The Expendables 3 (DVD) – Movie Review
Sylvester Stallone and his group of fossils are reunited once again in the third installment of the Expendables. By now, everyone should now what these movies are about: guns, shooting, one-liners, explosions: all the ingredients for a decent action movie. It goes without saying that people who are unable to shut down their brains for a about two hours shouldn’t even bother tuning in for this. For everybody else, you’ll get a pretty standard action movie, with a lot of recognisable faces.
Similar to its predecessors, The Expendables 3 starts with a rescue mission. Instead of hostages however, the rescue target is former Expandable “Doctor Death” (Wesley Snipes). Also unchanged is the team’s lay-out: Barney Ross (Sylvester Stallone) is still the leader of the crew. Lee Christmas (Jason Statham), Gunnar Jensen (Dolph Lundgren), Toll Road (Randy Couture) and Hale Caesar (Terry Crews) follow his every lead and join him in fighting the baddies.
After a successful rescue (we’d say spoiler warning, but if you didn’t know that, you really ought to watch another movie), the team moves out to intercept a shipment of bombs, which will be delivered to a warlord in Somalia. Once arrived, Ross discovers that the arms trader who is supplying the lethal weapons is none other than Conrad Stonebanks (Mel Gibson), the co-former of The Expendables who was presumed death. Stonebanks has advanced weaponry, which forced the Expendables to retreat. Sadly, Caesar gets seriously injured during this retreat.
Back in the States, Max Drummer (Harrison Ford) – a CIA man who has connections with the Expendables – asks Ross to deliver Stonebanks to the Hague International Criminal Court, so he can be sentenced for his crimes against humanity. Not willing to sacrifice his long term friends, Ross disbands the Expendables and attempts to find a new crew to go after Stonebanks. Helping him assembles his new crew is Bonaparte (Kelsey Grammer). 
Story wise The Expandable 3 follows the same checklist as the two previous movies. This creates a lot of moments were you go “oh, we’ve been here before”. It isn’t the best one from the franchise (that’s the second one), but still allows for a relaxing evening with some cheap violence. It is sad that, with a cast that impressive, you end up leaving disappointed in the scale of the movie. It certainly feels like the movie is missing something to make it really stand out. It never achieves the greatness of 80’s and 90’s action movies.
The biggest change in The Expendables 3 is the cast. With Harrison Ford, Mel Gibson and Kelsey Grammer, some more Hollywood legends join the already impressive line-up. If you add up the presence of Trench Mauser (Arnold Schwarzenegger), Yin Yang (Jet Li) and even Galgo (Antonio Banderas), you get a very strong and accomplished team of all-stars. Fighting to step out of their shadows, the youngsters of the replacement team do everything they can not to fall behind. John Smilee (Kellan Lutz), Luna (Ronda Rousey), Thorn (Glen Powell) and Mars (Victor Ortiz) come from a relative low background, but they mostly do an impressive job of keeping up with the old testosterone.
Powell and Rousey both come from fighting sports. Powell is a former WBC Welterweight Champion and Rousey got a bronze medal in judo at the 2008 Olympics. She then entered MMA and ranked up ten straight wins since then. Their actions scenes are pretty stellar, but you can clearly tell they’re not used to being actors, especially when comparing them to the experienced co-stars. Out of the youngsters, it’s Lutz that gives the best performance. Of course, the focus on the “new generation” will annoy a lot of people who came to watch Sly and the others tear shit up. Still, the newbies are decent enough and the movie makes sure old and young alike get their moment in the sun.
The award for best performance in The Expendables 3 goes to Mel Gibson. Every time he is on the screen you can feel the tension rising. The movie would’ve scored a lot higher if the rest of the cast was as on point as Gibson was.
The Expendables is directed by Patrick Hughes. It was his first big movie and he does an alright job. There’s less focus on humor, and a bit more focus on drama and tension, but the action is still the most important bit of the flick.
Conclusion
The Expendables 3 continues the trend started by The Expendables. It includes all the action movie segments (fist fights, knife fights, gun fights, …), but doesn’t add a lot of extra value. The impressive cast is always entertaining to watch, but at the same time you want to see them do everything just a little bit better. Maybe everything was better back in the old days.
The Expendables 3 (DVD) - Movie Review,
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