A barrage of bullets!
What do you expect when all the
men who have ever thrown a punch or held a gun in Hollywood are assembled for one film? Mayhem,
from the first frame to the last. That’s what the Expendables 2 is all about.
If you have seen the first part of this franchise, you might know exactly what
to expect. If not, you can still have a fair idea of the kind of things that
will happen on screen, because the makers have not really stretched their
imagination as much as the budget. The only thing different in Expendables 2
from its predecessor is that two men who had just one scene, Bruce and Arnold,
have around 4 scenes here, and there is double the number of bullets, bombs,
planes and tailor-made entry scenes. Otherwise, the formula remains intact.
The plot is as simple and
straight as the plan that Sylvester stylishly puts it in his one liner: ‘Track
them, find them, kill them’. The script too seems to have been written along
those lines, ‘get all the actors in one frame, give them guns and ask them to
fire’. The first few minutes sets the pace and the mood of the film. ‘Bang bang
bang’, that’s the only thing you can hear as bullets fly at astounding rates
with our men moving around in heavily armoured trucks. Its one easy operation to
start with as they rescue the most unlikely of people from a hellhole in Nepal;
that is a surprise, even though it is connected to the plot in only the most
tangential of ways. Then comes the usual bonding part followed by the real
mission which forms the plot. Good thing that the writers have chosen an
unsettled score from the first part and used it to form the reason behind the
job in the second, gives a minimum credibility to a script that doesn’t seem to
care about anything except action set pieces.
The plot is as simple as this: a
job that was supposed to be a ‘walk in the park’ goes wrong; apparently because
the team was not fully aware of what they were walking into. Now, they want
vengeance against the adversary who messed up their mission and killed on of
them. That’s how the ‘track them, find them, kill them’ stuff begins. It is all
straight shooting from then on; not just straight, but in all directions. Of
course, to make the plot thicker – they throw in some plutonium deposits which
was left behind by the USSR
after the Cold War (about time Hollywood movies stopped having a ‘USSR
weapons of mass destruction’ angle) that gives a ‘saving the world’ color to
the movie. Also, liberating a village happens in the midst of all this. You
have shooting from trucks, from treetops, houses, churches, airports and
conceivably every place you can think of. You also have the customary set-up
action sequence for Jason Statham who does his stylish stuff with the knives –
of course you have to overlook the fact that he could have used guns and saved
a lot of trouble. And, in Expendables 2, you have an almost Bollywoodish climax
where Sylvester and van Damme man-up against each other. The punches that
Sylvester throws in this encounter remind us of someone known as Rocky Balboa;
especially when he works it to the body of van Damme. Also, watch out for the
‘crash course’ in crashing a plane into a building without scratching yourself.
And, you cannot forget the
dialogues in an Expendables movie! You have Stallone and Statham exchanging
their usual round of statements; sometimes about girlfriends, sometimes about
fighting and sometimes about things they call ‘classics’. Some of them are
funny, some fall flat. With Arnold
in the fray, you cannot help but have lines like ‘Terminated’ and ‘I’ll be
back’. If you’re an Arnie fan, you’ll enjoy them. Bruce joins in with a few
wisecraks. These lines pep up the mood when you are tired of all the bangs and
blasts that have been going on.
There is nothing much to say
about the cast here. Simply put; this is the most complete action ensemble you
could have asked for. That is the biggest advantage of the movie and perhaps
also its biggest liability; because, with so many stars around, you just cannot
pack enough action for all of them. But, in spite of all the stars, the movie
remains the property of Sylvester Stallone and Jason Statham who get all the
big chunks of action.
Don’t look for sense, sensibility
or credibility here. This is all about knives, bullets and bombs. If you are
the kind that just cannot get enough of them, then Expendables 2 is your cup of
tea. But, if you are the kind who looks for reasons behind the action on
screen, if you want intelligence and credibility, then chances are that you
will be tired by the time the movie enters its second hour. This one is for
those who never get tired of firing away.
Verdict: Biff, bang, blast –
nothing else!!
