THE EXPENDABLES

title: THE EXPENDABLES
year: 2010
cast: Sylvester Stallone, Jason Stratham, Dolph Lungren, Eric Roberts, Jet Li, Mickey Rourke, Eric Roberts, Terry Crews, Steve Austin
writer/director: Sylvester Stallone
rating: *1/2

Worse than the straight-to-DVD garbage Sylvester Stallone was stuck with a few years back, not only for the thin plot, the bad dialog, the choppy editing, the shaky cam, or the CGI, but because for an action film: there's simply not enough of it. Jet Li, a premiere Kung Fu artist, is teased for being short but hardly shows his stuff. Other than Jason Stratham and Sly himself, the other ensemble have little to add to the mission: taking out an ex-CIA baddie from a third world country. Mickey Rourke merely sits around his tattoo parlor philosophizing about women, and a cameo by Bruce Willis and Arnold Schwarzenegger seems completely out of place. Perhaps the entire film could be condensed into a ten minute prologue, and hopefully the already-planned sequel can pick up where this never began: because there's tons of potential to make something really dumb but in a great way.