Fun fact there are nine MMA championships in this movie and two of the cast members fought while this movie was in production.
Escape to the Movies: The Expendables
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I totally agree with this. I had absolutely no desire to see Scott Pilgrim until he actually did his review and said it was awesome. He was not wrong, however, I would have never watched it otherwise. It was not a movie that caught my eye, it was not a movie that looked good.Hubilub said:
However, this movie caught me right at the start. A huge lineup of actors that, due to a heightened flow of testosterone in the theater, caused the women around me to grow beards? Well, duh I'm going to want to see it.
Sorry Bob... I feel like this is the second time you've let me down. Book of Eli was much worse though.
You know, I didn't expect much from this movie. In fact, I didn't expect anything other than amazing action scenes. And it even failed at that! I just don't understand how you can have bad action scenes with so much damn action stars.
However I didn't see Scott Pilgrim. Hate me if you must, but I hate Micheal Cera. I hate him very, very much. In fact he's the one reason I didn't want to see the movie. He's just so god damn annoying and such a pain in the ass it drives me insane. Add on to the fact that I don't really know anything about Scott Pilgrim and yeah, you have a perfect storm.
But don't insult me for going to the Expendables and not Scott Pilgrim. I have my reasons. And when you put a movie with every action star next to a movie with some annoying prick, don't be surprised when people go for the movie full of action stars.
However I didn't see Scott Pilgrim. Hate me if you must, but I hate Micheal Cera. I hate him very, very much. In fact he's the one reason I didn't want to see the movie. He's just so god damn annoying and such a pain in the ass it drives me insane. Add on to the fact that I don't really know anything about Scott Pilgrim and yeah, you have a perfect storm.
But don't insult me for going to the Expendables and not Scott Pilgrim. I have my reasons. And when you put a movie with every action star next to a movie with some annoying prick, don't be surprised when people go for the movie full of action stars.
How does a film that has a scene where Jason Statham sitting on the nose of an airplane using a huge machine gun to murder a bunch of soldier not have amazing or memorable action scenes?Irridium said:
Wow, way overboard with the nerd rage. I really couldn't disagree more with this, it sounds like Bob went in wanting to hate it because Scott Pilgrim did badly at the box office. The only part of this review rant I agree with was the part about Jet Li, he was underused and made to look pretty weak. Apart from that if you switch your brain off and just prepare for a good action movie, that's what you get.
I enjoy The Expendables, in some ways more so then Scott Pilgrim, and I don't think I'm the "worst kind of person" for that.
I enjoy The Expendables, in some ways more so then Scott Pilgrim, and I don't think I'm the "worst kind of person" for that.
He's not afraid to like a movie that's only dumb fun, have you seen all his older movie reviews? Hell, the G.I. Joe one almost had me stop watching these because I couldn't believe he would like it, even if for the 'dumb fun' factor.SamStar42 said:
I think what gets him and me and a lot of people who like watching movies (preferably good movies) about the Expendables is that it's not just dumb fun. It's so horrifyingly shallow and unashamedly calculated. It's a condescending film that sells itself solely by going "Hey look, we've got 'em all! All the stars of the classic action films! That's all you dumb bastards care about anyway! Now buy a ticket!" I feel almost offended the thing was made, and as far as it being a box office hit...
Well, I haven't expected much from people for a long time now anyway...
Have to disagree with the notion that there wasn't a "memorable death scene" in the movie. Don't remember the guy's name, but the third guy in the group of bad guys (the lackey that WASN'T Steve Austin) is pretty memorable with his Jet Li/Jason Statam kickey-neck-snappy death. 
I agree Expendables sucked. But it didn't suck as much as the ending to Splice. Which ruined all of Splice. In fact Splice is the worst movie I've seen in my life after seeing the ending.
But back to Expendables. Meh... Even if it were a TV show it couldn't compare to the TV show The A-Team. And I was more annoyed with the fact the female actors had small rolls.
It has become one of the main reasons to why I hope that sooner or later The Escapist would extend Escape To The Movies to all movies coming out that week. Another being From Paris With Love which I haven't seen yet & I'm considering renting.
Off-Topic & final thought for now.
If any movie should be considered "This Years District 9" so far that would have to go to Daybreakers.
But back to Expendables. Meh... Even if it were a TV show it couldn't compare to the TV show The A-Team. And I was more annoyed with the fact the female actors had small rolls.
It has become one of the main reasons to why I hope that sooner or later The Escapist would extend Escape To The Movies to all movies coming out that week. Another being From Paris With Love which I haven't seen yet & I'm considering renting.
Off-Topic & final thought for now.
If any movie should be considered "This Years District 9" so far that would have to go to Daybreakers.
BTW Bob, didn't the A-Team start the wave of 80s-wanna-be action movies?
Plus I didn't expect Scott Pilgrim to do #1. As good as the movie may be, and as much as mainstream pretends to like Video Game culture, Mainstream culture isn't ready for it. They have their palates full with Comic-book movies and psuedo80s wave movies.
Plus I didn't expect Scott Pilgrim to do #1. As good as the movie may be, and as much as mainstream pretends to like Video Game culture, Mainstream culture isn't ready for it. They have their palates full with Comic-book movies and psuedo80s wave movies.
I agree. That scene was great. However most of the fight scenes suffered from the curse known as "shakey cam" which I seriously hate. I could barely make out the characters during these scenes. The one exception being when Li was fighting in the warehouse(or garage, forgot what building that was). There it was tolerable.Hubilub said:
Wow, I actually thought the exact opposite. The Expendables was a wonderful change from all the recent shitty actions movies that use generic action as filler for horrible stories. The Expendables' fight scenes looked amazingly cool, far better than any of the over-stylized dance offs that passes for action that I've seen in the last couple of years at least.
I've gotten really tired of over-choreographed martial arts based action sequences that end up blending together and becoming generic, and The Expendables was NOT generic. It is FAR more clever, interesting, and balls out exhilarating than Salt, Predators, Clash of the Titans, ANY of the recent action movies.
I used to have great respect for Bob, but after his last few reviews (and the ridiculous remark about DOA having eight reasons to see it) it's clear that a HUGE part of his praise comes from excessive fan service instead of actual substance. He sits there nerdraging and stereotyping and ignores that this is a different type of action movie that was thoroughly more enjoyable than most of the other generic films. Yeah, it's considerably "manlier", (I'm pretty sure my girlfriend was impregnated with a baby made of testicles while watching) but how does that make it worse than the films that arrogantly pretend to have depth while trying to spread themselves wide enough to capture more of an audience?
I bet if this movie had a dozen unnecessarily half-naked girls, some pointless sci-fi twist on the genre, and more dance routines called fight scenes, then he would have liked it.
I've gotten really tired of over-choreographed martial arts based action sequences that end up blending together and becoming generic, and The Expendables was NOT generic. It is FAR more clever, interesting, and balls out exhilarating than Salt, Predators, Clash of the Titans, ANY of the recent action movies.
I used to have great respect for Bob, but after his last few reviews (and the ridiculous remark about DOA having eight reasons to see it) it's clear that a HUGE part of his praise comes from excessive fan service instead of actual substance. He sits there nerdraging and stereotyping and ignores that this is a different type of action movie that was thoroughly more enjoyable than most of the other generic films. Yeah, it's considerably "manlier", (I'm pretty sure my girlfriend was impregnated with a baby made of testicles while watching) but how does that make it worse than the films that arrogantly pretend to have depth while trying to spread themselves wide enough to capture more of an audience?
I bet if this movie had a dozen unnecessarily half-naked girls, some pointless sci-fi twist on the genre, and more dance routines called fight scenes, then he would have liked it.
I am put in mind of a quote from Moby, something about how pop music was generally shit these days, because there is no substance, no artistry, no deeper meaning or whatnot...
The truth is, sometimes people just want to hum. It's really not a bad thing.
Look, I'm sorry Scott Pilgrim is bombing. I really enjoyed it. But I could've fucking told you it was going to bomb: it's still far too niche for widespread, word-of-mouth appeal, and didn't have the media blitzkreig supporting it in order to overcome that niche... er -ness? Nichetude? Whatever. You know what I mean.
An action movie starring a multitude of well-known action stars that got a ton of advertising support is doing well? You're surprised by this, why???
An action movie starring a little-known actor made by a little-known director based on a little-known comic book that got almost no advertising support is doing poorly? You're surprised by this, why???
Really Bob, I understand your critical objections to the Expendables. Personally, I have no interest in seeing it, because I loathe Sylvester Stallone. But dude, you come off sounding naive and, frankly, like a geek who lives in the extra room over his parents' garage while working at the video store for minimum wage and gnashing his teeth over the 'injustice' of the fact that the world does not happen to share his particular distorted world-view.
On a personal note, please consider stopping the bleeping out of your expletives. It's completely unnecessary. If you must, however, NORMALIZE them so it's not like your stabbing my eardrums with icepicks, ok? I like my hearing.
Oh, and PS:
NO KEANU FUCKING REEVES CANNOT FUCKING ACT He is incapable of any more range than a slightly spaced out or stoner-type of personality (either happy- Bill & Ted's- or introspective/sad - Constantine/Matrix/Speed). Ask him to do ANYTHING else and he fails, miserably. His ineptitude is on full display as Don John in Much Ado About Nothing. He almost single-handedly ruined that movie.
And if you can only do one type of role- particularly when it's basically your real personality, you're not an Actor: you're just being you around some props.
The truth is, sometimes people just want to hum. It's really not a bad thing.
Look, I'm sorry Scott Pilgrim is bombing. I really enjoyed it. But I could've fucking told you it was going to bomb: it's still far too niche for widespread, word-of-mouth appeal, and didn't have the media blitzkreig supporting it in order to overcome that niche... er -ness? Nichetude? Whatever. You know what I mean.
An action movie starring a multitude of well-known action stars that got a ton of advertising support is doing well? You're surprised by this, why???
An action movie starring a little-known actor made by a little-known director based on a little-known comic book that got almost no advertising support is doing poorly? You're surprised by this, why???
Really Bob, I understand your critical objections to the Expendables. Personally, I have no interest in seeing it, because I loathe Sylvester Stallone. But dude, you come off sounding naive and, frankly, like a geek who lives in the extra room over his parents' garage while working at the video store for minimum wage and gnashing his teeth over the 'injustice' of the fact that the world does not happen to share his particular distorted world-view.
On a personal note, please consider stopping the bleeping out of your expletives. It's completely unnecessary. If you must, however, NORMALIZE them so it's not like your stabbing my eardrums with icepicks, ok? I like my hearing.
Oh, and PS:
NO KEANU FUCKING REEVES CANNOT FUCKING ACT He is incapable of any more range than a slightly spaced out or stoner-type of personality (either happy- Bill & Ted's- or introspective/sad - Constantine/Matrix/Speed). Ask him to do ANYTHING else and he fails, miserably. His ineptitude is on full display as Don John in Much Ado About Nothing. He almost single-handedly ruined that movie.
And if you can only do one type of role- particularly when it's basically your real personality, you're not an Actor: you're just being you around some props.
Yeah, this is easily the worst Escape to the Movies since last year's Star Trek. I can count quite a few claims that were made about the movie's content that were just plain inaccurate. I mean, I don't know what he saw, but it sounded like garbage. Good thing I actually got to see the Expendables.
It is a bit of a shame that Scott Pilgrim's only in 5th place though. Problem is in spite of how unique it is and the fact that is has both Edgar Wright and Michael Cera attached doesn't help the fact that its extremely insane and aimed at a demographically smaller audience than the four movies that beat it (Expendables, Eat Pray Love, The Other Guys and Inception).
It is a bit of a shame that Scott Pilgrim's only in 5th place though. Problem is in spite of how unique it is and the fact that is has both Edgar Wright and Michael Cera attached doesn't help the fact that its extremely insane and aimed at a demographically smaller audience than the four movies that beat it (Expendables, Eat Pray Love, The Other Guys and Inception).
WOW Bob, I don't think you even crapped on Transformers 2 quite as hard! So many bleeps. So much hate.
With the actors, I really do want to give this movie a chance. I really do want there to be some missunderstanding. I really do want some redeeming value to come from this apperant omage to older action flicks. But I've learned that Bob has some value to his opinion. I can hear his opinion of a movie and find that it was informative, and often agree with some points well after the fact. Which is why I'm so thrown as to why I keep wanting to give this movie a chance even though Bob have so plainly said it's a flop and then some.
With the actors, I really do want to give this movie a chance.
I really do want there to be some missunderstanding. I really do want some redeeming value to come from this apperant omage to older action flicks. But I've learned that Bob has some value to his opinion. I can hear his opinion of a movie and find that it was informative, and often agree with some points well after the fact. Which is why I'm so thrown as to why I keep wanting to give this movie a chance even though Bob have so plainly said it's a flop and then some.