‘The Expendables’ has been one of the most popular action franchises in Hollywood. The franchise which started off with Sylvester Stallone as the lead trying to get together a bunch of Hollywood big-wig action stars together for a larger-than-life action-adventure, has grown to have a handful of the original cast and accumulated bigger and bigger stars with every sequel. With the 4th part, ‘The Expendables’ becomes bigger than ever.
‘The Expendables 4’: Story
The team of Expendables is the world’s last line of defence against a potential World War 3. They are armed with every weapon they can get their hands on. The team gets called for the mission when all other options are off the table. They try to pull every resource available to stop a nuclear bomb from detonating at a Russian port while being laden inside an American ship. If the bomb explodes the Russians will feel that the Americans have attacked them. In an act of retaliation, they will hit back with a bigger attack, which will eventually spiral into a world war. The team of Expendables try to stop this ship from crashing into the Russian port.
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‘The Expendables 4’: Performances
Jason Statham is the only person holding the entire film together on his shoulders. Even though he has nothing else apart from action in the film, he still flaunts a swagger that keeps his character interesting.
Sylvester Stallone came all guns blazing to pick up from where he left in the previous film of the franchise. His character has less screen time in this part, but he does manage to get you excited and pumped up every time he is onscreen.
Megan Fox is possibly there just to increase the sexual quotient in the film. While she is there in some of the action scenes even, it seems that she was there just for that one raunchy intimate scene with Jason Statham. There was not much relevance to her character.
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Curtis "50 Cent" Jackson, who is a new addition to the cast, is just there to attract his immense fan following to watch the film. Sadly, he doesn’t have a role that’s even worthy of his time.
Dolph Lundgren, Tony Jaa, Iko Uwais and Randy Couture are all wasted in roles that are massively small. Their action has been shown in fewer scenes and you’re just feeling whether or not they’re just there as a favour to Sylvester Stallone trying to keep alive this genre of action.
Andy García, another new addition this time, tries his level best to up the ante. However, having seen Andy García’s films over the years, you know that the character isn’t what it looks on the surface of it. And when your expectations are proved right, you’re slightly disappointed thinking about how predictable it was.
‘The Expendables 4’: Script, Direction & Technical Aspects
The script by Kurt Wimmer, Tad Daggerhart and Max Adams based on the story of Spenser Cohen, Kurt Wimmer and Tad Daggerhart is the weakest link of the film. There is barely any storyline. It’s so wafer-thin that you’re constantly feeling that you’re watching just a bunch of action sequences that are strung together.
Director Scott Waugh does well to try and stitch together the numerous action sequences together and try to make a semblance of a storyline. He has managed to get the action to come out brilliantly, which helps make the film look larger than life. However, where he misses out is in the VFX aspect. The visual effects in some of the scenes are so bad that you end up feeling that video games have better visual effects than this. Scenes of a helicopter blasting and falling off the ship, scenes of actors jumping from one vehicle to another – there are simply so many scenes where the visual effects were too amateurish, and you don’t expect that to happen in such a high-profile film franchise. But one thing that Scott Waugh gets brilliantly is the intent of the film. He didn’t let the film bring on too much of the backstories and the emotional baggage. He stuck to an old-school actioner and went straight to action and ended it with some action.
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The cinematography by Tim Maurice-Jones is something that’s decently good. While on the one hand, you love the way the action sequences have been filmed, at the same time, you’re also hoping the outdoor sequences atop a ship to be a bit more lighted, so that audiences could see what’s happening when. It’s a small detail but would have made a lot of impact on the action sequences. But those knife fights and high-flying action sequences have been filmed brilliantly. They make you feel like you too want to be a part of that fight.
Michael J. Duthie’s editing is fairly good. It helps you ease into the constant gunning and knife fights without any serious jump cuts. Also keeping the crisp is also a masterstroke. He didn’t let the film go up to the 2-hour mark, which was really good. Otherwise, the film may have started to drag a bit too much in the middle.
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Guillaume Roussel’s music is something that is a high point of the film. The constant shelling and action sequences needed a background score that will help you feel like you’re sitting in the midst of it all. Guillaume Roussel manages to get that perfectly. Some of the action sequences had fast-paced music, which sort of gave it a comical feel, but it somehow gelled well with the scenes.
‘The Expendables 4’: Cast & Crew
Director: Scott Waugh
Cast: Jason Statham, Sylvester Stallone, Curtis "50 Cent" Jackson, Megan Fox, Dolph Lundgren, Tony Jaa, Iko Uwais, Randy Couture, Andy García
Available On: Lionsgate Play
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Duration: 1 Hour 43 Minutes
‘The Expendables 4’: Can Kids Watch It?
Yes
Outlook’s Verdict
‘The Expendables 4’ is an old-school actioner. If you’re a fan of this genre and, even more, a fan of the stars doing the action, then only you’ll end up enjoying this. The script is wafer-thin and there is barely any storyline. It’s just a bunch of action sequences which are strung together one after the other. If you’re searching for an iota of a story, you’ll be left disappointed, just like I was. So, please Avoid. I am going with 1.5 stars.
