The Expendables 2 - Blu-ray Review

'The finale in the airport confines itself to the terminal building, eschewing a Casino Royale-esque plane chase, which was presumably deemed too exciting.'

The Expendables are back with a brand new rap and at least two of the technical problems have been fixed straight off the bat: cinematographer Jeffrey Kimball is out, replaced by Captain America's Shelly Johnson and Sly Stallone is crowbarred from the directing chair to welcome Simon West into the fray. Considering how difficult it was to actually see the first film, Johnson may well be the best addition to the ensemble, although the guiding hand of West is also something the first film dearly needed.

It's almost a shame then to report that this over-blown, over-egged, under-developed, ego trip still suffers from more-or-less exactly the same problems as the band's first outing. The action is point and shoot (has The Raid taught Western action directors nothing?), the characters are still one-dimensional and boring, the plot and script are still hopelessly misjudged, peppered with one-liners that don't make sense. 'Order room service', Stallone says in the first reel, for no apparent reason, whilst sliding down a zip wire, 'crispy fried duck', says the cast's sole Asian character, when asked about her choice of last meal.

Not only does what is here disappoint but the missed opportunities start to grate too. A promising start for The Hunger Games' Liam Hemsworth is cut short. Stallone's script forces the distinctly non-celebratory Jason Statham to shout 'woooo', then gets rid him of him for a key segment late on. The finale in the airport confines itself to the terminal building, eschewing a Casino Royale-esque plane chase, which was presumably deemed too exciting.

With the action scenes delivering little it is down to the non-action inconvenient bits of plot to deliver the goods, which is where The Expendables 2 threatens to pull a surprise. Sure, this isn't about to rival a Mike Leigh effort in terms of quiet plot but hey, at least the characters say vaguely interesting things to each other and side players on occasion, and at least, this time, the actors manage to deliver the words without their faces cracking.

There's a final assessment test that is key and where the lack of worth in The Expendables franchise to date starts to show. If Demolition Man or Universal Soldier or Total Recall, or even, hell, Eraser, were on TV late on a Saturday night and you were at a loose end, you'd watch them. If this appeared, you'd be forced to turn over to Strictly Come Dancing after five minutes. The stars could still have 'it'. These films don't.