Movie Review: 'The Expendables 4'

The Expendables 4 (2023)

Directed by Scott Waugh

Written by Kurt Wimmer, Max Adams, Tad Daggerhart

Starring Jason Statham, Sylvester Stallone, Megan Fox, 50 Cent, Dolph Lundgren, Tony Jaa, Iko Uwais

Release Date September 22nd, 2023

Published September 26th, 2023

It speaks volumes without saying a word that before the end of the first act, Sylvester Stallone has left The Expendables 4. Stallone's character may or may not have been killed on a raid on terrorists in Libya. So, even the stars of The Expendables 4 don't want to be in The Expendables 4 if they don't have to be. The Expendables 4 is an utter shambles, a complete embarrassment for everyone involved. It's a lazy boomer fantasy of middle aged tough guys who use their unique set of skills to kill a mass number of lackeys who seem to form out of thin air only to be brutally murdered as quick as they appear.

The story of The Expendables 4, such as it is, finds our heroes Barney (Sylvester Stallone) and Christmas (Jason Statham), tracking down a terrorist that has long eluded them both. Rahmat (Iko Uwais) is dangerous on his own and has a history with Christmas. Now, however, Rahmat is working with an international terrorist whom Barney has been looking for since the 80s. With Rahmat in Libya getting detonators for a nuclear bomb, the Expendables team, including Toll Road (Randy Couture), Gunnar (Dolph Lundgren), and newcomers Easy Day (50 Cent) and Galan (Jacob Scipio), head into battle.

The mission is a disaster, the detonators get away and Christmas is fired. What happens to Barney is a spoiler. Regardless, the Expendables team leadership falls to Gina (Megan Fox). It will be her mission now to try and find where Rahmat is taking the nuclear detonators and to stop him from using them to star World War 3. Naturally, Gina happens to be Christmas' ex-girlfriend. And just as predictably, the two have angry fight sex before he hatches a plan to follow her on her mission. Recruiting the help of a former Expendable named Decha (Tony Jaa) to help him.

That's a straightforward explanation of what is happening in The Expendables 4. What it lacks is a proper description of how poorly executed these perfunctory scenes are. The dimwitted mechanics of this plot click along with all of the precision of a monkey swinging a hammer. Things explode, it's impossible to tell who is who amid the chaos, and the bad guys are all auditioning to be storm troopers by shooting at but never hitting any our of heroes. Considering the sheer number of bullets fired by the baddies in The Expendables 4 you'd think one of those bullets would hit an intended target and somehow you would be wrong.

Even more disastrous than the abysmal plotting and direction are the special effects in The Expendables 4. Any time a big stunt is required, the movie turns into a poorly crafted animated movie. I kid you not, several scenes in The Expendables 4 turn into fully animated sequences that show off just how sad and cheap the whole enterprise is. These special effects would not be less convincing if they were simply a child making explosion noises with his mouth and banging his toys together. Imagine that child doing that as loudly and as close to your ears as possible and you get a sense of the special effects of The Expendables 4.

The Expendables 4 is deeply, wildly, incompetent. From the direction to the sub-sitcom script, to the embarrassing special effects. Sure, Tony Jaa does show up late in the second act and does some really cool stuff with a knife but that's the only time when The Expendables 4 rises to a level of being worth watching and Jaa is not around long, at least in terms of screen time. He gets a couple of cool moments and then is brushed aside in favor of the main cast.

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