Les sacrifiés 3

Continuing my plan to watch every Sly movie in order, I come to Expendables 3.

Plot In A Paragraph: Barney Ross (Sly) disbands The Expendables and signs up some new blood to take down arms dealer Conrad Stonebanks (Mel Gibson)

Expendables 3 is certainly action packed and while there is plenty hand to hand knockabout and a lot of people die, but they either quickly fall bloodlessly, or it's all off screen (a lot of quick cut aways) with a PG13 rating there is no viewing of the actual carnage.

For me Snipes owned the beginning of the movie, (but then seemed to have been forgotten about the rest of the movie) Grammar kept things moving a long nicely during the recruiting section. Then Banderas walks away with the movie in the final third. If the character of Doc (Snipes) had been more carefully scripted, and given more screen time in the second half of the pic, he would have easily stolen the picture.

Sly has shown before he can be a fine dramatic actor when allowed to escape his action hero confines, however here Gibson steals the scenes he shared with him. His hairline is distracting again (especially when he meets Ford for the first time) at times, as is his wardrobe. He seems to change clothes every scene. In fact he actually looks younger in this movie, than he did in the first.

A big problem for me with this one is, Sly's Barney Ross is suddenly invincible!! the old man who "just got my ass kicked" in the first movie is long gone. No longer are The Expendables a team, who are there for each other (the first movie is the most ensemble of the three) it's a Barney Ross led gang. And he is fine with doing things on his own.

For his brief time on screen Ford brings style to the proceedings and simply radiates presence. Gibson is under used (in the first half) But he owns the scene with Sly in a Van midway through. It is the stand out scene of the movie (the only one with any intensity, and an example of how good an expendables movie can be) and a reminder of how good Gibson is. He is easily the best villain to grace the franchise. That scene in the van is possibly the best acted scene in the franchise.

Jason Statham has less to do in this movie than the other movies, but he gives his usual fine performance as Christmas. Jet Li once again is sadly nothing more than a cameo. Lundgren's Gunner seemed to be slipping back to the unbalanced guy from the first movie, and Couture just seems happy to be there!!

Of the young guns, Ortiz and Powell are bland and uninteresting, Kellan Lutz is at least annoying with his lack of respect for Barney, whilst Rhonda Rousey (My god is she hot) is OK

There is an Expendables movie so of course there is a fiery climax, which unfortunately involves some Awful CGI explosions. If Superman IV should have thought film makers anything, it is 'if you have bad special effects, don't reuse them over and over again!!'

There are less jokey references to the stars previous roles than in Expendables 2, and it is much effective than the infinite amount in Ex2. It is longer than other two movies, so it gives a bit more time to know the characters, Sadly it wasted on the likes of Ortiz and Lutz, who are both a waste of screen time.

The fight between Sly & Gibson is too short (About same as Sly and JCVD in Ex2) and is predictable. The climax is also more than slightly ridiculous. As I said earlier, Gibson is the best villain to grace an Expendables movie, one you felt could hurt the Expendables, and it is was saddening to see him dispatched so effortlessly and singlehandedly by Sly. I'd have rather Gibson got the better of Sly in a brutal fight, with both of them giving every ounce they had (as Rambo and Riggs would have done) before Sly won, or even better if Jet Li (ala Lethal Weapon 4) helped Sly fight him.

The core audience of this franchise don't care about the new younger people that were added to the cast, and they also don't want to see a PG-13 movie with them in, whilst younger cinema goers don't care about an Expendables movie.

I think if we got an R rated DVD, it may be a bit better thought of, but the lame new recruits would still be a waste of screen time, the fight would still be the same and again all of the Expendables would live.

Another Expendables movie that continues the trend of the previous two movies, some good parts, some not so good parts, an overall feeling of a missed opportunity, but still OK.

Hampered by the rating, which angered some/most fans, and the HD screener leak, Expendables 3 limped to $39 million at the domestic box office, and ended the year, the 80th Highest Grossing Movie of 2014.

Aging mercenaries portrayed by aging action stars team with younger mercenaries to battle an international arms dealer (Mel Gibson) in a poorly written, badly shot and cut, muddled mess of an action film - the third entry in the series/franchise/action hero seniors tour begun by Sylvester Stallone (already having milked his Rocky & Rambo franchises for remaining crumbs) in 2010 with a decent first entry.

A pirated copy of this third entry was leaked online (by someone who WILL be caught and dealt with) in late July predating the August 15th, 2014 official theatrical release which is why the derision has come so fast and furious in advance. Millions have already downloaded it and spread the word about how bad it is and in particular how bad the younger actors in it are. It is also why box-office receipts won't be very impressive. Plenty have already seen it and told others not to bother.

MMA fighter Ronda Rousey, who portrays Luna - one of the young mercenaries, is sure to be nominated for a Razzie as 'Worst New Star' for her acting. I've seen better acting from Tough Actin' Tinactin. But that will inevitably be part of the draw of the movie. Audiences will want to judge for themselves if her acting is as terrible as they have heard.

Since words can't fully describe (but I'll try) how bad Rousey's performance is they won't be ready for what they see. Her characterization is composed of rolling her eyes, shaking her head and squinting in an insipid characterization given by an irritating, crass and unattractive individual with no previous acting experience.

They should've got Gina Carano if they wanted an MMA star. Gina is way cuter, her MMA comes across better on screen and she is a passable actress.

The gimmick upon which the first two Expendables movies built an audience was this 'family reunion' style casting of old action movie stars. But producers were driven to lock-up a newer audience demographic. Going younger and cheaper whilst bringing in new blood may have seemed like a good plan at first but the adverse results are plain to see.

Mel Gibson is the best aspect of the film. He could always act. But his scandalous, offensive outbursts and history of violence add all the necessary subtext for him to become Hollywood's premier villain and tack 20 more years on to his career if he does it right. This is the perfect role for him and he milks it for all it is worth. The screen comes alive when he is on it which unfortunately isn't for very long.

The remainder of the older action stars in the cast give performances as tired and sad as you might expect. Schwarzenegger inspires more pity than Harrison Ford. Antonio Banderas with his over the top acting is nearly as bad as Rousey. Bruce Willis should count himself lucky he was left out of the mix. Wesley Snipes? Let's not even go there.

Whether it is botox or just aging Stallone looks like a toy action figure left too close to a radiator. Yikes!

Jet Li is among the action stars billed but is barely on screen for 5 minutes.

'The Expendables 3' is an entertaining 3rd part in the series, which had an amazingly impressive sequel. This action extravaganza which completes the trilogy, is indeed Good Fun! And its such a pleasure to watch Hollywood Legend Mel Gibson stealing the show, by enacting the baddie to perfection!

'The Expendables 3' 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.

'The Expendables 3' serves its propose, which is, to Entertain the audience. And it does that well. Sylvester Stallone's Story & Screenplay is meant for the masses, as it delivers enough scope of human tension & explosive action. Although I'd like to point out, that, the first-hour of the film, is slightly slow-paced & dull. Its the second-hour which is arresting & the climax is simply brilliant.

Patrick Hughes's Direction is satisfactory. Cinematography is dusky. Editing could've been more sharper. Costume Design is perfect. Action-Sequences are the mainstay of the film.

Performance-Wise: After Mel Gibson, its Stallone who delivers a performance of substance. He leads the pack with toughness. Its also nice to see Harrison Ford, Wesley Snipes & Antonio Banderas joining in. They all play to the gallery well, as do the rest.

On the whole, 'The Expendables 3' is a winner!

The first one was interesting seeing old big names on screen. The second one had the Chuck Norris jokes and van Damme doing his signature kicks. This one?... This one has a lot of "kaboom and badawoom"... Which is why, I guess, it is an all right movie.

Unfortunately none of the big names do anything interesting on-screen. If you're expecting to see Wesley Snipes do Blade stuff, or Jet Li some amazing kung fu, nope! you will be disappointed...

Mel Gibson is great, but he's got a tiny part. The only fun is provided by Antonio Banderas.

As for the new actors... who cares!

The problem with the Expendables movies is that the more big names are on the credits their on screen time has to be shared with others and it breaks down to just a few moments each.

I do not understand how they missed the point again!

I read a lot of bad reviews about this film, attacks on the script, plot and direction, so I was pleasantly surprised to find they were all wrong and they totally missed the point. I think these people were expecting Oscar winning performances but this film is about watching bad guys getting their a*s kicked. I also read that the actors seems withdrawn and bored of their roles and that is utter rubbish, and even if that were true it doesn't matter, im not interested in deep characters and meaningful performances in films like this, I just want to see lots of destruction and the bad guys getting owned.

There's some funny dialogue here and there and Banderas' character had me smiling a lot.

If you like action films you will enjoy this action romp, so ignore those bad reviews and grab yourself a bucket of popcorn and enjoy.