THE EXPENDABLES trailer promises action, mumbled dialogue

THE EXPENDABLES trailer promises action, mumbled dialogue

Apr 06

 

The 80s was an important time for the action film. The format became popular during that decade, and spawned careers for many physically-imposing actors that are now household names, such as Bruce Willis, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Sylvester Stallone, Jean-Claude Van Damme, and so on. So in keeping with the 80s throwback that has become so popular lately, Sylvester Stallone is returning to his roots to bring us a big, dumb, loud action movie filled with equally big, dumb, loud action movie stars from the past few decades. Excellent.

The plot of The Expendables is almost irrelevant. Something about a team of hardcore mercenaries taking on a hard job that’ll do the world some good in the long run, or something — what matters is the team put together to do the mission. Sly himself leads the pack (also taking the director’s chair), surrounding himself with wrestlers, martial artists and gruff macho blokes ranging from Jet Li, Jason Statham and Dolph Lundgren to Randy Couture, Steve Austin and Terry Crews. Mickey Rourke even shows up as what appears to be the mission-giver, and the trailer spoils a bit of the Schwarzenegger / Willis cameo that had action fans so salivating when it was hinted at in interviews last year.

The only odd man out is David Zayas, who plays the obligatory ethnic baddie — Zayas has come a long way from his role as Angel Batista on TV’s excellent Dexter (find Fweebo!). And there’s an obligatory love interest (for Statham’s character, at least) as well — Giselle Iltié is the lucky lass that gets to contaminate the overwhelmingly testosterone-swamped pool with a little oestrogen. Whether or not she’s in any way useful to the story remains to be seen.

Anyone who saw the latest Rambo flick probably knows what to expect from Sly’s latest: gratuitous, cartoony, graphic violence that fills the third act from wall to wall. That movie was surprisingly entertaining, for what is essentially a dismemberment VFX reel, so hopefully the same sense of silly cartoonishness will pervade The Expendables. The trailer is a little worrisome, what with the gravel-gargling voiceover and disjointed character introductions, but I have a sneaking suspicion that the real tone and content of the film isn’t very well represented in this trailer. Sly’s dedication to real stunts and practical special effects over more modern digital methods is commendable, and I guess we’ll get to see precisely how worthwhile the techniques are when we get to see the flick in its entirety.

As for me — well, it’s got Arnie in it, so I can’t not see it.

The Expendables hits US screens on the 13th of August, 2010; expect UK and Australian releases within a week or two of that date