The Expendables

Whatever you think of this mucho macho male reunion flick, you have to admire 64-year-old co-writer/director/actor Sylvester Stallone for assembling an impressive tough-guy cast for this Dirty Dozen-style film, which also features hilarious cameos by Bruce Willis and Arnold Schwarzenegger. Maintaining, “If the money's good, we don't care what the job is,” the titular battered and bickering band of hard-bodied mercenaries consists of leader Barney Ross (Stallone), hotheaded knife expert Lee Christmas (Jason Statham), Chinese martial arts master Yin Yang (Jet Li), long-barrel weapon specialist Hale Caesar (Terry Crews), cauliflower-eared demolitions expert Toll Road (UFC's Randy Couture), and psychotic sharp-shooter Gunnar Jensen (Dolph Lundgren). Mickey Rourke is also on hand as Tool, Ross's ex-Expendable buddy, who has retired to become a tattoo artist. When these misfits, disguised as ornithologists from the Global Wildlife Conservancy, are sent on a covert, CIA-funded mission to infiltrate the fictional South American island of Vilena and overthrow a ruthless despot general (David Zayas), they discover that the cocaine-producing nation is actually run by a renegade CIA agent (Eric Roberts), with wrestler “Stone Cold” Steve Austin and kickboxer Gary Daniels at his side. Chaos, confusion, and a barrage of violent explosions reign in The Expendables, as everyone is turned into virtual viscera; unfortunately, this testosterone-propelled blast-from-the-past is also often absurdly incoherent. Optional. (S. Granger)[Blu-ray Review—Dec. 20, 2011—Lionsgate, 114 min., not rated, $24.99—Making its second appearance on Blu-ray, 2010's The Expendables features a fine transfer and DTS-HD 7.1 audio. Blu-ray extras include a new intro from director/star Sylvester Stallone (3 min.), an “Inferno” making-of documentary (92 min.), a Spike TV-produced behind-the-scenes segment (21 min.), “Sylvester Stallone: A Director in Action” (21 min.), the music video “Sinner's Prayer” by Sully Erna, trailers, and a bonus digital copy of the film. Bottom line: longer, but not better, this extended cut is expendable.]