Expend4bles (in theaters)
The action stars of our childhood are back. Well, a couple of them are back. Expend4bles (The Expendables 4) is said to be the end of the road for this motley crew of mercenary bad-a$$es.
Here’s the scoop: Sylvester Stallone (Rocky, First Blood) returns as Barney Ross, the leader of the pack. Armed alongside his longtime pals Christmas, played by Jason Statham (Crank, The Meg), Gunner, played by Dolph Lundgren (Rocky 4, Masters of the Universe) and Toll Road, played by Randy Couture (Big Stan, The Expendables). They are joined by yet another new generation of warriors including Gina, played by Megan Fox (Transformers, Jennifer’s Body), Easy Day, played by Curtis ’50 Cent’ Jackson), Lash, played by Levy Tran (The Haunting of Hill House, Shameless), and Galan, played by Jacob Scipio (Bad Boys for Life, The Outpost.) Armed with every weapon imaginable, the team gets called out to recover detonators to a nuclear bomb from the main antagonist, Suarto Rahmat, played by Iko Uwais (The Raid, Star Wars: The Force Awakens), and ultimately a faceless enemy only known as Ocelot.
The tagline for the movie is “They’ll die when they’re dead.” So, if that tells you nothing else, I’m sure you can figure out there’s a lot of dying in this movie. Dying and killing, shooting, stabbing, and slicing, flying and crashing, cheesy one-liners and blowing s#%t up. Sounds about right. Yes?
The movie was entertaining. Did I love it? No. Did I hate it? Certainly not. Of the four, this one falls probably third in line for me. I just really didn’t love part 3 at all. The original film is certainly a classic action movie, but I think my favorite is part 2. If for no other reason…Chuck Norris! That scene where he so calmly walks through with the Uzi just mowing everything down was amazing for us 80s action film lovers. Anyway, back to this new one.
To me, the best thing about Expend4bles is the introduction of new character De4cha, played by Tony Jaa (Ong Bak: The Thai Warrior, The Protector.) This guy was amazing. He was so much fun to watch. It was like watching Bruce Lee, but with really sharp knives. The most disappointing thing was the lack of so many of the franchise’s original stars like Arnold Schwarzenegger, Bruce Willis, Terry Crews, and Jet Li. The main villain was also a tad disappointing considering we’ve had Jean Claude VanDamme, Mel Gibson, and ‘Stone Cold’ Steve Austin to name a few. This one just didn’t have the “IT factor” for me. Honestly, this was more of just a Jason Statham action movie than anything else. It was heavy on him and light on the rest of the ensemble.
It’s fun though. Don’t get me wrong. If you are a fan of the franchise, go see it. If you love action movies, you’ll be entertained. I have a feeling that you’ll agree with me on maybe where it stands alongside the first 3 movies, but who doesn’t love 2 hours of explosions and hand-to-hand combat. Again, it’s fun and it’s entertaining. This one DID actually seem to be a little heavier on the martial arts, even without Jet Li. Maybe it’s just me and I need to rewatch the others. I’m giving this one a 3.1/5.
Rainn Wilson and the Geography of Bliss (streaming on Peacock)
I’ve only watched one episode of this so far, but I absolutely loved it. In this 5-episode series, Rainn Wilson (The Office, The Meg) goes on a journey around the world searching out the happiest and least happy places on earth, and more importantly WHY they are happy or unhappy places.
The episode sees our host traveling to Iceland. The title of the episode is “Happiness is a bottle of Cod Liver Oil” and sees Rainn getting nude in a hot spring, chugging a bottle of Cod Liver Oil, and learning the art of failure. I already wanted to travel to Iceland, but I want to go even more so now. What an incredibly beautiful and unique country!
I just love the concept of the show. We’ve seen a million different reality shows where a famous host visits different countries and eats bizarre, native foods, but this one really seems to have a deeper purpose. Rainn makes himself vulnerable and talks in detail about his own struggles with depression, anxiety, and just his mental health in general. He’s really on a quest to find true happiness. And…aren’t we all? I think we’re all trying to seek out happiness in this far too often dark and unhappy world.
I was turned onto the show because I am also currently listening to Rainn’s latest book, “Soul Boom.” It’s a really good book, basically about spirituality. Not religion now, just your personal spirituality…whatever that might mean for you. It’s interesting and encouraging. You should check it out too.
Anyway, go to Peacock and check out “Rainn Wilson and the Geography of Bliss” and tell me what you think. I’m giving this one a 4.9/5.
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