Meanwhile, Church (Bruce Willis) creeps back into Barney’s life following the debacle of the first movie and he either wants his 5 million bucks back or one last job done. The team is tasked with retrieving an item from a downed plane and Church wants his tech expert, Maggie (Nan Yu) along for the ride to make sure the safe doesn’t explode. Well, things never can go according to plan and not only do they lose the item to an evil war lord named Vilain (Jean-Claude Van Damme), but they also brutally lose a team member, leading the remaining members to vow revenge upon Vilain.
As it turns out, Vilain seeks a huge stash of plutonium from deep within an abandoned mine in Eastern Europe and he forces the locals to work in the mine. When The Expendables track him down, they find that the remaining local women and children are prepared to rise up against Vilain, if only they had a little help. What results is an explosive come-uppance for Vilain brought about by Barney and his crew, plus Maggie, with a little help from Trench (Arnold Schwarzeneggar), Church (Willis), and old friend and "Lone Wolf" Booker (Chuck Norris).
Since The Expendables 2 was directed by Simon West instead of Stallone himself, it was actually better because Stallone was able to focus more on his character than trying to wear a number of different hats all at once. The movie felt like it knew where it wanted to go – it made fun of itself unabashedly and was all the better for it. Sure, the script won’t win any awards, but having recently seen The Expendables, I found this to be a far superior film. It is ridiculously chock-full of puns and callbacks to all of these action stars’ earlier roles. Stuff like Hale Caesar threatening to "terminate" Trench if he messes up his gun and Trench saying "Yippee kay yay" to Church when he makes a comment about him "always coming back." It’s funny, punny stuff and a wonderful homage to the action movies of the 80’s and their shining stars, most of whom are showcased here.
Special features are actually fairly hefty and include featurettes on the stars of the film, action movies of the 80’s, the real-life weaponry featured in the film, and the real mercenaries out there in the world that these guys are loosely based upon. There’s also a quick gag reel and a handful of deleted scenes, but each featurette clocks in around 30 minutes, so it’s a fair amount of content.
I had a great time watching The Expendables 2. It’s one of those movies where you can just turn your brain off and enjoy the ‘splosions and banter. It won’t win an Oscars (unless there’s a new category for bad-assery that I haven’t heard of), but it’s a fun popcorn action movie. Check it out and, personally, I can’t wait to see who they throw in for The Expendables 3!
