Expend4bles 2023 Movie Review
When there is a fire, then the Expendables are called upon, whose specialty is daring missions in which a dead person is more or less irrelevant. This time the troops end up in Libya.
I liked the first “Expendables”. A group of old warhorses let it rip once again. The old men approach it in a relaxed and relaxed manner. The mood in “The Expendables 3” gave way to a serious tone, which the fourth part continues. It’s time for the men to let the pig out again and a reason is quickly found: the FBI needs a task force to prevent World War III. Well, first of all, the Expendables are only supposed to thwart the theft of detonators for nuclear bombs. The operation in the Middle East fails and the next intervention follows. This time Christmas is outside, but it’s his girlfriend Gina and Lash’s turn. Time is of the essence because the bad guys now have an atomic bomb as a means of exerting pressure.
The fourth part and another new concept. Only the core of the troops from the first part continues to fight. Most of the time the men travel alone, sometimes they work together. This undermines the sense of community and the emphasis that Jason Statham gives to excessive scenes is incomprehensible. The new ones greet them more or less friendly. While there were young vegetables in part three, this time there are two women. The surprise failed. The following is not meant to be misogynistic. But: In this men’s film, the women are miscast, because women do not fit into the image of this rough male world, which consists of cool men, male jokes and male friendships. Apart from that, the acting performances are not convincing. Megan Fox as Gina strikes many poses, which she probably thinks is an act. It doesn’t offer any action worth seeing and when it tries to radiate eroticism, it comes across as cheap. Levy Tran as Lash stays in the background and doesn’t fight much. For the reasons mentioned, it would have been better not to use them.
Unfortunately, something similar can be said about Dolph Lundgren, who contributes so little to the event that he could have enjoyed his well-deserved retirement and foregone the appearance. And, while we’re on the subject, Sylvester Stallone does the honors – in homeopathic doses. Otherwise, the (old) gentlemen are doing bravely (in the truest sense of the word). Flash cuts and time lapses help you make the fights look more impressive. The body count is extremely high and the opponents are none. The henchmen don’t wear bulletproof vests and die in droves. What is also striking is the brutality with which the killing takes place. Enemies die from stabs in close-up or a shot in the stomach causes the abdominal wall to burst.
The solution to the plot is insultingly simple. As with The Expendables 3, some of the tricks are of poor quality. This doesn’t mean the excessive explosions that simply make everything go up in a ball of fire, but rather the painfully tricked out scenes in which Jason Statham is driving. The storming takes place in the dark and when it’s time to escape, it’s suddenly daylight. Ouch.
The action film packs in a lot of things that men enjoy. It feels like it takes less than a minute for the action to start in “Expendables 4”. The opening is followed by a quiet, hardly convincing middle section and at the end there is another huge crash. The situation is excessively serious and the teasing doesn’t lighten things up enough. The changes to the concept are not convincing.
