Inferno: The Making of 'The Expendables'

Inferno: The Making of 'The Expendables' (2010)

** (out of 4)

A rather bland look at the making of THE EXPENDABLES comes off more like a video diary of Sylvester Stallone. What we pretty much get is a behind-the-scenes look at the making of the film as Stallone has to put up with one issue after another with the main problem being constant injuries to himself. I must say that I was extremely disappointed with this thing for a number of reasons. For starters, it seems like the director never fully came to terms with what type of documentary he wanted to make because the thing is all over the place. This isn't your typical making of featurette that you find on most releases because this clocks in at 91-minutes, which turns out to be too long. I think the film got off to a pretty weak start because Sly is talking in such a slow, drawn out way that it really becomes tiresome just listening. As a fan of the film I thought I'd enjoy this thing but it just never works. There are a few good moments scattered throughout including a look at the filming of the scene with Sly, Willis and Arnold. It was fun seeing the three of them working together but sadly there's not too much footage. I wondered why this scene would get so little while some pretty worthless scenes would get more attention. Another good spot or at least interesting bit was seeing Sly come down with a pretty bad injury and his doctor wanting him to put the film on hold but by doing this other actors would become unavailable. It stuff like this that we needed more of and less talk about the emotion and feelings needed in an action movie.

I love this documentary. I love it so much that I have watched it more than three times. The Expendables is one of my favorite movies, and getting to see how it was made, narrated, starring, written and directed by my favorite actor was amazing. It never gets old, seeing Sly kick butt at 64 and knowing just how many injuries he got while making the movie, yet he didn't give up. He directed the movie while in character, which was fun and crazy and impressive to watch. It was clear his fellow actors had great respect for him, and you can see why when you watch this documentary and see how great it all came out. This is a fascinating, exciting, trivia-filled look at one of the best action movies of the 2010s. I highly recommend you watch it.