MEATHEAD MASTERPIECE

MOVIE
The Expendables
Sylvester Stallone and his mighty men
Director Sylvester Stallone
Review Ray Chan

CLEARLY, Sly knows his audience and what they have come to expect of him.
    Never mind his odd dalliances here and there into other roles, he knows he is most clearly identified with the tough guy personas he portrayed in the likes of Rambo, Rocky, Cobra and Demolition Man.
    So with The Expendables, Stallone is back doing what he does best – kicking ass and keeping us entertained.
    You could imagine what went through his mind when he conceived the idea – grab every action man in Hollywood and put them together in one mega-adventure.
    By and large, he succeeded, with the exception of a couple of big name stars who wanted more money.
    Stallone would probably be the first to admit The Expendables is not a great film, nor even a great action movie, at least not by today's big-budget slam-bang standards.
    But it’s a damn lot of fun: a great slice of classic meat-and-potatoes musclebound '80s action which proves that, on a modest budget, gripping set pieces and sharp action spectacles can be created without lashings of CGI and flashy editing.
    With a cast featuring the likes of Jason Statham, Jet Li, Dolph Lundgren, Bruce Willis, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Steve Austin, Terry Crews, Mickey Rourke and of course Sly himself, this is undoubtedly the guiltiest of guilty pleasures, as we follow a group of elite mercenaries deployed to the Gulf of Aden to save hostages on a vessel from Somali pirates.
    There’s hardly any storyline, but The Expendables should more than please any hardcore action nut looking for a good old-fashioned, star-studded brawl.