Friday, August 31, 2012

Expendables 2


Rating : 4/10
Release Date : 24th August, 2012
Time : 103 minutes
Director : Simon West; Writer : Richard Wenk, Sylvester Stallone; Music : Brian Tyler
Starring : Sylvester Stallone, Arnold Schwarznegger, Bruce Willis, Jean Claude Van Damme, Chuck Norris, Dolph Lungdren, Jason Statham, Jet Li, Liam Hemsworth, Nan Yu


23,645 rounds of ammunition fired. 17 grenades. 56 bombs, missiles. 27 knives. 139 body count. 44 structures destroyed. And a story flimsy enough to accommodate all of that and the combined destructive talents of Stallone, Schwarznegger, Willis, Norris, Van Damme accompanied by the relatively newer lot of Statham, Jet Li et all.

This is an attempt to recreate Avengers without the capes. There are a few moments of repartee, which despite having a ‘forced’ feel about them, still make you smile. Inside jokes between the heavyweights, ribbing each other, only partly in jest, it seems. Action wise, apart from a fight sequence with Statham and his knives, surprisingly, there was nothing else, which stood out or put some innovative, creative thought on how to kill people / demolish buildings.
The problem with having so many characters is that there is no time to build them sufficiently, which is why everyone has a wafer thin, cardboard like quality about them. This is another one, to be watched only with a remote, preferably on mute…
PS : All above statistics are made up but should be in the ballpark vicinity

7 comments:

Rohit said...

honestly I liked the movie.. it is enjoyable... if a person has seen the first part and know a bit about Hollywood actors will certainly enjoy it...

I have grownup watching movies of Sylvester and Arnold... So I know them about a bit... Statham is also nice...

the jokes were really funny, there is no need to put it on Mute... Great Cast... anyway the story line was way better than what we are shoved with in Bollywood...

any-day it deserves more than 6 stars out of 10...

Apurv Nagpal said...

what pissed me off, i think, was the lack of imagination in the action sequences. Or even the humour. Imagine having the star cast they had. Is this seriously the best you would be able to come up with ?

Rohit said...

I will agree the final sequence was bad, but the start was nice, I liked it...

humor was good but you have to know the background for it... ex. Dolph Lundgren is actually an engineer who left his field for acting(he was casted in He-Man as He-man) and they involved that in the story... and made it funny if not 10 times but at least 2 times funnier... it worked good for me...
the way they used Arnod's phrase "I will be back" was amazing...

Chuck Norris is the real life superman and they used that part well...

Sylvester looked better in this one than the previous part, in the previous part we was panting at times... after watching this one I will say "he looks good for his age"

the only thing with which I had problem with was, I didnt get to see more of Jet-Li in this one...

in the end I will say everyone has their opinion, I am sorry if I offended you in any way possible... although every time its a delight reading your reviews...

Apurv Nagpal said...

Arre, no offense at all, I enjoy getting different perspectives. I liked some moments of humour too - Arnie saying ' Yippee Kai Ye' etc but overall I felt it was a lazy film. With this cast, this star power, it should've been unforgettable, people should be leaving the theatre wanting to see it again- the action sequences should've been iconic - like in Batman / Bond / even A team. I think they missed out on a lot...Glad you enjoyed it, though...

Rohit said...

okay I gotta ask something, did you saw it dubbed in Hindi???

Apurv Nagpal said...

Yaar, man bahut hai Hindi dubbed dekhne ka, have heard the translation is funnier than the in-film jokes

Rohit said...

thank god... cause I hate the dubbed versions... original stuff is always better....

recently I saw the dubbed version of transformers dark of the moon... Akshay Kumar did the dubbing for Optimus Prime, and it was so bad, I have no words for it... one of the worst movie experience ever... I hated it...