The Expendables 2
Netflix | Amazon | Epix | iTunes | SEN | Vudu | Xbox
DVD | Blu-ray
Directed by Simon West
Starring Sylvester Stallone, Jason Statham, Jet Li, Dolph Lundgren, Chuck Norris, Terry Crews, Randy Couture, Liam Hemsworth, Jean-Claude Van Damme, Bruce Willis, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Yu Nan
Lionsgate
Originally Released: August 17, 2012

Oh, the glory of the ridiculous action delivered in The Expendables 2. This is vibrant popcorn-movie wonder, a kick ass explosive injection of testosterone straight to the stones, and enjoyable. The cheese is thick and hearty – after all, who doesn’t like a little cheese with their nachos?

Picking up sometime after the first Expendables movie, Mr. Church (Bruce Willis) comes back to claim a mission in place of the lost revenue from the last mission. Barney (Sylvester Stallone) rallies his team, accompanied by Agent Maggie Chan (Yu Nan), to retrieve sensitive computer data lost in a downed plane in Albania.

Yesterday no less an authority than President Camacho himself, Terry freakin’ Crews, promised us that a new trailer for The Expendables 2 would be arriving online today to put a blood-and-skull-splattered boot in our collective ass. Sure enough as I sit here with The Dirty Dozen, the original (and still best) of the all-star superteam action-adventures, playing in the background I sit here writing this: Today Crews’ loud and awful snarly promise was fulfilled.

You can watch the mighty new trailer here below.

I’m a huge fan of the first Expendables, but having re-watched it on Blu-ray recently it’s clear that the movie has serious problems when it comes to the narrative structure and the staging of the action sequences. Don’t get me wrong, Sylvester Stallone did a fine job directing the movie overall, especially when you take into account that he was also writing and starring in the movie at the same time (and taking some near-paralyzing injuries in the process). But when the aging but still active action hero announced that a new director would take the helm of The Expendables 2 while he stuck to acting duties I took a great amount of relief in that news.

Not many people know this but Sylvester Stallone‘s 2010 brawny mercenary epic The Expendables was originally shot with the intention of getting a PG-13 rating. Fans of old school action the world over were disheartened but were willing to look past it just as long as Sly delivered the goods, and given the insane amount of heavyweight ass-kicking talent the star/director had assembled for the movie, there was no question he wouldn’t. As the film approached its release date the decision was made to pump some more blood-soaked carnage digitally into the proceedings to get its rating up to an R, despite the nagging stigma that the box office appeal of R-rated action films was dropping off fast each year.

That didn’t prevent The Expendables from becoming one of the surprise hits of that summer, grossing over $100 million in the U.S. and banking a grand worldwide total of over $274 million (with a budget of only $80 million). At that point not only was a sequel inevitable but it was assumed from the beginning that the next Expendables adventure, appropriately titled The Expendables 2, would be from the very beginning designed and executed with the intention of getting that all-important R rating.

But then a funny thing happened to The Expendables 2 on its way to principal photography. A funny thing named Chuck Norris. Continue reading to see how Norris changed the entire course of the movie, and to see a video.

The first teaser trailer for Lionsgate’s summer 2012 testosterone-fiesta The Expendables 2 has been released. You can watch the trailer and read the official plot synopsis here below.

The trailer is little more than Bruce Willis‘ menacing Mr. Church (the character he played in the single scene he shared with Sylvester Stallone and Arnold Schwarzenegger in the original) confronting Stallone’s Barney Ross about a deal they made and how it’s time to pay up, followed by a roll call of the movie’s cast. Eleven actors, and not one neck between them.

Like brother, like brother.

As his elder sibling, Chris, is becoming something of an action star, up-and-comer Liam Hemsworth has found himself quite a project. Variety is reporting that the star of The Hunger Games has joined the cast of the upcoming sequel, The Expendables 2.