The Expendables

Rated R for language and violence

Starring Sylvester Stallone, Jason Statham, Jet Li, Terry Crews, Dolph Lundgren, Mickey Rourke, Randy Couture, Steve Austin, Eric Roberts, Gisele Itie with appearances by Bruce Willis and Arnold Schwarzenegger

Who does you call when you want some bad guys taken out but don't want it traced back to you? Why The Expendables of course!

Barney Ross leads an elite group of some of the best mercenaries that can be found on dangerous missions all over the world.

After finishing up a hostage situation with pirates in Somalia, Mr. Church approaches him and his rival Trench about a job in Vilena - a fictional country in South America. Since Trench is busy, Ross accepts and heads down with his right-hand man Lee Christmas to gather information about the country and the mission. While there, they come in contact with their contact, who turns out to be the stunning Sandra who is also the General Garza's daughter. They learn that awhile ago some greedy American's, including ex-CIA agent James Monroe, came into the country, forcing Garza to work with them as they grow and harvest cocaine in an attempt to make the country profitable; the results though have left the people scared, feeling betrayed by their leader. Having a bad feeling about the job (which is to kill Garza), Ross decides to abort the mission and him and Christmass leave on the plane they flew in on, taking out some of Monroe's men in the process.

Back in the states, Christmas learns his girlfriend of over a year has moved on, only that her new beau beats her. Ross feels guilty about leaving Sandra in Vilena, as she refused to leave with them, wanting to help her homeland. Ross decides to go back for her, telling Christmas and Yang that he's going alone, but first Yang and Ross get ambushed while driving, as former Expendable Gunnar Jensen, who was let go for getting a little too into their work, has led some of Monroe's baddies to their hideout and they want revenge.

Not letting him go alone, the rest of the Expendables join Ross as he goes back to Vilena to save Sandra, who has been capture by Monroe and his bad guys torture her to get Garza to do their bidding. With Gunnar's help, they are able to easily infiltrate the palace and find her, however getting out alive proves to be quite the ordeal.

The Expendables really is your typical action movie - a mediocre simple plot (kill the bad guys, get out alive) filled with action and explosions and some corny silly banter between the characters (the scene with Stallone, Willis and Schwarzenegger is pretty amusing). The main difference between this one and other action films though is the cast. Like the trailer for the film says "In every movie, there's a hero... this movie has them all."

With a cast filled with action stars newer and older and led, written and directed by Sly Stallone, The Expendables proves to be a fun summer action flick. As with their previous films, the majority of the film's stars all do their own stunts and there is no CGI in this movie - the explosions and gunfire on screen are all real - talk about old school! It really is refreshing though!

If you like fun, mindless action movies or any of the stars that are in this film be sure not to miss this throwback to older, pre-CGI action movies!