Film: The Expendables

Sylvester Stallone proves he's still the action movie King in this star studded explosion of a film.

The Expendables are a group of mercenaries lead by Stallone and when they are offered a mission by the shady Mr Church (Bruce Willis) it looks like a fool's errand but Sly can't get the images of a small island being ruled by an iron fist out of his head so he decides to go back. You don't think his buddies would let him go alone do you?

The evil General is played admirably by Dexter's David Zayas and Eric Roberts is a typically slimy businessman who pulls his strings and with Steve Austin and Gary Daniels as henchmen it's a formidable set of opponents for Stallone and his men.

The action scenes are tremendous and it all moves along at a blistering pace. The entire cast are teriffic, each adding his own unique presence to proceedings. Special mention goes to Dolph Lundgren who steals almost every scene he is in and to Jason Statham who dominates a lot of the fighting.

The story itself is a simple one but, like Avatar, it's a simple story very well told with excellent characters that you are happy to root for.

It's old school good guys v bad guys with some great one on one confrontations including a nice fight between man mountain Lundgren and small but deadly Li.

There are some dodgy CGI moments but that aside credit goes to Stallone for putting together an amazing cast and, as director, getting the best from each of them to end up with a modern feel good action movie classic.

Don't miss it.

Ric's rating: 92%