Yet another installment in what
has become the Royal Rumble of action movie franchises:
Like its franchise predecessors, “The Expendables
3” is a kind of dream team action film, built from the thrill
of seeing a veritable army of top-shelf movie stars, each of whom
could once carry their own pictures, all working together.Almost the entirety of the 1980s and ‘90s action canon is
on-screen: The movie features Sylvester
Stallone and Arnold Schwarzenegger, Mel
Gibson and Harrison Ford, Wesley
Snipes and Kelsey Grammer, Antonio Banderas and
Dolph Lundgren. More recent stars Jet Li and Jason Statham show up,
too, along with an equally large cast of lesser knowns pulled from
the worlds of low-budget action and professional mixed martial
arts.It’s a reunion show, basically, except these guys were never
actually together in the first place. They were rivals, competing
for box-office dollars and fan obsession.Part of what “The Expendables” franchise reveals, then, is how
much the power of any given individual action star has dimmed. Not
only did the cast members shown here not appear together in their
heydays, they would have refused the opportunity. (Mr.
Stallone andMr. Schwarzenegger reportedly maintained a
fierce rivalry for years.) To do so would have diluted their
individual brands. Now they’re all sharing the stage. Teaming up is
the only way to remain potent.Like its franchise predecessors, “The Expendables
3” is a kind of dream team action film, built from the thrill
of seeing a veritable army of top-shelf movie stars, each of whom
could once carry their own pictures, all working together.Almost the entirety of the 1980s and ‘90s action canon is
on-screen: The movie features Sylvester
Stallone and Arnold Schwarzenegger, Mel
Gibson and Harrison Ford, Wesley
Snipes and Kelsey Grammer, Antonio Banderas and
Dolph Lundgren. More recent stars Jet Li and Jason Statham show up,
too, along with an equally large cast of lesser knowns pulled from
the worlds of low-budget action and professional mixed martial
arts.It’s a reunion show, basically, except these guys were never
actually together in the first place. They were rivals, competing
for box-office dollars and fan obsession.Part of what “The Expendables” franchise reveals, then, is how
much the power of any given individual action star has dimmed. Not
only did the cast members shown here not appear together in their
heydays, they would have refused the opportunity. (Mr.
Stallone and Mr. Schwarzenegger reportedly
maintained a fierce rivalry for years.) To do so would have diluted
their individual brands. Now they’re all sharing the stage. Teaming
up is the only way to remain potent.
Read the entire review at The Washington
Times.
As I say in the review The Expendables 3 isn’t a
great movie. But it’s surprisingly OK. And it caps off one of the
better summer movie seasons in recent memory: Captain America
2: The Winter Soldier, X-Men: Days of Future Past, Dawn of the
Planet of the Apes, Snowpiercer, and Guardians of the
Galaxy were all surprisingly strong films—the kind of movies
I’ll want to watch again, maybe even several times. Even a movie
like Godzilla, which I thought didn’t quite come together,
worked in certain ways (it was beautifully, meticulously shot).
Sadly, I doubt we’ll see Hollywood attempt to repeat this summer:
Box office is down more
than 17 percent from last year.
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