[Editor's Note: For more reviews of the biggest movies of the summer, check out the Daily Loaf Movie Review Index.]
There's a smugness about Sylvester Stallone's The Expendables that hangs over each rickety shot and wooden line of dialogue. An odd feeling of importance for what would otherwise be a direct-to-DVD release by a long-forgotten action star. Perhaps that air of superiority stems from the film's gimmick of combining multiple action stars of year's past with some new faces, and mixing it with poor directing, editing and plot. I went into The Expendables with the lowest of expectations and still found a way to be utterly disappointed.
This article appears in Aug 12-18, 2010.
