Expendables 3

Four years after Sylvester Stallone paid tribute to the action films of the 1970s and 1980s with The Expendables, the series’ third installment has been released. Directed by Patrick Hughes, the film features returning cast members Stallone, Jason Statham, Jet Li, Dolph Lundgren, Randy Couture, Terry Crews and Arnold Schwarzenegger with Kellan Lutz, Ronda Rousey, Glen Powell, Victor Ortiz, Robert Davi, Kelsey Grammer, Wesley Snipes, Mel Gibson, Antonio Benderas, and Harrison Ford.

After Conrad Stonebanks (Gibson), former member and co-founder of the Expendables has surfaced and is determined to destroy the team, causing Barney Ross (Stallone) to recruit old and new allies to take him down once and for all.

As with the first two, Expendables 3 is not one of those movies watched for the plot, which is paper-thin. But, while the film has an even larger cast of talented actors offering no small amount of action, Expendables 3 just isn’t fun. There’s far too many characters to care about, which really overshadows Gibson’s somewhat enjoyable villainous performance as well as Banderas’ humorous acting as the manic Galgo. Furthermore, in an effort to top itself over the previous two films, it goes beyond overkill.

Gibson as Stonebanks is moderately enjoyable. He’s one of two new characters the film tries to give depth to with a backstory, by making him the disillusioned co-founder of the Expendables who betrayed the team to sell illegal weapons. He has just the right mix of smugness and insanity to make him an enjoyable villain, such as when he’s acting coy to a buyer for his weaponry about having nuclear weapons but not wanting to sell them. Banderas is the other new character with something of a past as the lone survivor of a botched mission with the Spanish Armed Forces. He joins Ross so he can make peace with his survivor’s guilt. The character is quite humorous and manic in his desire to be part of another team and love for killing enemies. However, with the film having nine new characters alongside nine returning characters, Gibson is overshadowed and Banderas is underutilized. To its credit though, the film does attempt to give Doctor Death (Snipes) and John Smilee (Lutz) pasts, but Death is just a former Expendable who spent eight years in a secret prison, making him a little loopy and Smilee is simply an ex-marine with an attitude problem.

The film also tries too hard to top itself from the previous two, but it goes horrendously overboard. “Expendables” had the team up against a dictator and his soldiers. In “Expendables 2” the team fought an arms dealer and his mercenary group. “Expendables 3” has Stonebanks setting a country’s entire army against the heroes. And they all manage to get through with everyone and everything completely intact. There’s nothing wrong with heroes facing insurmountable odds but when they don’t seem to have too a hard time facing them, the film becomes far less enjoyable. It should feel like there’s more of a challenge when 15 men and a helicopter go against multiple ground troops, tanks and helicopters. Yin Yang (Lee), Drummer (Ford) and Mauser (Schwarzenegger) showing up in the middle of the fight in the helicopter was also telegraphed a mile away and could have been a better moment had the film not shown them coming in two other scenes.

Expendables 3 isn’t awfully terrible. But by no means can it be considered good in any way. It’s one of those movies someone watches when there’s two hours to kill, but really nothing better to do. There’s a few good moments and a couple decent characters, but they can’t really carry the entire film. The first “Expendables” made sense. Stallone wanted to have fun with old action actors by making a pumped up nod to the action films of the 70s and 80s. But two sequels don’t make sense. And neither does a confirmed fourth one that’s expected to have Pierce Brosnan and Hulk Hogan.

Expendables 3 won't drop into the Edge of Dissatisfaction, but it'll barely miss it and come in at #6 under Jersey Boys. 

Pocahontas

1995 saw the first animated Disney film to be based on a real character from history. Telling the story of the Native American woman of the same name, Pocahontas was released June 16. Starring Irene Bedard, Mel Gibson, Billy Connolly, Christian Bale, David Ogden Stiers, and Linda Hunt, the film earned over $300 million worldwide. It won the Academy Award for Best Original Song (Colors of the Wind) and Best Original Score, it also won four Annie Awards, an Artios Award, an ASCAP Award, a Film Music Awards, an Environmental Media Award, a Golden Globe, a Golden Reel and a Grammy. The Soundtrack also went Platinum six times. And, like most Disney Renaissance films, this got a direct to vide sequel.

The rebellious princess, Pocahontas (Bedard/Judy Kuhn), has been promised to the best warrior of the tribe by her father, Chief Powhatan (Russell Means). But she senses her life has greater purpose. When English settlers arrive to form Jamestown, she meets the idealistic John Smith (Gibson), who is interested in adventure and the beauty of the land. But the Governor Ratcliffe (Stiers) has the other settlers dig up the land in search of gold.

The Native Americans fear the English, who regard themselves as superior. A rendezvous between them leads to the death of her betrothed and John Smith is sentenced to die, which Ratcliffe uses as the perfect excuse to exterminate the natives.

Pocahontas doesn’t go through any development in the film. That’s because she’s the catalyst for the development of everybody else. Her involvement caused John Smith to go from understanding cultural differences (through the power of song no less), her people to not fear the colonists and the colonists to realize the only reason the natives didn’t like them is because of what they were doing. But the way the development happens is intriguing. Smith is convinced and does his best to get the other colonists to understand as well. But when they almost do, Ratcliffe convinces them Smith is being lied to. And Powhatan, understandably, is too preoccupied to listen to her. The standoff at the end shows that neither side really wants to do battle. They just believe they have to. Actually, the only one that really wants bloodshed is Ratcliffe.

He’s a good villain. Like many of the others, he wants fame, fortune, and glory. But he is willing to commit genocide to do it. Actually, he isn’t the one willing. He wants to be the instigator, sit back, let everyone else kill each other and reap the rewards. Plus, his lust for power is so strong, he convinces himself that if anyone says different than what he’s after, he must have been lied to. Ratcliff is the worst type of person. A bureaucrat. He’s also got a great foil by the way of Wiggins (also voiced by Stiers). Wiggins actually understands why the natives don’t like them, and tries to be a voice of reason to Ratcliffe, but is constantly ignored.

The music here is also some of the best from the Renaissance, though it’s a shame the ACLU or some such organization made them change one of the lyrics to what is now a completely forced rhyme. (“Their whole disgusting race is like a curse” to “this is what you get when races are diverse”) The soundtrack actually went platinum six times.

On the other hand, this film is rife with historical inaccuracies.

Pocahontas was a nickname, meaning “the naughty one.” Her real name was Matoaka. In reality, she was 10 or 11 when the Virginia Company arrived. She also wasn’t Powhatan’s only child. John Smith was not well-liked by his fellow colonists and the two never had a romantic relationship. After she was captured by the colonists she converted to Christianity and married John Rolfe. Also, while he was captain of The Discovery, Ratclife was not the first governor of Jamestown. He also wasn’t chained up and taken back to England. He was tied to a tree and skinned alive.

But then again, this story features a sentient weeping willow and a compass that points to one’s destiny. I shouldn’t really be upset about historical inaccuracies in a movie where the target audience is children. #16