The Expendables 2 (2012)

It's been a couple of years since I've seen this one, as well, and it really benefited from the closer exposure to the original.  Overall, this was just a way better movie, almost shockingly so, and I think that is entirely due to the fact that Stallone handed directorial control over to Simon West, who was responsible for Con Air and The Mechanic remake.  Expendables 2 was sharper, better lit, and showed a lot more of the fighting.  Currently, I'm binge-watching my way through two seasons of Justified so I don't know if I'll get to Expendables 3 this weekend but I am excited at the prospect.  Originally published 8/19/12.    We just got out of the theater from seeing this movie.  Normally, I wait 24 hours or so to really let the movie sink in before I decide how I feel about it but a) I'm short on time today because I didn't have any other drafts written and b) I don't need time to know that this movie kicked ass.

If you thought the first one was just an excuse to parade arthritic old show ponies, you will not like the second one.  They went bigger, funnier, and more insane this go around.

Barney Ross (Sylvester Stallone) is indebted to CIA operative Church (Bruce Willis) for $5 million, so Church sends Ross and his team of crazy badasses to retrieve a safe from a downed plane in Albania.  Church sends Maggie (Yu Nan) in with them for quality control.  Unfortunately, the hilariously named Vilain (Jean-Claude Van Damme) is waiting for them after they retrieve it and makes them hand it over to his sidekick Hector (Scott Adkins, you know, that guy from the shitty movie Ninja).  Anyway, then Van Damme --I'm sorry, Vilain-- murders Billy (Liam Hemsworth) for being 30 years younger than the rest of the cast.  Barney and Co. are very displeased by this and vow to kill Vilain.  The team gets pinned down in a mock-up of New York City by an army of bad guys who have a tank but are rescued in the nick of time by none other than Booker, the Lone Wolf (Chuck motherfuckin' Norris).  It is precisely as epic as it sounds.  After that random cameo, they chase Vilain to a set of abandoned Soviet mines where he is extracting a huge cache of plutonium hidden by the Ruskies during the Cold War.  They chase him to a surprisingly modern airport and destroy it with a huge battle.

Everybody wins.

Except Van Damme.

Honestly, they manage to cram references from pretty much every major action movie in the last thirty years as well as use most of the catchphrases that made its stars famous.  It's everything you love about giant action films.  Explosions, bullets, knives, and brass knuckles galore.  I can't wait for the third one.