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With: Jason Statham, Sylvester Stallone, Curtis "50 Cent" Jackson, Megan Fox, Dolph Lundgren, Tony Jaa, Iko Uwais, Randy Couture, Jacob Scipio, Levy Tran, Andy García
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Written by: Kurt Wimmer, Tad Daggerhart, Max Adams, based on a story by Spenser Cohen, Kurt Wimmer, Tad Daggerhart
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Directed by: Scott Waugh
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MPAA Rating: R for strong/bloody violence throughout, language and sexual material
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Running Time: 103
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Date: 09/22/2023
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Action Fraction
By Jeffrey M. Anderson
It's not the worst in this series, but it's not very good either; this third sequel has a few amusing character moments and some decent fights, but most of it is draggy, repetitive, and dumb.
Our team — old-timers Barney Ross (Sylvester Stallone), Lee Christmas (Jason Statham), Gunner Jensen (Dolph Lundgren), and Toll Road (Randy Couture), and newcomers Gina (Megan Fox), Easy Day (Curtis '50 Cent' Jackson), Galan (Jacob Scipio), and Lash (Levy Tran) — head to Libya on a mission to intercept several detonators. The mission goes badly, perhaps due to intel leaked by a traitor. Barney's plane crashes, and Lee is expelled from the outfit for disobeying orders.
The remaining team goes after the villain responsible, Rahmat (Iko Uwais), on a ship headed for Russia. The team is captured, but fortunately, Lee has tracked them, and brought on some help in the form of Barney's old pal Decha (Tony Jaa). They discover a nuclear device, designed to start WWIII, and so our heroes must defeat Decha's army, take control of the ship, and discover who Decha's boss, the mysterious, evil "Ocelot," really is.
Like so many sequels, Expend4bles (a cute way of rewording "The Expendables 4"), feels more like folks collecting a paycheck than expressing a burning desire to make a movie and tell a story. But at least the guys (Stallone, Statham, Lundgren, and Couture) that have made it through all four movies now have an easy camaraderie amongst each other.
Jaa makes an interesting addition, as a former fighter who has chosen peace over violence, explaining that each time he killed, it took a little bit more of his soul. (Of course, he eventually leaps back into the fray, but at least he tried.) On the other hand, it's disappointing that the most promising of this bunch, Uwais, from the excellent movies The Raid: Redemption and The Raid 2, is cast as the villain.
Director Scott Waugh (Act of Valor, Need for Speed) handles things like usual in this series, with a few neatly choreographed grapples, but also with a great deal of numbing jumble. The shootout aboard the ship could have been exciting, but instead it's like a countdown until the showdown; how many more guys do they have to shoot before we can get out of here?
Expend4bles makes one wonder if this aging series has finally lived up to its title.
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