The Expendables

Sylvester Stallone's old-tin-soldiers-of-action mercenary thriller, the director-star and his right-hand lug, Jason Statham, lead a band of commandos in an assault on the island fortress of a corrupt general. They show up and attack the general's men with fists, knives, and very big guns. The Expendables is that it's a completely low-tech, brute-force movie.We first meet the Expendables while rescuing the crew of a tanker overtaken by Somali pirates. The main group consists of Barney Ross (Stallone), his right hand man and knife-wielder supreme Lee Christmas (Jason Statham), combat specialist Yin Yang (Jet Li), demolitions expert Toll Road (Randy Couture), heavy weapons god Hale Caesar (Terry Crews) and mandatory loose cannon Gunnar Jenson (Dolph Lundgren). A group of mercenaries is hired to infiltrate a South American country and overthrow its ruthless dictator. Once the mission begins, the men realize things aren't quite as they appear, finding themselves caught in a dangerous web of deceit and betrayal. With their mission thwarted and an innocent life in danger, the men struggle with an even tougher challenge -- one that threatens to destroy this band of brothers. Barney Ross is a man with nothing to lose. Fearless and void of emotion, he is the leader, the sage and the strategist of this tight-knit band of men who live on the fringe. His only attachment is to his pickup truck, his seaplane and his team of loyal modern-day warriors. His is a true cynic who describes what he does as removing those hard to get at stains. The team behind him is made up of Lee Christmas, former SAS and a savant with anything that has a blade; Yin Yang, a master at close-quarter combat; Hale Caesar, who has known Barney for ten years and is a long-barrel weapons specialist; Toll Road, a skilled demolitions expert and considered the intellect of the group; and Gunnar Jensen, a combat veteran and an expert in precision sniping who struggles with his own demons. When the mysterious Church offers Barney a job no one else would take, Barney and his team embark on what appears to be a routine mission: overthrow General Gaza, the murderous dictator of the small island country of Vilena and end the years of death and destruction inflicted on its people. On a reconnaissance mission to Vilena, Barney and Christmas meet their contact Sandra, a local freedom-fighter with a dark secret. They also come to learn who their true enemy is: rogue ex-CIA operative James Monroe and his henchman Paine. When things go terribly wrong, Barney and Christmas are forced to leave Sandra behind, essentially giving her a death sentence. Haunted by this failure, Barney convinces the team to return to Vilena to rescue the hostage and finish the job he started. And to perhaps save a soul: his own. The action scenes are spectacular. Seeing this crew dispatch faceless hordes of soldiers is all kinds of hard-R awesome and never gets old. During the fabulous finale that sees Crews literally tearing the movie apart with his sub-nuclear hand bazooka while the rest of the group maneuvers a multitude of bomb blasts, The Expendables finally proves its point.