I would have at least hoped Pilgrim would have gone to second or third, not fifth. Even I liked that movie, and I don't like artsy, pretentious movies.
OT: Good review. I would have wanted to see this movie if it was pulled off right (or if it had Reb Drown in it. Anything with Reb Brown in it is going to be so bad it's hilarious), but, sadly, it ends up just being a stupid movie that caters to people who can't believe that the eighties died nearly twenty years ago.
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!"
How is it condescending if people are genuinely enjoying it and buying tickets? I hate to bring up one of my least favorite movies but if the Expendables is condescending, so is Avatar, the movie that was all about the "pretty pictures".
You'd be surprised at how much condescention flies right over people's heads in real life conversation, nevermind marketing.
And I would agree that Avatar was about pretty pictures. C'mon, look at just the design of the alien race as opposed to, say, District 9. The blue kitten people were specifically designed to be appealing and promote symapthy for them.
Oh yeah, and what about the whole 3-D thing...?
I've never been a fan of old-school action films. After all, I'm a child of the 90's, and I grew up with Terminator 2: an action movie that actually meant something and made you think. This translated into films like The Matrix, The Borne films, and the Dark Knight. The closest I could go to a dumb action film was a now forgotten Denzel Washington film called Man on Fire, and it's worth it to see a former CIA assassin who's gazed into the abyss rip into the cartel. I love the 90's because it was a transition period: from the machisimo of the 80's to the engaging and relative intellectualism in today's pop culture.
Let's face it: there's more 80's nostalgics and douchebags out there then fans of comics, anime, and games. If the past decade was the age of the geek, the current decade is a reemergence of the age of the jock. The 80's were dark times for us geeks because this was a time when the nation actively celebrated brawn over brain. The Expendables is just a symptom of the larger problem: the jocks are getting skittish and feeling threatened by the geeks who've dominated pop culture for the past 20 years and they now want to take it back by force. And it's not just pop culture: it's politics as well.
Fellow geeks: we're on the advent of a second age of the jock. This doesn't have to be a bad thing: every decade has an ebb and flow between the two, but this age looks like a particularly aggressive one at that. Enjoy the relative social acceptance while it lasts, because it won't be long 'till our geek hobbies (anime, video games, comics, etc.) will be pushed back into the dark as socially inept hobbies while athleticism and other such activities will be celebrated.
You do realize that the majority of the people that like 80s action films are nerds?
Of course not. You are in that mindset that nerds only like sci-fi and obscurity, and anything that doesn't feature video game references or pseudo-science talk isn't meant for us.
First time in a long time i've disagreed w/ you Bob.
At the very least "not a single memorable kill" is a bunch of bullcrap.
Remember(or not) during the palace basement ambush, Li and Statham beat the crap out of the bad guy whos like 3rd in command or something, and they knock him to his knees, then Li does an axe-kick and breaks his neck backwards? Remember that? Do ya? Do ya?
OK, serious time, Bob. I love your reviews. I actually take your personal opinion into consideration when I use The Critics Circle (Mark Kermode, Dave Edwards, Roger Ebert and You) to make a tie-breaker on whether or not to go see a film. You have opened my eyes to some great films (District 9 immediately jumps to mind), and you are right the majority of the time.
So, you didn't like The Expendables. Fair enough, I see your point. It's not a critic's film after all. I respect your opinion. What I don't respect is how your opinion is meant to be better than everyone elses. If people want to see a movie that looks good on paper, then that's fair enough. (For the record, caught the advanced previews: loved it) But this does not make them inferior to absolutely everybody else on the planet. They are not the lowest common denominator. All that they are doing is seeing a movie that they like the look of. That's all. It's basic human instinct. So, do calm the hell down, please.
Though I understand completely your disappointment that people didn't see Scott Pilgrim. I have a defence though! It's not out in the UK yet! But it is out on Wednesday and I've been looking forward to it for months now (seriously, it is my most anticipated Summer movie. Just behind Toy Story 3). I'm gathering a bunch of friends and we are seeing it Day One. No excuses. I'm contributing to The Scott Pilgrim Cause, dammit!
Anyways, to summarise: If people didn't want to see a film you wanted them to see, don't get your knickers in a twist. THAT'S MY JOB!
And whilst you're here, could you turn down the volume of the bleeps? My ears buckle under their volume when I have headphones in. Thanks!
EDIT: I'd just like to take this short time to announce that I fully realise the irony of the majority of my comments and that I wholeheartedly embrace it. Thank you.
Jeesh Bob... a little upset that your favorite movie that appealed to a SMALLER demographic than Eat, Pray, Love got smashed to little bits in the box office? So let's take out all your angst on one of the movies that turned Scott Pilgrim into an also-ran. Not to mention that you then proceed to denigrate anyone who would even possibly consider watching The Expendables. I knew I wasn't going to be seeing Pilgram after watching your review - since you quite nicely included two references that the people who would like Scott Pilgrim would recognize; and neither were familiar to me. But hey, Bob - way to go... You pulled your own Roger Ebert. Ebert states that games can't be art; and you state that this movie and any similar that follow it (sight unseen, mind you) f****** suck. Bravo, Bob.
Hub, Hub, Hub, Hub, chill out.
I'm pretty disappointed and actually a tad offended, too, and I also don't get what the guy is talking about, but we should keep this civil.
Fuckin hell Bob you got some MAD nerd rage going on there. Still I see your point, the film was pretty boring, and the worst part was...they screwed up the final kill. Seriously. How do you fuck that up? Make it satisfying at the least.
Sorry Bob, I am partly responsible for the downfall of film entertainment. I could have seen that Scott Pilgrim flick... but I opted for this instead. Hot Fuzz and ShaunOTD are great, but I'm biased towards action movies.
And the murderizing in this movie was mostly satifying to me. Some fisticuffs scenes suffered from close-up shaky-cam annoyance, but the last act is constant explosions, headshots and knifings! Don't get me wrong Rambo 4 was awesomer, with Johnny's ability to spaghetti sauce everyone within 100 metres. But this flick isn't tame, even if some blood effects were tacked on later digitally.
Not to mention that I went to the show with my Dad, so a romantic comedy wasn't in the cards.
Bob, the only sheep here are the ones who immediately cross a movie off your list because you say it's bad. That's automaton thinking at it's best, and guess what, you're inspiring it just like Hollywood with your fanboy base.
Normally I like your reviews, mainly because you critique the movies and not the people watching them. Sadly in this case you decided to brand label everyone who doesn't see your point of view as stupid, or mindless. I haven't even seen this movie and I was offended.
Ah well, unlike you, I won't stop watching or rage out and tell everyone your reviews are crap just because you branded possibly millions of people with a stereotype. You've made quality reviews in the past, hopefully you'll return to that.
Scott Pilgrim seems just as cynically designed to appeal to the Nerdy demographic as The Expendables is to the mainstream. Yet this is ok because it is aimed at us?
People calling it a small movie as well is pretty funny, a 60 million dollar budget is hardly small.
Don't listen to MovieBob, this movie is good for what it is. Sure Jason Statham played his typical role, and Jet Li was downplayed, but it wasn't a bad film. For what it is, its actually pretty cool. You didn't have to think much through it, which is ok, its just an action film. You also have to be less harsh on insulting people who liked it. You're making yourself look extremely arrogant. It's obnoxious. You don't have a girlfriend, do you? You have nothing better to do than watch movies, alone, besides your large tub of popcorn, extra butter. Then insult everyone who differs from your opinion to make yourself feel better. Respectable people with respectable opinions learn how to appreciate a movie for what it is and do NOT insult anyone whilst doing so.
Why does liking this kind of manly man movie make you "the worst kind of person". I just don't take like that seriously to start rating poeple based on what they find enjoyable. Granted, Expendables may well be a bad film, but there's nothing bad about loving this kind of film. It doesn't have to be tongue in cheek exploitation of exploitation. Didn't movie Bob go off recently about "self hating" superhero flicks? It's kind of ironic if he really is implying that liking those action films which AREN'T self-aware and self hating, is the hallmark of the "worst kind of person".
And in regard to the Scott Pilgrim anguish: Bob essentially just blasted people for not knowing that a movie was going to be good before seeing it. Hmm. Last I checked, clairvoyance was not one of our human abilities. Bob, most poeple do not spend hours of their life scouring the Net for movie news. They go to the movies to chew popcorn and forget about work on monday morning. Expendables looked the ticket and probably was, for those people able to see it for what it was. Once day when silly action films are granted the same retroactive street cred as Grindhouse films and old Sunday serials (ironically, usually by people too young to have ever expereinced them), perhaps a film like expendables could be better received. Instead, it's expected to show some kind of heavy handed self-aware rationale, ala, "we are reinterpreting the genre, blah blah blah, see the digital film grain effects, fake studio logos and oh so purposefully overcooked acting?". Cue Tarantino film collage that the high-brow can watch and pretend that they don't really like "that kind of" film.
Eh, I dunno. I'm still going to see it too. Why? Because once in a while, a bit of mindless entertainment isn't bad. I can definitely understand why MovieBob is so upset, and I've seen plenty of other reviews echoing his sentiment... but I'm about to start college, and I figure a mindless action explosion-fest will drain my brain and make me less likely to be nervous and distracted on the first day.
EDIT: Oh, and I can't see Scott Pilgrim, as it isn't showing in our crappy little theater. :\
Ok first off, I liked this movie, so I think movie bob is just off crying in a corner because his beloved 80's video games movie was beaten by a 80's movie movie.
But I do agree about the gore, some propper gore would have pushed this above Rambo for me.
Sometimes I get the feeling that moviebob is too smart for his own good, or that somehow he is being forced to review movies he doesn't want too, which makes him grumpy, so he gives movies that he has a slight bad feeling about a thrashing to make himself feel better. I can see why he lept on the chance to suck on Scott Pilgrim, thus getting him the nintendo kid crowd, because he couldn't stop the Expendables crowd, as he mentioned, its already number 1 in the box office, beating two movies that most critical/artistic/pretencious people call "Good".
So by bashing the expendables and hyping back to how much he loves Scott Pilgrim, he is trying to get more love from the nintendo crowd. Forgetting that not everyone was a nintendo kid or likes Michael Cera (or the rest of that indie douchebag mess). I'm just old enough to have played "the classics" but I didn't because I went outside or was busy reading rather than sitting with an old school nintendo consol and I'm sure that I can't be the only one. Its just that on here this is his primary (and therefore target) audience.
This is just MovieBob throwing a hissy-fit because of Scott Pilgrim, notice that the first couple of comments on this thead are "WOW we love your nerd rage!" And thats all Moviebob has done here, just ranted, because thats all he needed to do, this isn't a review, he just rants about how he doesn't like it. I didn't catch any of your notes on the movie's direction style, nothing about Rourke's good performance as the older father figure type (other than mentioning that he is the manager). And you know I would have let you pan the shit out of both of those two subjects, as long as it had given your review some substance.
You could have pointed out how Rourke is a parody of what this type of Macho attitude does to real people. Rourke is hurt, badly, boozing and bedhopping with women half his age to fill a hole is his heart that he is too macho to let show for fear of exposing a weakness. Rourke's only release of any true emotion is his oldest and truest friend, someone who has seen the same blood and same mud as him. Stallone and Rourke work well together to show two sides of the same coin and MovieBob could have even acknowledged this. But no...
Nerd rage has clouded his vision.
As I said at least twice now, this isn't Moviebob reviewing, this is MovieBob ranting and throwing his dummy out the pram. Ignore him like you would any other baby in the shopping centre and go form your own opinion, you might agree with him in the end, but realise that a reviewer's opinion is NOT your opinion.
I think that sometimes Bob forgets that not everyone goes too the movies to find an experience that moves them, that makes them think about the depths of the human soul and what "It" means. Sometimes people go too the movies just to be entertained and movies like this are made to do one thing, entertain.
As for the firefights being boring:
The Gun/Fist fight in the cellar was one of the most intense fight scenes I have ever seen, you know that part in rambo where he has the 50 .cal? Imagine that much heart pumping adrenaline fuelled action, but there is a genuine threat to rambo now, making the risk and there for the gain higher.
AND THEN TERRY CREWS COMES IN!
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