Every Arnold Schwarzenegger Movie Ranked Worst To Best

16. The Expendables 3

The Expendables 3 Arnold Schwarzenegger
Lionsgate

The Expendables 3 gets a harsher rap than it arguably deserves, though there's no disputing that Sylvester Stallone made a huge mistake in trying to usher in a "new generation" of action stars with its story, as well as appeal to a wider audience by mellowing out the action. The third Expendables film remains the sole entry in the franchise to be given a PG-13 rating, and while it finds redemption in the additions of Antonio Banderas, Wesley Snipes, and Mel Gibson, it unfortunately continues to hang around its neck.

Schwarzenegger does at least benefit from a slightly beefier role this time, assembling the remnants of Barney Ross' team to go get him out of a bind. Particularly fun are his exchanges with Jet Li's Yang, and for a time - especially in the film's entertaining climax - it really does feel like the film is delivering on the series' premise.

The bad part is, there's also a lot of chaff to sift through to get there.

Content Producer/Presenter

WhatCulture's very own resident movie guy, Ewan has been working in the content creation biz for over 10 years now, having started as a freelance contributor to WhatCulture Gaming all the way back in 2015. After graduating with a First-Class Honours in History from Northumbria University in 2017 (where he won a prize for a totally killer dissertation on the Watergate years), Ewan took on the role of Comics Editor at WhatCulture and quickly developed WhatCulture Comics into one of the biggest superhero-focused channels on YouTube. He followed this with a brief hiatus at Screen Rant in 2021, where he worked across the Gaming and Film sections as a writer and editor, before returning to WhatCulture as a Senior Content Producer / Presenter in 2023. He started his own podcast, We Love Dad Movies, in 2022, and has contributed several written pieces to the Eisner-nominated comics website Shelfdust as well. In his current role, Ewan incorporates his love of cinema, comic books, and history into written pieces and video essays for WhatCulture's Film & TV channel, as well as WhatCulture Gaming and WhatCulture Horror, with a particular focus on nineties-era Dad Movies, old school Westerns, and Golden Age Hollywood Noir. John Carpenter is his fave, and he thinks Batman Beyond should never have been cancelled. If that's your vibe, you'll probably like his stuff.