One of the most depressing things about EX3 is how poorly under-served most of the old-guy Expendables line-up is. Sure, Stallone sits front-and-center as always, but pretty much all the familiar faces barely get a show in here. We've already mentioned Terry Crews' fleeting appearance, while Randy Couture is again a total also-ran, but what about Sly's second in command, Jason Statham's Lee Christmas? He's got a considerably scaled-down part this time, such that it's difficult to remember him doing much at all, yet compared to the rest, he pretty much gets a starring role. Dolph Lundgren basically filters into the background like Couture this time around, while Jet Li once again makes the most fleeting of appearances, his screen time barely totaling more than about a minute, most of which is spent strapped to a helicopter, firing a machine gun. Then there's Arnie and Harrison Ford, who have a number of extremely short scenes spread throughout the movie in order to make their screen time seem like more than it is, when in fact they barely score 5 minutes each. Ford's scenes are mostly wasted on boring plot explanations, whereas Arnie is basically a walking reference to himself at this point. In short, most of the series' most entertaining (and potentially awesome) characters are cast aside for the majority of the run-time, and as fun as Antonio Banderas and Wesley Snipes are in this, why aren't Arnie, Li, Ford and Lundgren along for more of the ride?
Stay at home dad who spends as much time teaching his kids the merits of Martin Scorsese as possible (against the missus' wishes).
General video game, TV and film nut. Occasional sports fan. Full time loon.
