The Expendables 2 Reviews

Post-modern eye-winkery that lets its stars cringingly regurgitate classic action-movie quips.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5

The film thunders through its paces, under the energetic direction of Simon West.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5

The plot is limp and the attempts at pathos are close to cringe-worthy, but there's no denying this sequel absolutely delivers in terms of classic testosterone-fuelled action.

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The Expendables 2 may not win any awards and will probably never be used in any university movie courses, but if you are in the mood for some good old-fashioned American action - then strap yourself in.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5

The best that can be said of these spectacularly stoo-pid scenes is that you can't look away from them. But my, oh my, you can laugh at them.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/5

The Expendables 2 meanders through a reined-in, talky first half before giving the modern action fans (or, more likely, their fathers) the nostalgic bloodbath they have unknowingly longed for.

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Any hope I had of keeping a tally of fatalities in The Expendables 2 was quickly dashed by the opening melee, which makes the last ten minutes of The Wild Bunch look like the first ten minutes of Up.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5

With a script seemingly dashed off on a chalkboard, "The Expendables 2" lives up to its title in the most pejorative way. Everything about this bombastic goofball action movie screams "disposable."

Full Review | Original Score: D+

If you can get past all that blood and goofy, heavy-handed humor, this reunion of action stars on the brink of retirement is entertaining.

Full Review | Original Score: B

The Expendables 2 is that 80s mothers milk, fortified (and aged) into whiskey - and it's a fun to drink in with friends.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/5

The pleasure of seeing Arnie back with a (large) gun in his hand, cracking the odd joke at his own and his team's expense, and all the collected weight of a thousand years of action hero experience to call on. Van Damme it, it's a blast

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It's not as good as the first film but if it's mindless bloody action you want with a few wry laughs and you've had a rough day at the office, this will undoubtedly shake the cobwebs

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It's a testosterone feast for fan boys, as it currently stands, and not without its laughs. But it could so easily go so much further.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5

The contest in "The Expendables 2" is to see what piles up fastest: Spent ammunition casings, stuntmen playing dead, or utterances of catchphrases past.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/4

Let's hear it for the old(er) guys. They still carry the punch for an action movie. The humor helps too.

Full Review | Original Score: 6/10

I won't ruin the Norris "fact" used in the film, but it provides one of the few genuine laughs, and it's certainly better than the forced wisecracks centering around past iconic figures created by co-stars Stallone, Willis and Schwarzenegger.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/4

If every member of 'The Avengers' had the personality, vocabulary and grace of the Hulk, the result might be like 'The Expendables.'

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/4

Why make a new mediocrity when the old ones are still so much more fun to watch?

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5

Although there's been no attempt to tone down the first film's bloodthirsty hyperviolence or dim-witted plotting, this sequel is a massive improvement simply because they have fun with the premise

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5

Simon West, taking over directorial duties from Stallone, is at least better at staging action sequences, though the film is still over-edited to its intense disadvantage.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/10