Escape to the Movies: The Expendables

[Johann Goethe]

(Edited due to malfunctioning sarcasm detector)

I tried to get myself excited about The Expendables. I really did. I followed the coverage in Empire magazine, and from all accounts everyone had a really fun time making it. But for some reason, I just cannot get excited or even interested in this. Whenever I think about seeing it, I can actually feel myself getting bored. This is probably my problem; I didn't grow up watching 80's action schlock, or with any of these action idols, so the appeal is lost on me. Whereas I've been gaming and reading comics since I was 4, plus I've seen all of Edgar Wright's previous material (Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz), so Scott Pilgrim naturally holds more interest to me.

Expendables strikes me as something that will be listed in Stallone/Rourke/Li/Statham's filmography in a glossy film magazine retrospective only as a footnote. Oh it will be a notable one, but only from the star-power involved as opposed to the content, which will be identical to everything else on their resumés. (Even Li had Unleashed/Danny the Dog.) Pilgrim, on the other hand, will be more successful on DVD - again, like Wright's other films plus his TV show Spaced.

So yeah, those are my two rather confused cents on the matter. I will say Bob needed to focus his rant by not blasting everyone who may have enjoyed it and it's not quite up to his usual standard, but I still liked the review.

 

[Jay Cee]

I enjoy Moviebob's reviews mostly because he's not afraid to voice a subjective opinion without thought of mainstream consequence.

People would say similar things about Yahtzee, but he is undeniably critical as a trait, rather than an opinion.

I completely agree here. Removing the self-righteous facade of 'ironic masculinity', it's a below average monotony-fest fueled only by a mainstream audience focused purely on working off of its ONE idiosyncratic quality:

MANLINESS *Poses*

 

[ZombieGenesis]

First of all, I actually thought Bob would look forward to this because it's basically just a cheesey action movie- in the vein of Commando or The Transporter.
Secondly, he thinks Pirahnna 3D looks GOOD?

I'm rather worried that Bob might just have lost his taste in movies. Still not going to see the Expendables though, I'm spending my money on Scott Pilgrim.

 

[stabnex]

I saw Maaaaaaan! The Movie as well and well, I liked the explody bits, but that's all that carried it beyond the imaginitive opening. Also I was very disappointed that only two characters in the whole movie were developed beyond, "I like da booms" or, "I'm short, give me more money."

BTW: I've now seen Scott Pilgrim twice and will take any excuse to see it as many times as possible with as many people as possible before it's no longer in theaters.

 

[Flying-Emu]

Scott Pilgrim was a terrible movie that you should not waste your time on and the Expendables was great.

I don't know how you can say that with a straight face. Scott Pilgrim actually SAID something about modern society. The Expendables was just a bunch of explosions and death. Which is fine. But Pilgrim actually CONTRIBUTED something to the modern American cinema. Unlike the Expendables, which is just another B-grade action flick that people will most likely have forgotten about six weeks from now.

I've got no beef with the Expendables: It's an enjoyable movie (not something I'd see twice). But saying that it was superior to Scott Pilgrim is like saying that Die Hard is better than Citizen Kane: It's just silly.

 

[Airsoftslayer93]

Movie bob, i want your babies. but seriously this is a great review, i hated the film for many of the reasons you said. and it anoys me that so many of my friends will just see it regardless. like when they chose to see shrek 4 instead of toy story 3, or knight and day instead of salt

 

[Jezzascmezza]

Whew! Movie Bob got stuck into this one.
Pity about the movie though.
I, like everyone else in the world it seems, thought The Expendables sounded like it could've been one of the most awesome movies ever.
How wrong I/We/Everyone was/were.

 

[ahiddenfigure]

Excellent video. Angry Movie Bob is my favourite kind of Movie Bob.

Just wish you didn't have to bleep out the "emotive" language. How come Yahtzee can get away with it?

 

[Ddgafd]

I wasn't going to go see this movie anyway, since I heard so many bad things about it. Besides, Scott Pilgrim has been on my list for a while now.

 

[Sky Captanio]

Wait. At the start he said he enjoyed a throwback to those 80s films with that Wii-game. Then later he says if you want a throwback to them you're the worst type of person? I sense hypocrisy!

 

[shadowstriker86]

i was actually hoping you would review piranha 3D so i could hear you rip into it, but this works just as well lol

 

[Samuel Adams]

I have to disagree with Bob. I liked The Expendables.
Also, I don't understand his reasoning, More gore=better film? That's not what I think...

 

[ProfessorLayton]

I'm going to call it:

MovieBob is a hypocrite.

He complains that the people on earth are sheep following the word of the media and that we need to make our own decisions. BULLSHIT. That's not what he wants. He wants to be the one the sheep follow! That's why he's frustrated right now. A majority of people don't do what he thinks they should do, so he claims that they are sheep. What, so if we follow your word and just watch Scott Pilgrim instead of the Expendables we're not sheep?

Does he realize that Scott Pilgrim isn't AT ALL as appealing as The Expendables? Does he realize that Scott Pilgrim is aimed for a much smaller audience than the Expendables? If he doesn't, he's a moron. If he does, then he is frustrated because people won't go to see a film not meant for them, which, again, shows how he wants everyone to be his sheep, following his words. Anyone who doesn't? In Bob's eyes, they are the sheep of the media, explosion hungry idiots who don't deserve to watch films.

He's even worse than fucking Yahtzee! Yahtzee at least doesn't pretend to be anything else than someone who insults people that don't agree with him. Bob tries to make himself look like a god amongst nerds we all should follow, and when we don't, he starts to whine.

I am getting tired of his reviews, yet I watch them every week. He's steered me wrong so many times... Edge of Darkness, Splice, Prince of Persia... but what he's getting at is that it's a shame that Scott Pilgrim couldn't have been a bigger movie than it was and I agree. I was disappointed that it didn't sell as well as even Eat Pray Love... but I mean, when you get a movie like the Expendables with pretty much the most famous cast ever, obviously it's going to outsell a nerd movie like Scott Pilgrim.

But what I'm most tired of is the constant elitism in his videos... I don't remember what review it was, but he said something like how tired he gets of samey movies when you watch a movie every week and how much better he is than you because he watches a lot of movies... I watch a movie pretty much every week as well, Bob, and I also watch movies at home. You can't honestly say the pile of crap that was Splice was better than Knight and Day. But yeah, Yahtzee knows and in fact sells himself on the fact that he is basically trolling and doesn't give any game the benefit of the doubt. Bob just thinks that everyone is into nerd culture and the truth is I don't think I want everyone being into it. If everyone went on about Scott Pilgrim the way they did Inception, I wouldn't want anything to do with it.

 

[Brisingr]

Oh my, I think I'll stay clear of this one. Thanks Moviebob you just saved me £6.50

 

[Sir Prize]

Right, I'm notcing allot of people complainging about this review and..well I can understand his annoyance, in part.

This film has been hypered to the extreme and it didn't live up to the hype. I watched it and while it wasn't bad, it also wasn't that good but it felt worse. It's like when you think your getting a really cool gift and you get socks or just something less cool. That makes it seem all the more crappy and really, this film SHOULDN'T be as much of a money maker as it's turned out to be, it's like Twilight!

A half-decent action flick that's getting more praise then it deserves.

EDIT: To all those saying how you think it's a bad review because you don't agree with him, I have this to say:
Grow up, it's not the job of a reviewer to agree with the public, it's their job to review a piece and give an opinion.
Also, Twilight is populer, does that make it any better?
So is that Justin kid and allot of other tripe.

 

[HotFezz8]

Weird that Bob is getting hate for this, Yahtzee is at least as insulting to his viewers almost every week and his comments section is filled with people who just can't wait to confirm how awesome he is and how right all of his opinions are.

true, but yahtzee has said in the past "sometimes popular things are popular for a reason", then rags on them. and he rags on all games anyway, people tune in to hear the negative things.

in this case movie bob has just let rip at a popular film for being bland. he's starting to sound one note, if its not arty and deep, oh it must be shit.

sorry movie bob, thats not right. sometimes we want to watch a action packed film with no brains. its called unwinding.

 

[Aiddon_v1legacy]

actually, this is another thing Bob should have said "Wait a couple weeks and you can watch Machete". Now THAT looks like the movie The Expendables should have been and it's sad when you can say that SEAGAL has been in a better movie than Jason Statham and Jet Li were for that year.

 

[HotFezz8]

and hey movie bob: fuck you.

do you not think there might be a reason this film is #1? do you not think there is a reason its made $35 hyperbazillion?

for that matter, do you not think there might be a reason mcdonalds quarter pounder annually outproduces china??

people like to chill out and just watch brainless ENTERTAINMENT occasionally. not every meal has to be high brow french quiseiene (however you spell that). and not every movie has to be a splice, or a scott pilgrim, or a kick ass.

and what? me enjoying batman the dark knight, or the expendables, or transformers occasionally makes me a brain dead retarded fuck wit? Fuck. That. Shit. If you can look past your own massively expanding ego and realise that popular things are often popular for a reason we might start to once again agree on movies, like i did with almost all your first two score reviews.

 

[Sir Prize]

and hey movie bob: fuck you.

do you not think there might be a reason this film is #1? do you not think there is a reason its made $35 hyperbazillion?

for that matter, do you not think there might be a reason mcdonalds quarter pounder annually outproduces china??

people like to chill out and just watch brainless ENTERTAINMENT occasionally. not every meal has to be high brow french quiseiene (however you spell that). and not every movie has to be a splice, or a scott pilgrim, or a kick ass.

and what? me enjoying batman the dark knight, or the expendables, or transformers occasionally makes me a brain dead retarded fuck wit? Fuck. That. Shit. If you can look past your own massively expanding ego and realise that popular things are often popular for a reason we might start to once again agree on movies, like i did with almost all your first two score reviews.

There's allot of popular stuff out there that doesn't deserve it, look at my above example. Also, most critcs don't support much of the brainless ENTERTAINMENT because they look at every single part of the movies. When it lacks a decent plot or alike then of course it's going to lose points.