All the action heroes (well, most of them) in a huge blast-out of an action film, loaded with high-octane thrills.
‘The Expendables’ is about a team of mercenaries (Sylvester Stallone, Jason Statham, Jet Li, and more) who are hired by a CIA operative to dispense of a Latin dictator and a renegade CIA agent.
That’s for the story, all the rest is basically just blowing things up with heavy artillery, as you would expect from a line up like this, and the mayhem is pretty consistent throughout. The leading stars are overshadowed quite frequently by mega-blasts of blown up stuff, but that’s what you mostly pay to see when you watch a film like this. Another downside to the film is that some of the much hyped stars – example Arnold Schwarzenegger and Bruce Willis – are hardly in it and when they are all they have to do is one scene where they just joke around.
Overall, this film is a fun experience if it’s full-blown popcorn action you’re after. For plot or character, look elsewhere.
The Wolf of Wall Streeet
Seeing that the running time for 'The Wolf of Wall Street' was three hours I was looking forward to a long evening of lots of entertainment - and that's certainly what happened.
'The Wolf of Wall Street' is a really crude 'cautionary tale' as stated by the leading star Leonardo DiCaprio during a radio interview. It tells the true story of a Wall Street stock-broker lured into the criminal life.
The enjoyment level was on a high throughout the three-hour running time and not once did I feel let down. Oh, it is very adult and quite complex if you're new to the whole stock-broker game, but even if, like me, you know nothing about that subject you'll enjoy it nonetheless. The film received a lot of positive and negative reviews: the positive mostly giving a big thumbs-up to the direction and delving's into the life of Wall Street; the negative more concerned with the characters' actions being of a poor standard, and the amount of nudity. Both of these are true because, yes, the direction is absolutely brilliant and exhilarating with a fast-moving storyline and, yes, the character is quite vile (well, all of them are to a certain extent) and the amount of nudity borders on the gratuitous. But you could argue that this is what the leading character's world is like, seen through his eyes. The film is also very funny in places, with really laugh-out-loud standout slapstick set pieces.
Overall, 'The Wolf of Wall Street' is a fun way to spend three hours and never does it fell like a hard slog to get through. Highly recommended if you can stomach the nudity.