Bi-monthy movie review: Expendables 3

Time for our Bi-monthly movie review. Up this time is Expendables 3. With sequels I think it is important to mention the previous installments only because a sequel wouldn't be a sequel without them. So In the first one, Sylvester Stallone and his good buddies Arnold Schwarzenegger and (at the time) Bruce Willis got together to bring a good old 80's action flick (along with 80's action logic) back to the silver screen. The result? A good mixture of old and new action movie stars in a very enjoyable flick. Yes, it was a gimmick, but a well executed one. Never in my life did I think I would see all of these guys on the same screen at the same time nor did I ever think I would see Jet Li Vs Dolph Lundgren in a fight. Never.

So that was it. A ludicrous story, some silly dialog, some good fights, and lots and lots of explosions. Then Stallone said "Hey, this made me some money, I think I have a thing here." With that Expendables 2 was born. This one however turned up the cheese factor way to high and reminded us why 80's actions movies are no longer made. Wasted characters, no good fights, too much in-jokes and no payoff (the much hyped Stallone Vs Van Damme fight was anti-climatic to say the least).

That brings us to part three. Once again Stallone increases the star power with filling almost every speaking role with some kind of action star. Which I have to say is nice. No wasted characters here. The story is pretty straight forward (good guys go get the bad guys) but with some actual depth too it (not much mind you, but it is there). The in-jokes are kept to a minimum (which was just the right amount) and the action was on-par with the other two (perhaps a little better IMHO). The biggest complaint I would have is that there was no real "fight" beyond Mel Gibson and Stallone and that (once again) was lackluster. In the first movie Stallone actually lost the fight to Steve Austin which makes a better fight and leads to some of his co-stars to pick up the slack (of course I later found out that Stallone was actually hurt filming the scene, so the outcome *had* to be changed to keep the production going). In the other two it's always Stallone going at it alone against the main villain. Just think how cool it would have been to see Jet Li Vs Mel Gibson again after all these years (Remember Lethal Weapon 3)?

So, "Should I see it?" you are asking again. This one is interesting. As most of you know the installment made "little" money at the box office (due in part to the massive online leak of the movie weeks before its release) so, if only to keep the franchise alive, (and you want to support these guys, as well as see stuff blow up with tons of action and humor) I say go see it.