Expendables, The
The Expandables are a group of hardened mercenaries that take on just about any job, as long as the money is right. After liberating some hostages from a bunch of pirates, they get hired by the mysterious Mr. Church to take down the dictator of a South American country.
The mission seems almost impossible from the start, but when Barney Ross and Lee Christmas head over there to get a first impression of the country and their mission, they quickly find out something is off.
Sandra, the daughter of dictator General Garza, leads them around but during a random scouting they get spotted by the military and need to flee. Barney and Lee manage to escape but Sandra refused to come along as she still hopes that her dad will see that he’s being used by James Munroe, a former CIA agent who’s gone rogue.
The team realises that being used by the CIA to take down a rogue agent isn’t something they want to get in the middle of. Barney, however, feels guilty for having to leave Sandra there and decides to go back…
Sound and Vision:
Rich and vibrant colors, perfect skintones, fine level of detail, great contrast and overall good levels of black. A fantastic transfer that is almost perfect. The only minor issues we found are that there are a few instances where black levels can look a bit flat and some CG scenes are clearly fake.
As with any action movie you expect a great soundtrack with lots of explosions and The Expendables doesn’t disappoint one bit. The subwoofer gets used at full force and will for sure make your windows tremble if you turn up the volume a bit too much. Next to that we get also plenty of detail in positioning (plane passing by for instance), and all kinds of sounds that could have easily gone unnoticed if the makers hadn’t paid so much attention to the sound. The surrounds are constantly used but never interfere with the dialogues that remain crystal clear. This 7.1 soundtrack truly is amazing.
Extras:
– Additional copy of the Movie also on DVD
– Audio Commentary by Sylverster Stallone
- From the Ashes: Post Production
– Comic Con Panel 2010
– Deleted Scene
– Bloopers
– Expendables: The Ultimate Recon
– Interviews Cast & Crew
A nice bunch of extras that show how much effort Stallone has put in this movie.
Conclusion:
The Expendables has just about all of the biggest action stars from the last twenty years together in one movie and then your expectations are of course immense. Luckily, the movie manages to live up to the hype and although the story is a bit simplistic (it’s a blockbuster action movie after all), the action is just great to watch.
The image and sound that come with this Blu-ray are among the best we’ve seen in a while and perfectly support everything that’s going on on the screen. Almost demo material to show off your home cinema.
There are some (very) minor issues here and there, but overall The Expendables is definitely one of the releases of 2010 you just have to get.
8.0