22nd Sep2023

‘Expend4bles’ Review

by Matthew Turner

Stars: Jason Statham, Sylvester Stallone, Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson, Megan Fox, Dolph Lundgren, Tony Jaa, Iko Uwais, Randy Couture, Jacob Scipio, Levy Tran, Andy García | Written by Kurt Wimmer, Tad Daggerhart, Max Adams | Directed by Scott Waugh

The Expendables return for a fourth instalment in the former-action-heroes-blowing-things-up franchise. This time around, the law of diminishing returns is in full effect – the bigger names from the previous films are conspicuous by their absence, the script is terrible even by the standards of the first three movies and the film largely wastes its two most exciting new cast members.

The plot, such as it is, sees Barney Ross (Sylvester Stallone), Lee Christmas (Jason Statham) and their team of mercenaries – including Gunner Jensen (Dolph Lundgren), Toll Road (Randy Couture), Easy Day (new recruit Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson) and Galan (Jacob Scipio), son of former Expendable Antonio Banderas – tasked with retrieving a cache of nukes from the hands of deadly mercenary Rahmat (martial artist Iko Uwais, star of The Raid). More importantly, Rahmat is said to be working for the mysterious Ocelot, a criminal mastermind who Barney failed to apprehend many years ago, at great personal cost.

However, something goes terribly wrong on the mission, and the death of a key member of the team triggers the release of secret documents which hold clues to Ocelot’s identity. With Christmas ordered to stay behind, his former girlfriend Gina (new addition Megan Fox) leads the remains of the team, plus their de facto boss CIA Agent Marsh (Andy Garcia) and new recruit Lash (Levy Tran), to a ship, piloted by Rahmat, who intends to start World War III on Ocelot’s command. Christmas isn’t one to obey orders though, so he pursues the team in secret, aided by Decha (martial artist Tony Jaa, star of Ong-Bak), a former colleague of Barney’s.

Given that the entire premise of the Expendables series revolves around a team of action heroes, the fourth instalment feels an awful lot like a Jason Statham movie. Indeed, he does the lion’s share of the action throughout, and the others hardly even get a look-in, even the ones that can actually fight.

On that note, it seems like a criminal waste to have both Tony Jaa and Iko Uwais in the movie – on opposite sides, no less – and not have them fight. Jaa doesn’t even get to fight Statham, even though a punch-up was clearly scripted, given the way their initial encounter plays out.

The other members of the cast are largely underserved too – it’s hard to see what 50 Cent saw in the role, for example, as Easy Day doesn’t even have a defining characteristic, let alone any decent lines or fight moves. Maybe he just wanted to show audiences that he’s bulked up a bit – he looks more like 75 Cents now.

Elsewhere, Megan Fox adds some much-needed glamour but doesn’t really convince in the leadership role. On top of that, her first scene, where she’s yelling at a bemused Statham and Stallone, is downright embarrassing and should probably have been rewritten. Still, at least she gets more to do than Statham’s previous love interests in the series – Charisma Carpenter in the first movie didn’t even get to punch anyone.

The script is dreadful on a number of levels, from dismal dialogue to weak jokes that fall painfully flat, as well as failing to establish an enjoyable rapport between the cast members, especially after a key member is removed. There’s also a problem with the tone, particularly in a misjudged final gag that involves the gruesome death of an essentially innocent person, albeit not a very nice one.

In fairness, Statham has enough charisma to effortlessly carry nonsense like this and he ensures that it’s never less than watchable. It’s also worth pointing out that the film delivers where it counts, in terms of punch-ups and explosions – the fights, in particular, are nicely staged, so that you can actually tell who’s hitting who, and they’re not ruined by poor editing, which is more than you can say for the gunfights.

** 2/5

Expend4bles is in cinemas now.

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