Movie Review: The Expendables 3

This film delivers what is expected of it: 80’s action-film inspired mayhem and one-liners…plus, a little bit of modern with new cast members. If you’ve seen the previous “Expendables” films, you know what to expect here. The film’s returning stars add Wesley Snipes to the roster early on for some fun action and dialog. Mel Gibson, who’s fun to watch throughout the film, surfaces as the main villain. The rest of the new characters have a harder time standing out, but UFC’s Ronda Rousey is hard to miss. Her beauty, physique and physicality are all on display here. Harrison Ford has some fun with his role, but nobody seems to be having more fun than Antonio Banderas. The story is relatively straight-forward and the climax is pretty clique, but the action and the characters keep thing interesting. There is a bit too much CGI generated chaos that is somewhat distracting, and it’s very obvious when the middle-aged stars of the film are replaced by their younger, jumping, climbing and flipping stuntmen.

*** out of *****

Movie Review: Let’s Be Cops

This film had potential to be much funnier, but just couldn’t put together the right formula. While Jake Johnson was fairly consistently entertaining, Damon Wayans, Jr. was the weak link in this buddy comedy. While showing hints of the same comedy chops that made his father famous, he is asked to play somewhat of a straight man throughout the film. This causes many of his sillier attempts at humor seem out of place. Overall his character is inconsistent. He’s wild and crazy for one scene and then straight and narrow for the next. The rest of the supporting cast is nothing special. Nina Dobrev’s role as the love interest never has a chance to have any solid chemistry with Wayans, not is she given enough screen time. James D’Arcy does what he can in his brief role as the main villain, while the normally funny Rob Riggle isn’t given a chance to do any comedy. An unimportant child side-kick comes and goes and a few other characters pop-up and are just never all that funny. The story isn’t bad, but takes an odd direction late, while missing out on many chances for much funnier sequences while the leads are pretending to be cops.

** out of *****