EXPENDABLES 3

If I had been asked to identify problems that would befall Expendables 3, it is safe to say that “takes itself too seriously “was not one I anticipated. Its two predecessors, after all, were not exactly weighed down with a sense of their own seriousness and self-importance. Somewhere during the creative process the filmmakers seem to have decided that what we really need is a lot of moping and navel gazing. It doesn’t help that the main mouthpiece for much of this is Sly Stallone who struggles valiantly against the half of his face that has suffered an OD of Botox. This is a problem for me because it’s not as if he has an incredible range of facial expressions to begin with . The sad thing is that when it wants to the film can also be refreshingly silly and makes some sly (pun intended) in jokes about its cast and their more well-known action outings. The two cast members who clearly remember exactly what film they’re in do much to lift the mood, the first is Mel Gibson as villainous Conrad Stonebanks who saunters through the chaos only mildly surprised by anything. The other is Galgo, played by Antonio Banderas, who bounces from scene to scene infecting the audience with his enthusiasm. These two performances are exactly what the others should have been providing, where’s that energy from the rest of the cast? It’s not that they give bad performances it’s just that with films like this you need to go all in or nothing. It remains to be seen whether or not a fourth film could be a possibility but one can only hope that if this comes to pass they ramp the insanity up to eleven. FINAL VERDICT 5/10 I was by no means bored but feel we’re missing something from the first two films.