Os Mercenários 3

'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!

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 I also read that the actors seems withdrawn and bored of their roles and that is utter rubbish, and even if that were true it doesn't matter, im not interested in deep characters and meaningful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.

Okay fine The Expendables franchise isn't a complete failure in my eyes, this is by far the best one and three movies in shows potential.

First of all I want to address a point. I've long since complained about the state of a world where it's highest paid people are actors, singers and sports people. Though I'm a movie obsessive I'll never deny that they are offensively overpaid and Expendables 3 demonstrates that with the absence of Bruce Willis. They tried to get him back in a small capacity, just 4 days work and offered him 3 million. 3 million dollars for 4 days work! In response, he demanded 4 million and they decided to cut him loose. So think about this, a man being paid more for a days work than a minimum wage worker is likely to make in their entire life! That ladies and gentlemen is the world we live in.

Anyway I digress.

I wouldn't go as far as to say that The Expendables 3 entertained me but it certainly had its moments. The action was marginally better than the previous two films but it's saving grace was the cast. No I'm not talking about the same guys who have been phoning it in for the past two movies, I mean the newbies. Antonio Banderas stole the movie, he was brilliant. Snipes delivered like I haven't seen him do so in years and despite all the criticism I think Rousey did a great job as well.

So fine, it's not the big action blockbuster to end all action blockbusters but it blows the previous two movies out of the water. With a great villian, the new cast and a good lengthy finale it's passable stuff.

The Good:

As much as it pains me to say, Mel Gibson

Antonio Banderas & Ronda Rousey

The Bad:

Robert Davi was wasted

Still mindless cliched stuff

Things I Learnt From This Movie:

Every person on the planet without any formal training can wield any type of firearm like a professional

The moment Gibson was outed as a bigot, he started doing bad guy roles and nailed it every time

I genuinely want to know if it's possible to attain/maintain a physique like Stallones without steroids

Countless explosive shells fired from tanks at a building rigged with explosives won't set them off

Disguising yourself as a bad guy complete with helmet without your allies knowing you're doing it in a full assault situation makes perfect sense

After the mediocre first and insultingly stupid second part this one finally delivers what the series always set out to do: elderly action stars in ironic, fun action scenes. The humor works much better here and doesn't feel as forced as before and the new additions are great. Especially Gibson obviously had fun with his villain role. Sure, this still isn't one of the smartest films ever made and it certainly wouldnt have needed the young additions. But at least the film is fun and thoroughly entertaining, unlike the stupid second part.

The second was mildly enjoyable, the third time it's tired, the attraction has lost any charm and they still haven't figured out a way to create a sense of world. Terminator, Lethal Weapon, all these films created their own world. Even Cobra had a home to come back to, that marvelous Venice beach apartment next to the Pepsi logo where he forked pizza with a knife.

There's absolutely none here. There's an action plot with actors mouthing their lines when they have to, then on to the next scene. Willis is swapped for Ford but it's again the same thankless plot function of a few minutes. Arnie hovers around in spots - he says 'choppa'. A few amusing scenes with Snipes and prison. And the action mechanics are completely slapdash, overall it feels like the second album after reunion of old heavy metal stalwarts, still polished but all the passion has gone out a long time ago.

Banderas is the only one who manages to charm and that's because he's the only one written with a tiny smudge of life - a screw loose because of what he witnessed.