The action-powerhouse known as ‘The Expendables II’ hit theaters Friday, August 17, 2012, and reunited everyone’s favorite action stars to once again save the day. The previous film posted relatively successful numbers, topping $100 million domestically, but considering its hefty $80 million budget, it ended up being a trade off. The first film was widely liked by audiences and continued to do well in the foreign market.

Its sequel opened at $28 million, which missed the $34 million mark set by its predecessor. Interestingly, ‘Expendables II’, while an enjoyable film, is not quite the marvel that the previous film managed to be.

‘Expendables II’ starts in a crime-infested city in Nepal where the titular Expendables kick in the doors to rescue a client. After a spectacular opening sequence, riddled with violence and fantastic fight scenes, Barney Ross (Sylvester Stallone) and company rescue Trench (Arnold Schwarzenegger) and a Chinese millionaire before escaping their pursuers.

Like the previous film, Lee Christmas (Jason Statham), Gunner Jensen (Dolph Lundgren), Yin Yang (Jet Li), Hael Caesar (Terry Crews), and Toll Road (Randy Couture) are in tow. However, this time around there are two changes: Yin leaves right after the rescue and we meet Billy (Liam Hemsworth), an ex-Army sniper.

The crew returns to the states to celebrate their successful mission and Billy tells Barney he’ll go with them on one more mission before quitting to stay with his girlfriend in Paris. Barney then runs into Mr. Church (Bruce Willis), who is annoyed that the Expendables stole $5 million from him and killed a rogue CIA agent in the previous film, but he kept them out of jail because he wanted to use them later as a favor.

He orders them to retrieve the contents of a safe that were in a plane that was shot down. He also sends an expert safe cracker named Maggie (Yu Nan) to get the safe open. Barney reluctantly agrees and the team heads out on the mission.

They reach the plane and crack the safe, retrieving a miniature device with the blueprint to a mine full of plutonium. However, they are intercepted by Jean Vilain (Jean Claude Van Damme), who ransoms off Billy in exchange for the device. After they give it up, Vilain kills Billy and leaves. Barney and the crew are devastated and angry so they swear to kill Vilain before he can sell the plutonium to his buyers.

Like the first film, ‘Expendables II’ delivers on the high-octane action and impressive fight sequences. Each man pulls his weight in delivering the pain to the bad guys with absolutely no regrets whatsoever. It bears mentioning that initially, Chuck Norris wanted the film to be PG-13, but Stallone decided to keep in form with the first film’s R-rating and it is much appreciated. There are plenty of amazing actors and martial artists present that help make this cast one of the best in action movie history.

It is a welcomed sight to see Schwarzenegger, Stallone, and Willis together, especially since there are a ton of in-jokes and film references flying back and forth between them. Additionally, Chuck Norris pops in twice to prove why he is one of the ultimate Internet memes and is a wonderful addition to the cast. Van Damme also proves the years have not taken away his ability to chew scenery and kick the crap out of anyone in his way.

However, while ‘Expendables II’ is tons of fun, it has its share of problems. The first is the death of Billy. The franchise is not shy about poking fun at 1980’s and 1990’s clichés, but it still falls prey to one of the big no-no’s in the writing world. That is, do not introduce a character only to kill them off twenty minutes into the film.

It is unfair to the character, the audience, and the plot itself. There were plenty of other ways to make a revenge plot without killing off Billy. It felt cheap and did not have much of an impact, since he only had about fifteen lines of dialogue.

Secondly, the CG was sub-par. The most noticeable instances were the fake blood spatters that erupted from bad guys when shot and the jungle scenes, which were badly rendered eyesores. The first film had a small problem with these effects but it got worse with this sequel because they used more effects that were not of high quality.

Thirdly, the dialogue is very hit-or-miss. The first film did not have brilliant dialogue, but it was serviceable and made better by one truly amazing scene from Mickey Rourke, who was sadly absent from this movie. There are several times where the characters are talking for little to no reason and their jokes are not very funny.

Lastly, the absences of Jet Li and Mickey Rourke are upsetting because both characters brought excellent energy in the first movie. Li’s interactions with Lundgren were hilarious and endearing. His disappearance is abrupt and it leaves a hole in the group. While Rourke’s part was small in ‘The Expendables,’ he is still sorely missed.

Overall, ‘Expendables II’ does what it set out to do, but it does not surpass the first one in terms of quality. Still, if ever there was an epic action film to see this fall, check it out.

Grade: 3.5/5

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‘The Expendables 2’ is coming to theaters in August and this time around, another inimitable pioneer of the action genre– the American martial arts legend Chuck Norris — joins the team as Booker, whose name is a nod to the influential 1978 actioner ‘Good Guys Wear Black’ in which Norris portrayed a character named John T. Booker. In that film and in ‘The Expendables 2’, Norris plays a retired military operative trying to rescue his old comrades.

It was a rare opportunity to pay tribute to Norris’ unending appeal. Sylvester Stallone explains, “Chuck basically retired from films but he agreed to join our movie. He plays a character who mysteriously comes out of nowhere to save our butts. We call him Lone Wolf. He’s there when you need him, and gone when you don’t.”

Norris is the pop culture subject of countless Paul Bunyan-type larger than life “Chuck Norris’ facts” created by fans – such as “Chuck Norris counted to infinity – twice” — with more than half-million of these “facts” circulating on the Internet. The film’s multinational cast and crew affectionately jumped on the bandwagon almost as soon as Norris disembarked from the airplane to the film’s primary location in Bulgaria, coining a new one: “Chuck Norris doesn’t visit Bulgaria… Bulgaria visits Chuck Norris.”

Former NFL football player turned actor, Terry Crews echoes the feeling of many on set when it came to working alongside Norris, “You’re talking about one of the icons of action… I mean, in one of first martial arts films, this guy fought Bruce Lee!”

Every great action-adventure demands a ruthless and memorable villain – and in ‘The Expendables 2’, the blockbuster kickboxing star Jean-Claude Van Damme adds his instantly recognizable persona and skills to the film’s superstar roster in the nefarious role of Jean Vilain.

Stallone says of Van Damme taking on the bad guy role: “People have never seen him like this before. Usually he plays heroes and I think people will be quite surprised by Vilain – who is fearlessly hell-bent on destroying us despite the risk of self-destruction. He’s willing to die and eventually when Vilain and Barney meet one-on-one, it ends up being a hellacious battle until the very end. It’s kind of like a heavyweight championship fight that you never thought would happen.”

Producer King-Templeton muses, “Jean-Claude Van Damme and Sly Stallone in the same fight scene? I think audiences have been waiting for that for 30 years. This movie has almost every gun ever made in it and every explosion you could imagine. But at the end we wanted to have Sly and Jean-Claude get together for a classic hand-to-hand battle. All the technology is gone. All the hardware is gone. It’s just the two guys going at it.”

Producer Les Weldon sums up: “Jean-Claude plays Vilain so menacing and so crazy that it sends chills up your spine. He is evil incarnate but in a very good way for the film.”

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Over twenty-five years ago, Dolph Lundgren went head-to-head against Stallone as Russian fighter Ivan Drago in Rocky IV. Now he returns in ‘The Expendables 2’ in the role of volatile Gunner Jensen, who has nearly been undone by too much adrenaline, drinking and combat stress. Lundgren says, “Gunner is still crazy but the main thing now is that he’s with the team all the way through. In the first picture he was kind of on his own journey.”

Former NFL football player turned actor, Terry Crews — known for his comedic roles in television shows like “Everybody Hates Chris” as well as in a memorable series of Old Spice commercials — makes his return as street-smart barrel weapons specialist Hale Caesar. During production, Crews became reacquainted with Hale Caesar’s weapon of choice in the film: the AA-12 auto assault 12-gauge shotgun, capable of delivering 300 rounds per minute and is considered the most powerful weapon in the world by enthusiasts.

More drawn to hand-to-hand combat, Mixed Martial Arts superstar Randy Couture returns as Toll Road, the brawny intellect of the group. “Toll Road is the glue that holds all of these dysfunctional guys together,” says Couture.

Like the rest of the cast, Couture was ready for non-stop action but even more excited about the characters and their friendships. “For me the physical part of making movies is the easy part,” he explains. “I just retired from Mixed Martial Arts, and I’m still in the best shape of my life, right now, at age 48. But finding the emotions and finding my way inside my character is really the more challenging, and the most interesting, part for me.”

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