Film critic Jonathan Sim's review of Expendables 4, the new action movie starring Jason Statham and Sylvester Stallone.
movies have always been beneath Rocky and Rambo, but admittedly better than — for example — Escape Plan. This series started out with two hard-R old-school action movies. The Expendables 3 was rated PG-13 in an attempt to bring in a younger audience , leading to the worst box office performance of the series.
While this movie features franchise veteran Stallone returning as Barney Ross, Jason Statham takes the reins of this action franchise as both the protagonist and producer. This marks Statham’s fourth movie of the year after Operation Fortune, Fast X, and Meg 2: The Trench. He’s been booked and busy, but he’s also been playing the same character for decades. The only other two remaining stars are Dolph Lundgren and Randy Couture.
Now, the least this movie could do is give us a good villain. This series has seen villains played by Eric Roberts, Jean-Claude Van Damme, and Mel Gibson. The villain of this movie is portrayed by Iko Uwais. On paper, Uwais is a fantastic casting choice. Anyone who has seen him in The Raid movies, Headshot, or The Night Comes For Us knows how incredible of a martial artist he is. However, like many martial artists, Hollywood does not know how to use him.
As this is a hard-R action movie, Expendables 4 brings back the blood splatters of the first two movies, but it never feels particularly brutal. The characterization makes this movie suffer, as Uwais plays a disposable villain. His fighting skills could have been a threat early on, but the opening sequence that is supposed to introduce us to him fades out before we get a chance to see it.
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