The Expendables 3 (2014)
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Critics Consensus: Like its predecessors, Expendables 3 offers a modicum of all-star thrills for old-school action thriller aficionados -- but given all the talent assembled, it should have been a lot more fun.
Critics Consensus: Like its predecessors, Expendables 3 offers a modicum of all-star thrills for old-school action thriller aficionados -- but given all the talent assembled, it should have been a lot more fun.
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In THE EXPENDABLES 3, Barney (Stallone), Christmas (Statham) and the rest of the team come 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 … More- Rating:
- PG-13 (for violence including intense sustained gun battles and fight scenes, and for language)
- Genre:
- Action & Adventure
- Directed By:
- Patrick Hughes
- Written By:
- Dave Callaham , Sylvester Stallone , Katrin Benedikt , Creighton Rothenberger
- In Theaters:
- Aug 15, 2014 Wide
- On DVD:
- Nov 25, 2014
- US Box Office:
- $39.3M
Cast
-
Sylvester Stallone
as Barney Ross -
Jason Statham
as Lee Christmas -
Antonio Banderas
as Galgo -
Jet Li
as Yin Yang -
Wesley Snipes
as Doc -
Dolph Lundgren
as Gunnar Jensen
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Critic Reviews for The Expendables 3
All Critics (149) | Top Critics (32) | Fresh (49) | Rotten (100)
At this point, the Expendables have formed and reformed so many times they're like the world's most macho wife swap, the action version of Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice.
A wasted opportunity.
For a variety of reasons, most having to do with a weak screenplay and poor pacing, The Expendables 3 is the least successful entry in the series.
The series did reignite a few careers and bring forth one decent popcorn movie (The Expendables 2). Rather than artificially extend its life, maybe the time has come to say Rest in Peace.
The Expendables 3, trading on our affection for action stars of the past, has officially worn out its already shaky welcome.
Those first two movies look like Seven Samurai next to The Expendables 3, a sad, bad, parade of uninspired cameos and listless violence.
After the two earlier movies were rated 18 and then 15, many will decry the lack of blood in the new 12A, but the actors seem to be enjoying their pensioners' paintball party complete with helicopter funships.
There are no surprises to be found here. The Expendables 3 is exactly what you'd think it is-a disappointing mish-mash of a throwback, trading in on its star power, with its eye safely fixed on producing more sequels
An A-team of B-stars in a vanity project on steroids. The grand finale has all the air of the old boys' club on a giant playground that's just there to be shot up and fought in and tank-rolled over and bazooka-ed and blown up and 'copter-escaped from.
A particularly flavorless serving of flaccid beef jerky and brine-cured ham.
As the stars get younger and the action gets tamer, Expendables comes to resemble more and more of its direct-to-video kin, and worth about as much of your time.
...an almost hopelessly erratic entry in this seemingly unstoppable franchise.
Gibson is one of the lone bright spots, and I kind of hate that I'm saying that.
The characters in the film are somewhat engaging, but the action scenes are almost as incomprehensible as the plot.
Tired franchise - filled with punishing car chases and repetitive gunfire.
The wild card is Gibson, who reminds us that he's always magnetic onscreen, no matter what you might think of him as a human being.
As boring as watching glaciers recede.
It's hopelessly strung out, stuck between the past and present with no idea how to successfully marry the two.
Striking a tone somewhere between the po-faced original and the silly Part 2, this rampaging action nonsense is badly overcrowded and chaotic, but there's plenty of comedy and whizzy stuntwork to keep the audience entertained.
The formula is officially stale.
Yes, it's pretty much the same mixture as before, but slicker and more polished, and I enjoyed it more than I thought I would.
The third instalment, directed by young Australian filmmaker Patrick Hughes, is as creaky and rheumatic as some of its leads. What should be crazy, outlandish entertainment is instead banal and uninspiring.
Although I had fun, this franchise has overstayed its welcome.
I'll still be the first in line for another installment, but I'm hoping that "The Expendables 3" can be like that weaker episode of "The A-Team"...fun but let's get it right next time.
If they're expendable, why won't they die?
Sylvester Stallone and his gang of gung-ho geriatrics are back with even more firepower and even more story than they had the last time around...Aussie director Patrick Hughes does an exemplary job colouring within the lines. .
Audience Reviews for The Expendables 3
The explosions and guns are peppered throughout this bad boy, but it suffers from being less gory than the first one and less silly fun than the second. It's highest redeeming factor is Gibson's surprisingly potent performance.
MoreSuper Reviewer
The boys are back in town...again! and this time its PG-13 baby (sigh). All the Expendable team are back after yet another successful mission where they all had their invincibility cheats on...accept for Crews who forgot to enter his cheat code and gets nailed. But don't go getting too excited because low and behold he survives, they must have found an energy health power-up for him.
So the lads are getting on a bit these days, Arnie and Sly are pushing 70 years of age and the rest of the team aren't that far behind...well some of them. Anyway despite that Sly thinks its time to hang up everybody's boots because they are now officially (according to him) too old, yet Sly still carries on with the next mission even though he's the oldest and clearly looks the worst for wear. So off he goes to hire some young blood with the help of...Kelsey Grammer? really?? what action movies has he starr...never mind. So bottom line the tough old guns are out, the new young guns are in...aaaand there goes the entire premise of the franchise.
The whole plot is basically a play on how these guys are too old for this shit, yet in reality they're all genuinely too old for this shit (some of them) but they're still doing it!...badly.
The plot is not worth discussing really, its the usual good guys vs the bad guys this time led by Mel Gibson...the end. As you would/should expect its pretty much exactly the same spiel as the fist two films but with new team members. There are little remarks throughout from various characters that touch on the fact the movie is a complete parody of itself which didn't really make me smile. Instead they just got me thinking how stupid this whole exercise was and how sharp and accurate those little quips are...but not in a funny way, a serious way, like stop this ridiculous charade and lets get back to old school for Gods sake. What's more the little quips merely pinpoint what is actually wrong with this entire franchise...'so what our plan is to kick down the door and start spraying bullets?', 'that's a great plan...if its 1985'. Yes that's what we want! Oh Lord! if only this film was the caliber of a 1985 adult action flick! if only!
So as we know all the old school action men we wanna see have been left behind accept for Sly's ego. We are now left with some young guys I've never heard of accept for Lutz and a female MMA fighter who cannot act TO SAVE HER LIFE. Seriously I've haven't seen such bad acting in a major movie for some time, it was embarrassing to watch her try and be butch and tough. Her first sequence as the bouncer in that nightclub literately made me laugh out loud, absolutely terrible. The entire montage thing was so flippin' cliched, would have been OK if it was actually good.
Everybody is covered in thick tan makeup its cringeworthy. Sly's face looks like a beaten slab of meat, Arnie has dyed hair, Ford looks dreadfully old (why he agreed to act in this I'll never know) and for some reason they turn Banderas into a bitch. The action isn't as bad as I thought it would be in places I'll admit. There is a solid punch to it at times but it really needs some claret to fly, it yearns for it, some nice fat exploding bloody squibs. Overall its choppy (no pun intended), the thrills can be decent but without warning all of a sudden it drops into pure crapola, awful CGI choppers and a dirt bike stunt sequence? really?? you could clearly see the course and dirt covered ramps!
As we plod slowly towards the predictable ending of the old school Expendables having to save the young newbies things just become more and more...annoying. All the team members are like explosive Gods raining down pain on all the faceless useless military that are swarming all over them. Not even tanks can stop them, how can a countries military be so utterly useless? Arnie throws out not one but two choppa quips that date back to his famous lines in 'Predator', Gibson's dialog is hilariously bad as is his over acting when he finally gets killed off by super Sly and as with before no one gets killed or even injured. I've said it before and I'll say it again, these films would be so much cooler if some of the good guys got killed off.
Yeah its a parody of sorts and not to be taken seriously even though Sly is clearly taking it all very seriously. Sly if you wanna be a serious badass then make these adult rated action movies. I have not taken to this franchise from day one after it became apparent they weren't gonna be proper action movies like I remember. I grew up watching these guys in real hardcore adult flicks where the blood flowed, limbs flew and the f-bombs detonated in every other line. This franchise does not give me what I remember, and I'm not even wearing my rose tinted specs. These guys need to remember their roots, the roots that made them famous, they didn't become famous for childish PG family fun films. Alas now I fear time has passed many of them by and unfortunately this was not a good final curtain.
Super Reviewer
One of the greatest action movies franchisees of all time delivers another great sequel that pulls all sorts of punches, kicks and bullets. The best Expendables movie yet. It's a spectacular, heart-pounding and explosively entertaining action-packed edge of your seat thriller. It's turbo-charged fun from start to finish and just makes you want more even when the credits role. A top-notch, wickedly enjoyable, furiously funny and jammed with non-stop action. It's the most exhilarating action movie of 2014. The -all-star cast delivers great performances and chemistry. Its an outstanding comeback for Mel Gibson, Wesley Snipes and Antonio Banderas. Stallone, Crews, Lundgren, Li, Couture and Schwarzenegger are still the dream team to route for, especially with their new team mates involving familiar faces and fresh talent. Sylvester Stallone and Arnold Schwarzenegger are in top form. Stallone is still rocking in one of his best roles. Jason Statham is excellent. Wesley Snipes is fantastic, he's pure mad-men fun. Mel Gibson is explosive, its so great to see him back in top form as the villain of the piece, because he totally knocks it out of the park and is the best villain in the series by far. Antonio Banderas is absolutely hilarious, he gives a great and fun performance. Kelsey Grammer and Harrison Ford are brilliant. The new blood in the cast is not bad either, Kellan Lutz is the standout of the younger team as he shows great potential and seems to stand well with our old-school heroes. Director, Patrick Hughes takes the story into deeper and more personal territory and knows how to place the action and the drama perfectly. An action movie lovers feast. It's an unstoppable and unforgettable great time at the movies. A totally bad-ass and awesome buddy movie. I absolutely loved it. Two hours of adrenaline-injected powerhouse fun.
MoreSuper Reviewer
No matter what you think of The Expendables franchise, it's common knowledge that its genre success is reliant on three things: Retro action heroes acting badass, corny one-liners and things exploding in rapid succession. Remove any one of these aspects and the movie is destined to fail. So, when a quarter of the way through "Expendables 3", the old guys (Jason Statham, Dolph Lundgren, Randy Couture, etc.) are scrapped and replaced by a new group of "Expendables" (Glen Powell, Victor Ortiz, Ronda Rousey and Kellan Lutz) it's impossible to think that this installment will not be perceived as some sort of bait and switch to audiences who paid to see old guys shoot guns.
Read the rest of my review at: http://www.examiner.com/review/the-expendables-3-retirement-party
Follow me on Twitter @moviesmarkus
Super Reviewer
The Expendables 3 Quotes
- Barney Ross:
- Don't trust the government. They eat their young.
- Barney Ross:
- Now I know why your team dropped you.
- Galgo:
- Courageous...but insane.
- Conrad Stonebanks:
- You want the kids? Come and get them.
- Conrad Stonebanks:
- Hey, Barney. You shoulda kill me when you had the chance.
- Doc:
- The hell's that?
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