The Expendables 3 review

Genre: Action, Crime, Adventure, Thriller,
Starring: Sylvester Stallone, Jason Statham, Atonio Banderas, Jet Li, Wesley Snipes, Dolph Lundgren, Kelsey Grammer, Randy Couture, Terry Crews, Kellan Lutz, Ronda Rousey, Glen Powell, Victor Ortiz, Robert Davi, Mel Gibson, Harrison Ford, Arnold Schwarzenegger,
Year Of Release: 2014
Certificate: 12A (UK)
Runtime: 126 Minutes
Director: Patrick Hughes

Synopsis: "Barney augments his team with new blood for a personal battle: to take down Conrad Stonebanks, the Expendables co-founder and notorious arms trader who is hell bent on wiping out Barney and every single one of his associates." IMDB

Let me just start off by saying all you people who are saying "this film lacks substance", "no character development" or "just Action porn". You people need smack upside the head, this film never advertised itself as anything but a pure Action ride popcorn flick. You wouldn't go into "The Godfather" and complain there isn't enough Spaceships, so don't go into a popcorn flick expecting an Oscar worthy performance or perfect script! Now that is out the way onto the review.

We're back for a third instalment in easily one of my most enjoyable franchises for a long time, I love a full on over the top Action film and The Expendables franchise never fails to deliver in that department. However, this film does come with a 12A certificate which is obvious when you watch it with the lack of actual blood they use, that doesn't mean there is enough over the top violence to enjoy.

The film starts off with the the Expendables rescuing a former member Doctor Death (Snipes) after a prolonged spell spent under the capture of some Russians, turns out there is no razors where he was kept because Snipes is rocking a hella beard! Within the first fifteen minutes of the film we get an armoured prison train, helicopters, boats, planes, tankers, jeeps, missiles, guns, knives and explosion that would make an everyday man wet his pants. However the Expendables escaped unscathed, well all but one Caeser (Crews) finds himself left in a critical way after Conrad Stonebankes (Gibson) leaves him that way in his escape.

This latest close call has Barney (Stallone) disbanding his near perfect team due to the fear that they're all getting to old. Leaving Barney and his badass companion Bonaparte (Grammer) to race around America and Mexico gathering a new rag tag bunch of younger and possibly even dumber Expendables (Rousey, Ortiz and Powell) however there is one older addition to his crew Galgo (Banderas) and damn does Banderas deliver, his verbal diarrhoea is enough to drive any sane man to tears however some of the stuff he comes out with will leave you in tears of laughter.

Overall the film delivers in all the areas you expect from such an Action flick, full of explosions, gunfire, destruction and hilarious one lines one that sticks out is Arnie dropping a "Get to da choppa!" retort that made me nearly keel over on the spot. Plus we get a solid performance from Harrison Ford, leaps and bounds better than Bruce Wills' ever gave us. Then we have Mr Mel Gibson who may have just made himself the go to guy for the big dog villain in the future. He is the most deranged, crazy, insane, is there any point? I will run out of superlatives, Mel is phenomenal I can't wait to see him again.

I highly recommend this film and I always will, they're just pure Action porn, however what more can you ask for from a film that is purely built around recreating 80s Action nostalgia? So PLEASE, PLEASE if you want to see it, go see it and help these guys make some money back and get us a fourth, fifth or heck even a fifteen ha.

8/10

Drop Ryan Reynolds get a new Deadpool!

I have been reading a lot more Deadpool comics in recent months and even playing the game that released last year and it has gotten me thinking about the possible film which a lot of us are looking forward to. Don't get me wrong Reynolds done a good job in "X-Men Origins: Wolverine" which in itself wasn't a great film itself, however we didn't really get to see Wade enough before he became Weapon-X which then Scott Adkins took over as the body.

Since "Wolverine" was released back in 2009 there has been talk of the solo film, but every other month it feels like there is another step that is tripping up the process. If I am 100% honest I have a feeling the studio is worried about the fact his films are not the financial success' that superhero films are look at "R.I.P.D" cost $130 million to make and brought back less than $80, Green Lantern only made $19 million and The Change Up $20 million, while they are profits look at the other Marvel releases since 2009, "First Class" made $200 million, "The Amazing Spider-Man" $500 million, each of the 3 Iron Man films made $400 million, hell even "Ghost Rider: Spirit Of Vengeance" made $75 million, so you get where I am coming from.

Sort of went off on a little rant up there didn't I ha, sorry about that if you bared through that. Anyway back to my point I think the studio is worried about back him with a big budget in case they don't make a nice profit. Ultimately that is what it boils down to, they tell us it's for the fans and the dedicated readers which is partially true, however it is about the money. So replacing Reynolds may be the way go if we want to get the Merc on the big screen.

Jason Statham - can he lose his accent? I for one can not think of a time in which he hasn't had his distinctive accent, he is a money maker his films have made over $1 billion in the box office. I for one am a huge fan of Statham, have been since I first seen him in "The Transporter". He is widely regarded as an antihero, which Deadpool really is.

Scott Adkins as the body & Charlie Day as the voice - main problem is that Scott isn't a great actor, maybe use him for the body and fight scenes like they did in Origins. I realise that sounds mean just using his body, but we don't really see that much of Deadpools face he could keep the mask on the whole time resulting in Charlie Day doing the voice. My favourite choice is easily this, I think these two would bring a perfect incarnation of the Merc with a Mouth to the big screen.

James Roday - Shawn from "Psych" is pretty much Deadpool minus the healing factor and weaponry skill, he's full of quips and pop culture references. Anybody who is at all familiar with "Psych" will see where I am coming from, the characters have some overlying traits, he does lack the physical aspect and the fighting touch but that could be easily taught. I think he could easily pull off the idiot with a plan style Deadpool lives by, constantly lost in the world but still finds a solution.

These would be my top choices, other outsiders that could be a possibility are;

Seann William Scott -

Eric Christian Olsen - Deeks style from NCIS LA.

Jonny Knoxville - after watching "Jackass" over the years I have the feeling that Knoxville already has health regeneration ha.

"Expenables 3" release new posters

With the newest "The Expendables" releasing in August this year, they have blessed us with some pretty cool looking character posters.

"The Expendables 3" plot details and press release

Lionsgate have put their press release for "The Expendables 3", why are you still reading this? Are you still? Come on dude check the press release!

"Lionsgate and Millennium Films will begin principal photography today on THE EXPENDABLES 3, the third installment of THE EXPENDABLES action-thriller franchise, with production shooting on location in Bulgaria and at Nu Boyana Studios in Sofia.

THE EXPENDABLES 3 will feature Sylvester Stallone, Jason Statham, Jet Li, Dolph Lundgren, Randy Couture, Terry Crews and Arnold Schwarzenegger returning to their roles in the first two films with Wesley Snipes, Antonio Banderas, Mel Gibson and Harrison Ford joining the all-star cast along with Kellan Lutz, MMA star Ronda Rousey, welterweight boxing champion Victor Ortiz and Glen Powell.

Patrick Hughes (RED HILL) will direct the film, with veteran Dan Bradley (The BOURNE franchise; MISSION IMPOSSIBLE: GHOST PROTOCOL, QUANTUM OF SOLACE) directing the second unit. THE EXPENDABLES 3 is written by Creighton Rothenberger & Katrin Benedikt, who previously teamed on OLYMPUS HAS FALLEN, and Sylvester Stallone. Avi Lerner, Kevin King-Templeton, Danny Lerner and Les Weldon are producing THE EXPENDABLES 3. Trevor Short, Boaz Davidson and John Thompson are executive producing. Lionsgate will release THE EXPENDABLES 3 in North America and the UK on August 15, 2014.

In THE EXPENDABLES 3, Barney (Stallone), Christmas (Statham) and the rest of the team comes face-to-face with Conrad Stonebanks (Gibson), who years ago co-founded The Expendables with Barney. Stonebanks subsequently became a ruthless arms trader and someone who Barney was forced to kill… or so he thought. Stonebanks, who eluded death once before, now is making it his mission to end The Expendables — but Barney has other plans. Barney decides that he has to fight old blood with new blood, and brings in a new era of Expendables team members, recruiting individuals who are younger, faster and more tech-savvy. The latest mission becomes a clash of classic old-school style versus high-tech expertise in the Expendables’ most personal battle yet.

The production will be overseen by Lionsgate’s Jason Constantine and Eda Kowan.

The first two installments of THE EXPENDABLES have grossed nearly $600 million in combined global box office."

Harrison Ford joins...

"The Expendables 3" this news made my day!!! Stallone himself broke the news on Twitter and when I seen the Tweet I nearly exploded with excitement, the only downfall that comes with it is that Bruce Willis has dropped out of the film according to the Tweet. 

WILLIS OUT... HARRISON FORD IN !!!! GREAT NEWS !!!!! Been waiting years for this!!!!
— Sylvester Stallone (@TheSlyStallone) August 6, 2013

Trailer "The Expendables 2"

This film looks incredible, nothing better than a testosterone fuelled action fest. How can you go wrong with a film that has John Rambo, John McClane, The Terminator, Wong Fei Hung, Walker Texas Ranger and Ivan Drago ha ha.

"Daredevil" reboot?

The "Daredevil" reboot is still in very early stages of production, but looks like they have added David Slade to the production crew. He is has been hired to give the film a complete reboot, Slade is a newbie when it comes to film making. He has made three films in his short career they are "Hard Candy", "30 Days Of Night" and "The Twilight Saga: Eclipse", none of which are anything like we would expect Daredevil to be like. Brad Caleb Kane has reportedly been brought on board to write the script for the film he has a great writing background with "Fringe" being one of his writing credits.

"20th Century Fox is revving a reboot of Daredevil, and the studio is setting David James Kelly to rewrite of the script, for David Slade to direct… …reports have the studio working off the Frank Miller/David Mazzucchelli story arc Born Again, as The Kingpin uncovers the superhero’s secret identity, and uses it to turn blind lawyer Matt Murdoch’s life upside down."

 The born again concept would be best in my opinion, I thought that the Ben Affleck "Daredevil" back in 2003 was a horrible movie. I read sometime last year that Jason Statham said in '08 he would be interested in doing a Daredevil film, whether or not that is still true now I think that would be interesting (minus his cockney accent).

No more Sam Witwicky?

This is my 300th post, an with great pleasure to say that Shia LaBeouf will NOT be returning for the fourth instalment in a pretty bad franchise "Transformers". I'm personally over the moon with this news, I thought the past two films were pretty poor an to have a good actor such as LaBeouf connected to them was unfortunate for his career in my opinion. Michael Bay is still set to produce the film, but rumours have been circulating over the past few weeks that Jason Statham was set to take over as the face of the franchise.  

"Paramount Pictures’ President of Production Adam Goodman also confirmed that Shia LaBeouf will definitely not return for the franchise’s next installment."
 
Maybe, they will cast Statham as an older Witwicky they haven't officially said there is no more Witwicky just no more LaBeouf. In the heart of all the nerds out there and original "Transformers" fans, they are wishing for the robots to be the main characters an leave the main human role behind. Mainstream movie fans will not like this in my opinion, just doesn't seem to make sense in the monetary terms. With Tyrese Gibson not so long ago pledging his faith in Michael Bay an stating he would like to return maybe they will not make an entirely new cast? But in my honest opinion to save the franchise from even more embarrassment I think they need to a completely new cast from top to bottom. Personally I'd love a reboot with the robots being the lead characters. But, with having humans as supporting cast hopefully good actors too.

"Expendables 2" will be R-Rated!

This is pretty amazing news in my opinion, there was a pretty big uproar when it was announced that film was set to be PG-13.
"After drawing the ire of the Internet for confirming that The Expendables 2 would be PG-13 (apparently in accordance with star Chuck Norris‘ wishes), Sylvester Stallone has backtracked to say that the star-studded action sequel will be getting an R rating after all…
…Since Norris’ objection to the R rating had more to do with cursing than violence, it’s possible that Expendables 2 will try to keep the language clean even while dialling up the action. Or maybe the outcry was such that Stallone’s decided to drop the PG-13 plan altogether. Either way, if you’ve been hoping for a rougher, tougher Expendables 2, it seems your wishes have been granted…"