2 out of 5

Director: Simon West

Pulled off if respectable smoothness, Expendables 2 is exactly what it wants to be – those kind of action flicks we see on TNT or USA (or used to see, when we watched TV) and would flip to and watch mindlessly for a few minutes before flipping back to whatever else. It is nice to see this type of polish on the big screen without the sort of underlying need to prove anything, because it doesn’t need to prove a damn thing, just based on the merits of all involved. For better or worse though, that also makes it a fairly forgettable film by definition. The first Expendables wasn’t mind-blowing, but it had something to prove, and you felt that in the over manliness and grittiness of the whole affair. Exp 2 is much more relaxed, which Sly cops to in the extras – this is a sequel, he said what he had to in film 1, so in this one we’re just gonna give the audience what they want. Which happens – funny puns, fun stunts, fun cameos. Director Simon West actually makes things a bit TOO easy, with helicopters exploded with bikes and planes flown into bunkers all with a shrug, but the flick flies by for 90 minutes easily enough.