Starring: Sylvester Stallone, Jason Statham, Jet Li, Dolph Lundgren, Terry Crews, Randy Couture, Eric Roberts, Steve Austin, David Zayas, Mickey Rourke, Charisma Carpenter, Bruce Willis, Arnold Schwarzenegger

Directed By: Sylvester Stallone

This is not my first viewing of The Expendables, but I thought that with The Expendables 3 coming out next week, I’d revisit the first two films to see how they hold up.

I was actually surprised that I enjoyed The Expendables on a second viewing. There’s something to be said about creating a franchise, and you end up liking the characters involved more after a few films of being invested in them. With The Expendables, I liked both films the first time I saw them. Neither are classics, or should win awards or anything, but they are entertaining action films.

In many ways, Expendables is a throw back to how action movies used to work, before we started using CGI for everything, and making every action film some epic scale extravaganza. This is a pretty straight forward guns and knives action film, starring a bunch of guys who made this genre work in the first place. Sure, Stallone isn’t in his prime. None of these guys are. But that’s the point, isn’t it? A bunch of guys no one thinks can save the day… save the day?

Over the top action featuring your favorite action stars. The Expendables held up on a repeat viewing. I enjoyed it a second time around.

FINAL GRADE: B