THE EXPENDABLES 2 – Simon West

Well, we’re at the final stretch of the Summer Blockbuster Schedule and it has been quite the year! With Superhero films, sequels, comedies, and family films – it looks like Summer 2012 was a huge success! However, we’re not quite done just yet. One thing every year has and that is, sequels!

They are a HIT or MISS genre that will have you leaving the theater happy and cheering or scratching your head wondering, Why did I waste my time and money on that. Well, here is the latest sequel for the Summer of 2012 Blockbuster season and I assure you, you won’t be scratching your head on this one.

Two years ago, something was done in the films that had never been thought of before: put every Action Film star in one big, explosive, action-packed, powehouse of a film! Well, Sylvester Stallone put his creative thinking cap on and made a few phone calls to his fellow Action film friends and what was the result? One heck of a great Action film called The Expendables. I, for one, loved the first film because just that concept of putting all those huge Action film names in one film! How could it be possible? Well, the result was Box Office gold! I consider it the Best Action film in a long time and one of the Top Five Best of All Time! Well, when you have a hit, Hollywood comes calling for a sequel, enter – The Expendables 2.

The story pick’s up not too far from the first film with CIA Agent, Church (played by The Expendables 2), coming to ask (and collect a debt) from Barney (played by The Expendables 2), to payback what he owes him and be free of his debt. To do that, Church tell’s Barney he must go to former Soviet Union territory to a plane crash site where a very important package is waiting for him. He doesn’t tell him what it is (not just yet). Once it is in Church’s hands, all is fair and square. Barney collects his band of fellow muscle bound friends (Lee, Yin, Gunner, Hal, Toll, and Billy the Kid),and Maggie (played by Nan Yu),  to come along for what would seem like an easy mission. Nothing is ever easy for these guys.

Once at the crash site, a gang of baddies called, The Sangs, are lead by a very mean leader (played by Jean-Claude van Damme), who want the same package. With the murder of one of Barney’s crew, the package out of their hands, no weapons, and stuck in the middle of nowhere – it looks like the odds are against them. Oh, but we don’t want to spoil it for ya, so to find out if justice is served and the good guys win, I highly recommend The Expendables 2.

This has to me one of the Best Action sequels ever made! It was an “explosively” good time and not just the typical guns, bombs, and explosions, but also very funny! I laughed more at this than most comedies this summer. One of the key ingredients that worked in Action films of the 80′s and 90′s is; Comedy and Action work! It’s like peanut butter and chocolate. And it worked very well here as well. Every big named Action star is back (Stallone, Willis, Schwarzenegger, Statham, Li, Crew, Hemsworth, Lundgren, and Couture) along with new Action star’s to the mix (Jean-Claude Van Damme, Chuck Norris and Nan Yu). It is a film that you can truly just go, relax, have fun, laugh, cheer, and be excited about. There is talk already of a 3rd Expendables with possible “lady Expendables” and I, for one, think that would be a great finale. There’s also rumors of even more great Action film stars like Clint Eastwood, Harrison Ford, Nicholas Cage, and Wesley Snipes to possibly be in Part 3. However, for now, I recommend you end your summer with a ‘BANG!’ and see The Expendables 2.