Film Review: The Expendables 3

Tags

Antonio Banderas, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Film Review, Film Review: The Expendables, Film Review: The Expendables 3, Films, Glenn Powel, Harrison Ford, Jason Statham, Kellan Lutz, Kelsey Grammer, Mel Gibson, movies, Ronda Rousey, Sly Stallone, Sylvester Stallone, The Expendables, The Expendables3

Sly Stallone and the Expendables are back with a big bang. This time around the bad guy is the cruel and ruthless Stonebanks (Mel Gibson), one of the original Expendables. When one of the Expendables dies on a mission to bring Stonebanks down, Barney Ross (Sylvester Stallone) begins to question his relationship to the crew. Not wanting to deal with more loss he decides to ditch the old gang and hire new blood to hunt his one time partner down.

Guided by Bonaparte (Kelsey Grammer) he headhunts some new talent and ends up with a bunch of inexperienced hackers, bouncers and motor mouth Galgo (Antonio Banderas) who is looking for a new crew.

But of course once the shit hits the fan the only people who can really help Barnet are his old trusty Expendables.

The Expendables 3 may have turned to younger actors like Kellan Lutz, Ronda Rousey and Glenn Powell to liven up the action scenes, but it sadly lacks the same humour and enjoyment factor from the earlier films.

Out of the original cast only Jason Statham, as Lee Christmas, and Sly himself seem up for the job as an Expendable, the rest of the crew require a lot of good will to be believable. Arnold Schwarzenegger (Trench) looks as if just standing and smoking his cigars is all he can muster and Harrison Ford (Drummer) is visibly shaking.

The Expendables 3 has clearly lost complete sight of the motto ‘less is more’ and thinks that by loading up on testosterone and big names is enough to make an action movie, but it is simply not good enough. The action scenes are lacking, jumping out of the way as buildings explode and ‘nearly’ getting hit by bullets just isn’t very exciting, even if it last for 20 minutes.

Overall The Expendables 3 is a pale remake of what has gone before and can only function as an example of how to present as many big named stars as possible in a really bad film.

 

Film Review: Transformers: Age of Extinction

Tags

Film Review, Film Review: Transformers, Film Review: Transformers: Age of Extinction, Film Transformers: Age of Extinction, Films, Jack Reynor, Kelsey Grammer, Mark Wahlberg, Michael Bay, Nicola Peltz, Optimus Prime, Stanley Tucci, Transformers

Chicago has been destroyed in the war between Autobots and Decepticons and now both are seen as a threat to humanity. To hunt down all alien robots CIA agent Harold Atinger (a nasty Kelsey Grammer) creates a special unit with the sole purpose of killing them. Ironically, Atinger is in cohorts with a new kind of evil robot, who is on the hunt for Optimus Prime.

While all of this is going on a “out-of-luck” robotics expert and inventor Cade Yeager (Mark Wahlberg) is trying to make ends meet and raise his teenage daughter Tessa (Nicola Peltz). As chance would have it Yeager buys an old beat up truck, which turns out to be a badly damaged Optimus Prime.

Before you know it the CIA storms onto the property and a man/robot hunt ensues. Yeager, a big believer in the good of Autobots, teams up with Optimus Prime, forcing his daughter and her boyfriend Shane Dyson (Irish lad Jack Reynor) to tag along.

Soon they discover that it’s not just the CIA who is on their tails but billionaire tech magnate and defense contractor Joshua Joyce (Stanley Tucci) wants them too.

Transformers: Age of Extinction is a loud film, filled to the brim with CGI and explosions, too much to take in but still not enough to distract from the lack of plot. But then, Michael Bay is the director and his last films have been more miss then hit, at this time around he can’t even blame a writers strike.

If anyone hopped that the change of cast would liven up the franchise it was a slight miscalculation. The new cast is a bit like a tic-tac, fresh for a minute but doesn’t last for the whole, absurdly long, film (165min).

Wahlberg does try a few Bruce Willis impressions a la Armagedon, but seems to lack inspiration. Peltz fills the gap that Megan Fox left open and even though she definitely has a smaller cup size she doesn’t do much either to move the story along. When she isn’t mooning over her boyfriend she is too scared to do anything of much use. But then Reynor himself is a complete wuss in the film, his only talents are driving under pressure and doing a leprechaun impression every now and then, which is even more odd since he grew up in Ireland.

Grammer is a one-dimensional bad guy, his only true motivation wanting a big payout, not quite enough to understand his willingness to kill anyone in his way. Only Tucci seems to be having a little bit of fun, but you can’t help but see him with a big purple wig as he delivers his quips very much in his “Hunger Games” manner.

Overall Transformers: Age of Extinction is just another failed attempt of the Transformer franchise, but with an unlimited budget and number five in pre-production it seems that they are willing to keep going. And it is clear that there are enough sci-fi fans out there willing to pay for three hours off film with an attention deficit disorder.