EXPEND4BLES (Scott Waugh, 2023)

[Jox]

...“Expend4bles,” which dropped 69% in its second weekend and has grossed just $13.2 million over 10 days.

https://www.thewrap.com/paw-patrol-migh ... ox-office/


Ranked #9 and grossed $2,495,000 this week-end with a domestic total at $13,257,815 so far. The average is very low at $709 per theater.
https://www.the-numbers.com/weekend-box-office-chart

[Krom]

Very bad in Domestic BO but looks decent overall with $42M wordwide for its budget and older audiences.

[alex.sp89]

What are u talking guys EX2 AND EX3 have much more action seq. and sets than EX4. EX2 has good opening, killing the sniper part, bar fight, Chuck Norris action intro, fight and kills at the church, cave flight and kills , final action seq. Ex3 has goog opening with Snipes, action scene intro of Gibson, recruiting all new guys with smaill action of each new young character, mission capturing Gibson, mission fails and all new guys are captured in the end and big final action seq. About EX4- VERY ABRUPT OPENING WITH UWAIS (i think it was original placed later into the movie because the logical half of this scene (the second half of it) took place when the Ex 4 shows up, but they decided to cut it in half and place it earlier in maneer of first 3 movies intro), Statham, Stallone Jumbo Shrimp fight at the bar, the mission (second half of the scene that i said earlier) where Ex4 team show up and mission fails, Statham kick the butt of tik tok guy (very short scene), new team fail again (very short action if u can name it so), Statham meets Tony Jaa and fight a bit and the last end action scene starts. Basically there are just 2 set pieces - opening desert scene and boat scene for action , the rest are nothing cheap stuff that could be filmed anywhere interior or exterior location. They advertised Jaa as big character - his role is very small guys appears very late and doesn't have too much stuff to do. Looks like everyone was coming for a week or two on the set separately and were leaving after part was done. Look cheap and fast made movie - 9 weeks when the fist 3 movies had 13=16 weeks of principal photography.

[Gieferg]

What are u talking guys EX2 AND EX3 have much more action seq. and sets than EX4.

Dude, please...
Action sequences between opening and finale in Ex2 are under 5 minutes total. It's laughably small amount. Sit down and check it:

There is 13 minutes opening which is nice but then we wait 30 minutes to get what?

The "bar Fight". Which is 3 seconds long. THREE. EFFING. SECONDS.
Norris "action introduction" - under 2 minutes and nothing interesting happens, just some soldiers are shot by Norris who is not even visible.
village/chruch fight - around 1,5 minute (the only one worth mentioning)
cave flight and cave fight 1,5 minute, but only 5 seconds of it is actual shooting.

And 10 minutes finale (actually 7,5 minutes of action) which isnt even that good and half of it is Van Damme fight (half of which is just talking). Very disappointing fight. Looked like they used same kick from him twice.

To compare with Ex1:

Opening action - 2 minutes, 3 if we count Li-Lundgren confrontation
Fight with soldiers on an island - 1 minute
Escape from the island / fly & die - 6 minutes
basketball field fight - 20 seconds
car chase / Li Vs Lundgren fight - 5 minutes
Finale, from first to last casualty - 20 minutes (with some breaks so let's say 15)

To me, Ex1 had way better distributed action.

I felt like Ex4 finale may have more action than whole Ex2. I may be wrong but I felt that way when watching. There was even a moment (bike scene) that I felt is too long. I'll check on it in details when I get my hands on blu-ray.

Look cheap and fast made movie

Like every sequel in this series.

About EX4- VERY ABRUPT OPENING WITH UWAIS (i think it was original placed later into the movie because the logical half of this scene (the second half of it)

True. That was weirdly edited.

[Jox]

New Generation of Action Stars Needed, German Distributor of ‘Expendables,’ ‘John Wick’ Movies Says: ‘It’s on Us to Build Up New Stars Again’
https://variety.com/2023/film/festivals ... 235742006/

Kogel pointed to “Expend4bles,” which Leonine released on Sept. 21 to a less than stellar box office: it garnered just €698,711 from 67,818 admissions for a fourth place opening.

It doesn't say for how many days but in any case 67,818 tickets sold for an opening week or week-end in Germany is nothing...

[alex.sp89]

you wouldn't see even a 2 minute action from minute 28 to minute 55 in EX4, IF SOMEONE COUNT MINUTES. EX2 is not ideal but it is better put together movie, and special effects are really good in it, not like a cartoon like in EX4, especially after minute 80 on the boat in the morning... Even THE LAST ACT ON THE BOAT NEEDED TO BE TRIMED A LITTLE BIT FOR PACING, too much words in parts long angles with no need, Movie making is a directors job and to know directing u need school. Today many stuntmen switch into directors but not many achieve success. Stahelski i think is the one who has artistic point of view and behind him i guess there are competent filmmakers that help him to organize organic the puzzle in making movies...It is sad that EX4 turned like this. IKO Uwais, Jaa were used minimal WITH THEIR POTENTIAL, ESPECIALLY UWAIS AS ONE OF THE MAIN VILLAINS... Jackie Chan team is professional but when u have a mediocre capitan on the steer wheel... result is not that great. Sorry , if someone does not like, but this is my point of view

[Gieferg]

EX2 is not ideal but it is better put together movie

Maybe, but what can I do? I still prefer Ex4.
It was first time ever that I've really enjoyed an Expendables sequel (Ex1 still remains my favorite movie in the series though), can't wait to rewatch on Blu-ray.

[Leigh2704]

I thought this was atrocious. Everyone is clearly phoning it in, the writing is the most cringe inducing yet, the new cast is baffling (Rothrock and Yeoh are still overlooked for Megan Fox I guess they're too close to Statham's age for the romancing scenes, shave twenty years off for that ego), and the post production values just simply look unfinished. I haven't seen green screen this obvious since Spy Kids. Someone can say it's better than 2 and 3 but sorry, I just can't get there.

[Leigh2704]

That is true of EX2 but I’d still put it as the best of them because it has the funnest villain, it actually kills off an Expendable (a young one, but still) and it’s the only one where they operate as a team through the whole film.

EX3 was on some channel today and I caught some of it. It really starts good with them breaking Snipes out and then the sequence on the docks. Both well staged and not hurt at all by the PG-13 rating. But after that the film loses so much steam and never regains its footing. Scene where Mel is captured and in back of the van is still great though.

The upside to the 'unrated' version of 3 is that the extra action feels like genuine footage as opposed to the cheats that films like Die Hard 4 did with digital additions to obvious PG scenes.

[Krom]

I don’t why you guys arguing about EX2, The Expendbales movies arent’t perfect, but they are great B movies and we should be thankful they’re existing. After the subpar EX4 the Overall the trilogy become a classic now and should have a better spot for the action fans!

Look at my Expendables collection, i never totally love but still has its place in any old school movies fan collection!

IMG_1970.jpeg (222.67 KiB) Viewed 20210 times

[Jox]

Pre-orders and cover arts up at Walmart
https://www.walmart.com/ip/Expendables- ... om=/search

Extras:
- Audio commentary by Scott Waugh
- Bigger, Bolder, Badder: The Expendables in Action
- More than a Team: New Blood meets Old Blood
- Theatrical Trailer





Back cover

[Gieferg]

EX2 is not ideal (...) and special effects are really good in it

They're embarrasingly bad in some places. The tank, the cave flight, the trolley... painfully BAD.
Just like in Ex4.

[alex.sp89]

For 11-12 years old special effects they look great in EX2. It was different era. Today VFX advanced a lot (AFTER 2014-2015 when they recreated Paul WALKER IN FURIOUS 7), DEEPFAKE WAS CREATED etc, tbat is why we have no excuse for this in EX4. SOMEONE IS COMPARING A MOVIE MADE IN 1989 AND ANOTHER ONE IN 2000-2001. This is a joke to me...Maybe for home video release they can improve and watching on smaller screen will not be that noticeable...

[Gieferg]

In 2012 there were great CGI already many new films looks worse in that department than those from 2012.

But Ex2 looked like s*it then and it looks like s*It now. Not only CGI, overall image quality in this movie is ugly AF. So I guess we'll have to agree to disagree on this.

[Jox]

South Korean character poster