It’s become sort of a tradition with Sylvester Stallone‘s epic action series The Expendables—each movie is rumored to possibly be getting a PG-13 rating, then ultimately ends up with an R when it’s all said and done. The Expendables 2 famously had Chuck Norris state that the movie would be PG-13 (because young fans shouldn’t have to hear naughty language while watching bad guys get mowed down by big f’n guns), which was confirmed by Stallone, only later to be changed to an R.

As The Expendables 3 has approached, rumors of a PG-13 rating have of course made the rounds. But now comes word that the rating is no longer a rumor, but a sad fact. According to reports, the MPAA has given the teen-friendly flick the rating due to violence, including intense sustained gun battles and fight scenes, and language.

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.

Sylvester Stallone took to the Twitter recently to reveal who would direct The Expendables 3, first hinting at wanting an unknown, fresh talent…new blood, as he put it.

After some back and forth he finally revealed that the director would be Patrick Hughes, who last directed an excellent little Australian indie flick titled Red Hill, which starred True Blood‘s Ryan Kwanten. You can check out our review of the movie right here (or right here for a second, equally gushing, review).

Other than that the director only has short films under his belt, making him perfect for Stallone’s fresh talent prerequisite. Continue reading to check out one of said short films.

The Expendables 2 proved that women could be just as tough as the guys carrying the big guns. Nan Yu may have been the beauty behind the testosterone group, but the recent success of the film has made a push for a female version of The Expendables to be made. Adi Shankar, producer of films like The Grey and Killing Them Softly, would like to see that happen. The producer has recently hired Dutch Southern to pen a script for the female edition of The Expendables. Variety reports that he would finance the film himself and that he’s in talks with some major female action stars, past and present.

Some of the most prominent members of the female action stars are Linda Hamilton, Siguourney Weaver, and Jamie Lee Curtis. All three were leading ladies in their respective James Cameron films. Then there is Lucy Lawless, who has appeared in Xena: Warrior Princess. Uma Thurman has proven her worth as Kiddo in Kill Bill. Milla Jovovich and Kate Beckinsale are probably the most recognizable female action stars of the newer generation.

The Expendables 2
Directed by Simon West
Starring Sylvester Stallone, Jason Statham, Dolph Lundgren, Terry Crews, Jean-Claude Van Damme, Chuck Norris, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Bruce Willis
Lionsgate Entertainment
Rated R | 103 Minutes
Release Date: August 17, 2012

“I now pronounce you man and knife.”

Simon West (The Mechanic) takes over directing duties for Sylvester Stallone with The Expendables 2, the sequel to Stallone’s 2010 bullet-blasted action flick.

Written by Richard Menk (The Mechanic, 16 Blocks) and Stallone, The Expendables 2 features an all-star lineup of ’80s and ’90s action stars and their new school successors.

Led by Barney Ross (Stallone), The Expendables consist of blades specialist Lee Christmas (Jason Statham), martial artist Yin Yang (Jet Li), weapons specialist Hale Caesar (Terry Crews), demolitions expert Toll Road (Randy Couture), and snipers Gunner Jensen (Dolph Lundgren) and Billy the Kid (Liam Hemsworth), the new guy.

So not even Chuck Norris’ insistence of no f-bombs could stop Expendables 2 from getting the big R rating. Was there some sort of compromise? Maybe there are no f-bombs in Chuck’s scenes? It seems like these days the MPAA is more concerned with f-bombs and sex scenes than they are about outright violence. With that in mind, one would begin to wonder exactly what garnered Expendables 2 the action fans’ rating of choice. It probably is simply due to outright killings, but we won’t know for sure until the film hits theaters on August 17th.

In the meantime, Sly and the boys have released a behind the scenes featurette to get us all excited for the actionfest. The film stars Sylvester Stallone, Jason Statham, Jet Li, Dolph Lundgren, Terry Crews, Randy Couture, Bruce Willis, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Liam Hemsworth, Chuck Norris, and Jean-Claude Van Damme. Yup, that’s about every action hero from the 80’s and early 90’s and some wrestlers just to balance the mix.

Check out the featurette below and let us know what you think!

The panel for The Expendables 2, the upcoming sequel to the surprise 2010 crackerjack action film which was written by and stars Sylvester Stallone, made an appearance in Hall H at the 2012 San Diego Comic Convention today.

The testosterone alpha male laden panel, comprised of Stallone, MMA champ Randy Couture, Terry Crews, Dolph Lundgren and actor cum politician cum actor again Arnold Schwarzenegger.

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.

The latest trend for the major movie studios out there is to release a trailer for the trailer. Prometheus has done it, we’ve seen one for Total Recall, and now we are getting the trailer for trailer treatment for The Expendables 2, the action-filled testosterone-fueled sequel to the 2010 hit film.

The video (which you can check out below) starts off with actor Terry Crews shouting at you like some burley boot camp leader trying to motivate you to do those five extra pushups you can never do. He introduces a very short, but explosive clip that doesn’t reveal much or tell us anything about the movie itself. It’s perhaps the least effective teaser for the full trailer I have seen in quite a while.

Back in January the hearts of action movie fans everywhere were broken at word that The Expendables 2 looked like it was going to be slapped with a PG-13 rating…and that it was due to the fact that Chuck Norris had gone soft and wouldn’t do the movie unless the “vulgar dialogue” was toned down so that younger moviegoers could see it. This, of course, angered the adult masses.

The news was hoped to be a misunderstanding at first, but when Sylvester Stallone confirmed it, fears became reality. Now Stallone is making everyone happy by retracting said previous confirmation and now claiming that the movie will in fact be given the medal of honor R-rating. And all is right in the world.