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By Pete Hammond

A who's who of classic action stars light up the screen for pure combustible entertainment in Sly Stallone's The Expendables, a sort of Dirty Dozen meets Inglourious Basterds--and then some. Though this film has a less-than-plausible storyline that's already been trotted out in various forms earlier this year (The A Team, The Losers), it's filled with literally explosive excitement. This summer flick finds a group of seasoned mercenaries on an unexpected suicide mission to overthrow a corrupt South American dictator. Released nearly a year after Quentin Tarantino's Basterds, Expendables hopes to make lightning strike twice in an end-of-season mission to storm the box office and makes off with a lot of loot. All signs point to success with male audiences turning out in droves to see a group of stars who, individually, are behind their prime, but together create a dynamite time at the Cineplex and a wee bit of nostalgia for guys longing for action's golden days of the '80s and '90s.

The basic plot of this Lionsgate release follows the formula honed by tons of testosterone-laded movies in which a ringmaster gathers his group of skilled buddies and sets out to do the dirtiest job imaginable. The basics are no different this time as leader Barney Ross (Sylvester Stallone) brings right hand man and former SAS blade expert Lee Christmas (Jason Statham) along with hand-to-hand combat specialist Yin Yang (Jet Li), long barrel weapons specialist Hale Caesar (Terry Crews), bomb wizard Toll Road (Randy Couture) and burned out sniper Gunner Jensen (Dolph Lundgren) together to partake in a CIA-backed operation to overthrow evil dictator, General Garza (David Zayas). What seemed like a routine slam-dunk job turns dangerous when they learn they have been thrown to the wolves and are facing a far tougher assignment than they ever dreamed. Handed this thankless gig by mystery man Mr. Church (Bruce Willis), Ross's mission is further complicated by his emotional involvement with his contact, the local freedom fighter Sandra (Giselle Itie), who turns out to be the dictator's daughter and is accused of double crossing dad. After a run in with the really bad guys, a rogue ex-CIA guy named James Monroe (Eric Roberts) and his number two, the appropriately named Paine (Steve Austin), are forced to leave Sandra behind for a certain death sentence. Her exile turns out to be brief because a suddenly guilt-ridden Barney commandeers his team so that he can return to right wrongs and save the girl.

Employing every variation of gun (big and small) and explosions (big and bigger) The Expendables might qualify as the loudest movie of 2010, particularly when Crews goes to town with a giant Uzi; its rumble could shake the theater from its foundation. Although the action scenes aren't always directed coherently and the dialogue (from a script by Stallone and David Callaham) is often pedestrian, you cannot fault the casting, which unites this team of genre names and lets them shine. Lundgren is quite engaging as the confused Gunner and Li is amusing and in control as Yin Yang. Statham provides solid, much needed support throughout and though he often steals the film from Stallone, 64 year old Sly proves he still got "it." One scene, sure to be the film's most talked about, unites Sly with his two other one-time superstar rivals, Bruce Willis and an unbilled Arnold Schwarzenegger, in amusing cameos in which they try to out-insult each other. Mickey Rourke also turns up in a handful of scenes as the gadget guy, Tool. Why not?

With this all-tough guy cast we have to ask the question about one missing part of the puzzle: was Steven Seagal just too busy or something?

Copyright 2010 Box Office Magazine

An old school testosterone fest

By Sheri Linden,Bottom Line: The body count is high and the personalities click in this old-school testosterone fest.

Sylvester Stallone and his cast of fellow action stars flex substantial ensemble muscle in this high-energy battle between good mercenaries and bad mercenaries. An effective mix of lean and over-the-top, "The Expendables" is often preposterous, but it achieves the immediacy of a graphic novel without the overdone mythology.

Genre fans for whom there's no such thing as overkill will make it a fearsome contender at the boxoffice when it opens stateside Aug. 13. The director/star's newest since "Rambo" is also sure to be a muscular performer in international markets.

Even when they're going for the obvious laugh or comeuppance, Stallone and his co-writer, David Callaham, use deft shorthand to etch their characters in bold outline, and the actors put their well-defined personas to work to complete the process.

A group of freelance warriors who have lost their connection to righteous causes in favor of almighty cash, the Expendables may be hardened, but they're not yet inhuman.

Leader Barney (Stallone) regards friends and enemies alike with a sad gaze (beneath strangely distracting eyebrows). Knife whiz Lee Christmas (Jason Statham) is man enough not to hide his hurt over a busted relationship, while combat expert Ying Yang (Jet Li) is angling for a raise.

In smaller roles, Terry Crews and his biceps handle the operation's biggest weapons, and Mixed Martial Arts star Randy Couture explains things, like his cauliflower ear, in fine scientific detail.

After the high-body-count rescue that opens the film, Barney chooses to cut loose sniper Gunner (Dolph Lundgren), believing his (unseen) drug use and high volatility make him untrustworthy -- a conviction that's soon validated when Barney and Gunner are on opposite sides in a clobbering car chase.

A couple of women figure in the story, but the subject is really the ties, broken and otherwise, in this brotherhood of latter-day samurais. In the film's most nuanced scene, Mickey Rourke, ultra-charismatic as the ex-Expendable whose tattoo parlor serves as HQ and clubhouse, recalls the moment in Bosnia when he knew his soul had dried up.

The mission that wakens Barney's dormant compassion involves the fictional South American island country of Vilena, where a former CIA operative, Monroe, pulls the puppet strings of dictator Gen. Garza (David Zayas, of "Dexter"). As the icy evil-in-a-suit rogue Munroe, you couldn't do much better than Eric Roberts.

Determining that if they take out the general they'd be sacrificing themselves to save the CIA embarrassing headlines, Barney and his boys turn down the assignment. But then he meets the general's beautiful rebel daughter, Sandra (newcomer Giselle Itie, suitably fiery), and for the first time in years, money isn't everything.

Americans are both heroes and villains in "The Expendables," which avoids political specifics while embracing brute force as righteous retribution -- and shows the bad guys resorting to waterboarding. It can be an uneasy mix, but mostly it's played on too broad a scale to take seriously. DP Jeffrey Kimball frames the action for kinetic impact and velocity. The extended fight scenes deliver the easy catharsis of straight-up violence, all with a comic-book sense of pow and splat.

The winking boys-will-be-boys quality is at its most blatant in a scene containing uncredited cameos by Bruce Willis and the moonlighting Governator. (Outside the film's Los Angeles premiere, California state workers protested their pay cuts by Arnold Schwarzenegger, but most action-film fans will probably delight in the scene's self-consciously starry chemistry, and its punchline.)

Production designer Franco-Giacomo Carbone's evocative sets and locations (in Los Angeles, Louisiana and with Brazil playing Vilena) enhance the body blows and the camaraderie. Even with action writ large, though, Brian Tyler's score too often reaches for bombast.

Copyright 2010 Hollywood Reporter