Expend4bles (Mini-Review)

Expend4bles is the fourth movie in the Expendables series. When a mission goes wrong, Barney Ross is killed and a dangerous villain gets away. The loss of his best friend tears Lee Christmas apart. Being kicked out of the Expendables hurts even more as he isn't part of the team that will avenge Barney. Christmas risks everything to avenge his friend while the Expendables find themselves in the crosshairs of a powerful enemy. One that has hidden their identity for a long time. Expend4bles was released in 2024. It was directed by Scott Waugh. It stars Jason Statham, Sylvester Stallone, Curtis "50 Cent" Jackson, and Megan Fox.

There is no mid or post credits scene.

One of the many reasons that I was interested in this movie was that Megan Fox was in it. She is a good looking woman and the trailers showed she was a good action star. But sometimes trailers don't exactly tell the truth. Luckily she is a force to be reckoned with as Gina. When Christmas tries to fool her with a knife, she eventually reveals she knew what he was really doing. Showing that Gina trusts him and there doesn't have to be such a distance between them.

There were a few moments that CGI became distracting. They were small moments that just took me out of the movie. It was like those CGI moments were from a cheaper movie. I don't mind a little camp in my action movie, but those were a little too much. Of course if it was a Netflix original movie, I wouldn't have minded as much.

Usually when I go to the movies there are a few others in the theater. But when I saw this movie there was no one else. I had the entire theater to myself and I didn't take full advantage of the situation. I went to see the movie on a Wednesday afternoon which doesn't tend to be a big day for moviegoers. So I didn't think it was a sign it was a financial flop.

A few of the kills were really well done. They were minor parts of intense action sequences which made them shocking. I was so focused on whatever was going on that they functioned a little like jump scares. I liked seeing the gore and really appreciated that the film went back to an R rating. A PG-13 rating would be decent, but I don't think it was a smart idea to try and market the series to a younger audience. This series is aimed at people who appreciated action movies back in the day.

One conversation between the team dealt with 'golden showers'. I won't bother explaining what those are since those seeing this movie will already know. The conversation was played for laughs and I thought it was nothing but a dumb joke that went on for far too long that would never be brought up again. Boy I was wrong. Later in the movie peeing was a big plot point and the joke about 'golden showers' came up yet again.

I would recommend Expend4bles to fans of the Expendables series. I would also recommend Expend4bles to those looking for a good action movie.