Film: The Expendables 3
Cast: Sylvester Stallone, Sylvester Stallone, Harrison Ford, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Mel Gibson, Antonio Banderas, Wesley Snipes, Jason Statham, Jet Li, Dolph Lundgren, Randy Couture, Terry Crews, Kelsey Grammer, Glen Powell & Ronda Rousey
Director: Patrick Hughes
Comparisons being odious and all that, it’s interesting how Sarah Wayne Callies the daughter of two university professors and an MFA from Denver’s National Theatre Conservatory is being typecast as an egghead in her film and TV appearances, while Fulbright Scholar and chemical engineer Dolph Lundgren continues to be peculiarised as a beefcake. But who am I to grumble when his co-stars in The Expendables 3 who epitomise the action hero stereotype aren’t complaining?
Seeing Lundgren alongside a battery of well-muscled handsome heavyweights in Sylvester Stallone’s latest testestorone fuelled escapade about friendship and betrayal, your reviewer is wracked by mixed feelings. That the action franchise upholds the value of the ageing and provokes viewers to rethink attitude towards senior citizenry, even as it lacks fresh fizz while Stallone and Co decimate an army of bad guys.
This time around the baddies are led by an arms dealing sociopath Conrad Stonebanks (Gibson). Stonebanks, it must be noted wasn’t always like this. He was, a co-founder of The Expendables with Barney Ross (Stallone) but subsequently went rogue, changing into someone who Barney killed… or so he thought.
Intriguingly, he lets off Barney when he has him in the crosshairs and grievously wounds Caesar (Terry Crews). The black Titan isn’t the only member of Barney’s team with interesting monickers. There’s Lee Christmas(Statham), Doc Death (Wesley Snipes) who’s the reason for the mayhem on the train in the film’s opening sequence set in Somalia, Toll Road (played by Randy Couture), Bonaparte essayed by Kelsey Grammer, Smilee (by Kellan Lutz), Yin Yang (Jet Li in a cameo) and motor-mouth Galgo (Antonio Banderas ) who is now on the same side as Barney (the two were at loggerheads in different avatars in Assassins).
Actually, the list is long and I could go on and on, but let me stop here and say that Stonebanks’ apparently implausible act of misfiring results the narrative’s long drawn out progression to a climactic finale in a Romanian warehouse. I say seemingly because as it turns out, Stonebanks desires hand to hand combat and no prizes for guessing who comes up trumps thanks to some timely help from CIA boss Drummer (Ford).
Before that happens, Barney had turned his back on old buddies and mustered new blood, younger, faster and tech-savvy gung ho types like the afore-mentioned Smilee, Luna (ex Olympic judo medalist Ronda Rousey), Thorn (Glen Powell) and Mars (boxing champ Victor Ortiz).
Mentoring the new recruits for the latest mission gives a chance for the crew, new and old to display bravery and courage. As one of the characters sums it, “Age is only a state of mind.” And as Mars puts it, “You’re only old when you surrender…” Earlier though Trench (Schwar-zenegger) tells Barney that he’s “getting out of this business – and so should you”. No sirree. They’re not going to. They only get better like vintage wine. Which is why there’s The Expendables 4.
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