Member Iron_Leopard Posted January 12, 2022 Member Share Posted January 12, 2022 I just rewatched the three movies for the first time in a long while and I actually enjoyed them for the most part. The first one still feels kind of sloppy but does just enough right to make it watchable. The second is still my favorite mostly cause of Van Damme. The third is better than people give it credit for I feel. Gibson and Banderas stole the show for me. Looking forward to 4. I hear they are almost done filming. What are your overall thoughts now that it's almost been a decade since part 2? Man time flies. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member DragonClaws Posted January 12, 2022 Member Share Posted January 12, 2022 8 hours ago, Iron_Leopard said: The third is better than people give it credit for I feel. Gibson and Banderas stole the show for me. For me it was Wesley Snipe's who stood out the most in Part 3. 8 hours ago, Iron_Leopard said: What are your overall thoughts now that it's almost been a decade since part 2? Man time flies. I need to re-watch all three, in particual the extended cut of the first movie. Which I hear is a lot better version than the thetrical cut?. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member saltysam Posted January 12, 2022 Member Share Posted January 12, 2022 Found all three to be disappointing, considering the star power involved. Jet Li, an iconic star of HK cinema reduced to comedy sparring with Dolph Lundgren. None are bad just very average. Sold them all on a couple of years ago. 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member sym8 Posted January 12, 2022 Member Share Posted January 12, 2022 I thought they were pretty awful.Especially the last one,two I can tolerate more but it still annoys me you had Van Damme but no Jet Li to face off with,I get you have to have Sly wining the day but somewhere in there you could have had a Li vs Van Damme throw down. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member laagi Posted January 12, 2022 Member Share Posted January 12, 2022 Assuming I'm the only one who never watched a single one of these movies. Then again looks like I didn't really miss much. 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Iron_Leopard Posted January 12, 2022 Author Member Share Posted January 12, 2022 53 minutes ago, sym8 said: I thought they were pretty awful.Especially the last one,two I can tolerate more but it still annoys me you had Van Damme but no Jet Li to face off with,I get you have to have Sly wining the day but somewhere in there you could have had a Li vs Van Damme throw down. That's one of my biggest gripes. Stallone really disrespected Jet Li in this series. The first movie was originally billed as a Stallone/Statham/Li movie but you can tell a lot of Li's scenes were cut because it was the Stallone/Statham show. This disrespect carried on for the whole trilogy with Li only appearing at the beginning of the second and at the end of the third. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Iron_Leopard Posted January 12, 2022 Author Member Share Posted January 12, 2022 5 hours ago, DragonClaws said: For me it was Wesley Snipe's who stood out the most in Part 3. I need to re-watch all three, in particual the extended cut of the first movie. Which I hear is a lot better version than the thetrical cut?. I rewatched the first two back to back and then the third one the next night. I feel like I enjoyed them more watching it like this cause I was just along for the ride and wasn't too busy worrying about how average these movies are when they should have been great. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member SamSeed Posted January 12, 2022 Member Share Posted January 12, 2022 Really like the first two. The third was only good for the Stallone vs Gibson fight, and that was too short. 2 I thought got the best mix of self aware humour and action. Van Damme makes a great villain and everybody gets their chance to shine, and Stallone vs Van Damme is an awesome fight. Come on, who wasn't grinning from ear to ear seeing Schwarzenegger and Willis blasting bad guys together? 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Iron_Leopard Posted January 12, 2022 Author Member Share Posted January 12, 2022 51 minutes ago, SamSeed said: Really like the first two. The third was only good for the Stallone vs Gibson fight, and that was too short. 2 I thought got the best mix of self aware humour and action. Van Damme makes a great villain and everybody gets their chance to shine, and Stallone vs Van Damme is an awesome fight. Come on, who wasn't grinning from ear to ear seeing Schwarzenegger and Willis blasting bad guys together? Agreed. 2 was perfectly balanced. I love the whole action scene at the airport. And Chick Norris randomly showing up was great. Most people seem to not like the Stallone/Van Damne fight but I dug it. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member DarthKato Posted January 13, 2022 Member Share Posted January 13, 2022 I'm a huge fan of 80s and 90s action films. Been watching them since I was six years old. So to finally see all my favorite action stars gathered to make a series of films was awesome to behold. Sure, there are better action films, but just the novelty of all these guys together in one movie, kicking ass and shouting one-liners, makes them worth watching. 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member SamSeed Posted January 13, 2022 Member Share Posted January 13, 2022 Actually the biggest surprise for me was Dolph Lundgren. He's not somebody I ever really took notice of, Rocky 4 aside. His comic timing outshone everyone and I've since tracked down a lot of his films, the ones he directed like Command Performance are great fun. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member FightingFool Posted January 16, 2022 Member Share Posted January 16, 2022 (edited) On 1/12/2022 at 6:14 AM, Iron_Leopard said: Looking forward to 4. I hear they are almost done filming. Considering how long they have been working on #4, "almost" means probaly 2-3 more years... I like all so far, 3 is weakest but it`s still good. There is some great stuff in deleted scenes of 2nd movie, pity they were not featured in film. Edited January 16, 2022 by FightingFool 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member DarthKato Posted February 11, 2023 Member Share Posted February 11, 2023 Finally got around to re-watching this series( I had actually never seen the third one before) and here are my general thoughts on them: The Expendables- It was cool to see all these guys together in one film, but this movie is really rough. Firstly, its way too dark. I'm not talking about content wise either, I literally mean that you cannot see what the heck is going on some times. Also, the fight scenes(Especially the hand to hand fights) are way too chopped up and disorientating. All this makes what should be a fun and engaging movie watching experience a choir. But, being the huge fan of action movies that I am, I still found the movie pretty entertaining. The over the top violence, awesome one-liners, and seeing all these guys together made it worth putting up the flaws, at least for me. Rating 3/5 The Expendables 2- Now this is easily my favorite of the trilogy. All the flaws from the first film is gone and everything that was great is made even better. I cannot think of a single thing that I didn't like about this movie, except that I would have liked to have seen a little more of Jet Li. Other than that, it was damn near perfect. Rating 5/5 The Expendables 3- This movie lies somewhere between the first two movies. It didn't have the technical problems of the first, but it lacked a little of the charm. It started out pretty strong, then became kind of dull in the middle, then went out with a bang. All the new, young recruits didn't feel like they belonged. If their goal was a passing the torch story, I'm sure they could have found some better young, action movie stars, instead of the random assortment of unfamiliar faces. My favorite new character was easily Antonio Banderas's Galgo. He had laughing so hard at times that I couldn't breath. I also thought Mel Gibson made a fantastic antagonist(Maybe the best of the series? (It would be between him and JCVD's Vilain). So yeah, it was mixed bag, but still a fun movie. Rating 4/5 So yeah, that was my thoughts on The Expendables Trilogy. I overall liked them all, despite some flaws with the first and third. This series is an easy recommend for any fan of 80s and 90s action films. Oh, and can they show some love to Cynthia Rothrock and get her in Expendables 4? It sucked that she didn't show up at all. She's too awesome not to at least have a quick cameo or something. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Agent U Posted February 19, 2023 Member Share Posted February 19, 2023 (edited) Only watched the first two. They are entertaining, but kinda take me back to those syndicated action TV series mostly from the 80s and 90s, which I guess isn't saying much. Other than the cast, there's nothing in this franchise that truly gives it an identity of its own. This being a reunion of 80s action stars (that's how it's always been marketed around me at least), I also never understood the point of half the cast, and especially the prominence of Statham's character, since he broke out in the 2000s. Plus, the point of having a younger guy is also lost in the fact that he looks and has always looked much older than he actually is (I'd argue Dolph Lundgren looks younger than Statham tbh). Stallone is stepping out because he's 75 (fair enough), but he's passing the torch to a guy who himself looks 75 (ok, 65). Edited February 19, 2023 by Agent U 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderator Karlos Posted February 20, 2023 Moderator Share Posted February 20, 2023 I highly recommend the extended director's cut of the first Expendables, aka the original cut Sly turned in before test audiences demanded more jokes. Also worth checking out - the feature length making of, Inferno, which is an absolutely fascinating look into how test screenings can alter a film. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.