Jason Statham is the only bit of genuine oomph in a tired tale whose digital effects could have been shot on an iPhone
There is room for debate about whether the number 4 in EXPEND4BLES – as the title is rendered on the poster – looks sufficiently like the letter A. Next time, it will be easier with EXPENDABLE5, then three movies later it should be EXPENDA8LES, and for the 50th film they can go for a classy Roman numeral to please the classicists: EXPENDABLES.
Anyway, the lumbering giants of yesteryear action-movie product are back, although given how long they have been around, the avowedly retro nature of their style is less important and has perhaps vanished altogether. Sylvester Stallone returns as the team’s leader, Barney Ross, wreathed in bonhomie and cigar smoke but with a limited presence, rather like the constitutional monarch of the Expend4bles, with his effective prime minister being Lee Christmas, played once more by Jason Statham. Statham is the one returning cast member to bring some genuine oomph to the proceedings, with his distinctive transatlantic voice: a kind of cockney-with-a-twist-of-Chicago, delivered in that husky semi-whisper, like a lost Mitchell brother from EastEnders – although there are also times when he resembles Johnny Vaughan on steroids. Dolph Lundgren is back once again as Jensen, enduring some joshing from his comrades about his hairpiece, and Randy Couture encores as Toll Road. Newcomer Andy Garcia ambles cordially in and out as Marsh, the group’s CIA minder.
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