The Expendables II” will satisfy you in just the right way.