The Expendables Blu-ray Review

• 13th Dec 2010

Christmas has come a couple of weeks early (and that is not a pun on Statham’s character name). The Expendables is possibly the greatest guilty pleasure of 2010, and it is here now on Blu-ray to take home and enjoy.

Such a ruckus was made of this release. Few films get older viewers as excited as say the crowds for Harry Potter or Twilight but The Expendables filled that gap nicely.  Was it greeted seriously?  Well, it was greeted with many a You Tube piss-take, which we listened to many a time and laughed loudly at. But the film itself was deemed something that could go down extremely well or really badly and in the aftermath of it all, looking back it sits somewhere in the middle.

We meet an already assembled team at the peak of a mission during the opening which ends in all sorts of bloody chaos. After here the focus shifts mainly to Stallone and Statham’s characters as they go on a quick mission to a made up place to check out the situation before deciding if they want to go in and liberate the place.

Along the way we are treated to a few action set pieces before the final act of the film sees the team heading back together for one big shoot out. It is fairly gratuitous but then that is why we are here.

It wasn’t the big action extravaganza it should have been mainly due to the script, plot and a few missteps from some of the actors. But since when did we give kudos to Statham and Li for their acting skills? Statham is pretty much Statham in it. Li doesn’t fare quite so well with less screen time and, er, managing to have his ass kicked a bit. In fact most of the recognisable names here get their asses kicked in a bad way by the supporting cast of has-beens (Gary Daniels anyone?); which in my opinion is what makes the film so enjoyable and often surprising.

You just pray for each of the familiar cast members to have a moment of glory and very few don’t get to make some sort of mark on the film. Mickey Rourke and Dolph Lundgren in particular make impressions and are given meatier material to tackle.

The extras are fairly wealthy. Stallone does a commentary. There is also the Bonus RECON MODE which intercuts interviews, visuals and the commentary over the film as you watch. Also on this disc there is FROM THE ASHES which shows a very informative look at the post production process from editing, dubbing to music and promotion of the film. There is also a pointless gag reel (aren’t they always! I think these are best enjoyed by cast and crew who worked on the film – had to be there!) and there is a singular deleted scene from the start of the film. You’ll also find trailers here.

The 3 disc set gets you INFERNO which is a feature length making of the film which follows Sly around on the shoot. You get to see constant rewrites happening on the spot and Sly making stop after stop at the hospital due to the injuries he takes on set. All along the way he cracks wise and even finds a few profound moments that helps you see the world from his perspective. And it works.

Expendables 2 is already been given the go ahead. With a little bit of tender loving care on the script Stallone could easily surpass this first film with perhaps a fully branched out franchise that can be passed around forever. But it will all depend on how bold a vision he wants to take on.

Steven Hurst