Film

The Expendables

Name: The Expendables
Genre: Thriller, Adventure, Action
Released: 2010
Cast: Sylvester Stallone, Jason Statham, Jet Li, Dolph Lundgren, Eric Roberts

A mercenary team of aging action stars assembles for one last job on a South American island. It's a love letter to 1980s action cinema—explosions, one-liners, and muscle over plot—made by people who genuinely know the genre. For anyone who grew up on Schwarzenegger and wants to feel that again, guilt-free.

TMDb rating

3.1

Should you watch it?

Watch it if you love old-school action where the muscle-bound veterans are the point, with gruff banter, practical stunts and a nostalgic swagger that feels like a reunion of tough guys from another decade.

Skip it if you want sharp plotting or modern, fast-cut kinetics; the story is thin, the dialogue is clumsy in places, and the fights often rely on lumbering camerawork rather than inventive choreography.

What it asks of you: Settle in for a brisk hundred minutes that spends most of its energy on set pieces and bravado, with little patience for slow character work or quiet moments.

Not sure? Find tonight's pick in a minute.

If you liked this

Fast Five2011

Heist spectacle with an ensemble cast firing on all cylinders. Like Expendables but with genuine chemistry, better pacing, and stunts that still hold up. Proof that dumb fun can be expertly crafted.

But The plot is tissue-thin and the emotional beats feel obligatory. If you want substance, look elsewhere.

Mission: Impossible - Fallout2018

Practical stunts, inventive action sequences, and a script that respects your intelligence. Tom Cruise's commitment to doing his own dangerous work mirrors the old-school ethos Expendables reaches for but actually executes.

But Two and a half hours is a lot, and some plot threads feel perfunctory. Requires patience between the set pieces.

Predator1987

The 1980s action blueprint Expendables is trying to remix. A team of soldiers, an unknown threat, tense cat-and-mouse in the jungle. Schwarzenegger, Weathers, Jesse Ventura. Taut, clever, and genuinely suspenseful.

But Special effects are dated. If you need modern action grammar, this will feel slow and creaky.

Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from The Expendables

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

Sorcerer1977

Both are about aging men with questionable pasts hired for a suicide job; Sorcerer is what happens when you remove the irony and take it seriously.

William Friedkin's brutal masterpiece about mercenaries driving nitroglycerine through a jungle. Tense, morally complex, shot with documentary realism. It's what Expendables reaches for thematically—men at the end of their rope—but actually achieves it.

But It's slow, patient, and completely humorless. The action, when it comes, is measured and unglamorous. Nothing like what you're expecting.

RED2010

Retired assassins dragged back for one job. Bruce Willis, Morgan Freeman, Helen Mirren. Sharper and funnier than Expendables, with actual character work underneath the gunplay. Proves the concept doesn't require a thirteen-person cast.

But The plot is gossamer. It's really just a hangout movie pretending to have stakes, which bothers some viewers.

The Losers2010

Ensemble action-adventure with genuine camaraderie and style. Balances humor, spectacle, and character in ways Expendables struggles with. Snappy, confident, and doesn't overstay its welcome.

But Depends entirely on mood. If you want to feel nothing while watching, it won't help. If you want a movie that assumes your intelligence, it won't scratch that itch either.

Commando1985

Schwarzenegger on a one-man rescue mission. Gloriously stupid, earnestly made, unironically quotable. A time capsule of pure 80s action excess—no self-awareness, all commitment. Expendables' spiritual ancestor.

But The plot is nonsense and the dialogue lands differently on a modern ear—sometimes funny, sometimes uncomfortable. It's of its era in ways that can't be explained away.

The A-Team2010

Chaotic, colorful ensemble action-comedy where the fun is genuinely the point. An aerial tank sequence. Genuinely inventive and loose in a way that makes Expendables feel stiff by comparison.

But Aggressively silly, even for an action film. No dramatic stakes whatsoever. If you want tension, this isn't it.

Escape Plan2013

Stallone and Schwarzenegger finally on screen together, built around prison-break ingenuity rather than just firepower. An answer to the question: what if Expendables had a plot that mattered? It's modest but satisfying.

But The script is functional at best. The chemistry works but the story doesn't give them much to do with it.

Fortress1992

Christopher Lambert in a maximum-security, futuristic prison, with inventive practical effects and genuine tension. A B-movie that earns its budget. Shows what action cinema could do in the 90s when it had an idea.

But Pacing drags in the second act and the film doesn't have the self-assurance of films above it. A curious piece rather than a sure thing.

Dredd2012

Both build ensemble action around the question of who these people are when the guns stop; Dredd just never lets the guns stop long enough to find out.

A brutal, stylish action film shot with genuine visual invention. Karl Urban, a tower block, a terrible situation that gets worse. Confined, intense, and utterly committed to its world. Shows action cinema can be artistic without being pretentious.

But The premise is bleak and the violence is unvarnished. It's also British-made with indie sensibilities, so the tone is miles from Stallone-era comfort food.

White of the Eye1987

Both feature men defined by violence who can't stop; one interrogates that compulsion, the other celebrates it.

Donald Cammell's psychedelic, erotic thriller about a mercenary in the Arizona desert. Barely a real action film but built from the same obsessions—masculinity, violence, alienation. A rock-and-roll fever dream that mainstream action would never dare.

But It's incoherent if you're looking for plot. The violence is abrupt and uncomfortable. It exists in a register completely foreign to action films.