{"id":3420,"date":"2011-12-23T23:56:39","date_gmt":"2011-12-24T07:56:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/moviemansguide.com\/main\/?p=3420"},"modified":"2021-04-22T23:08:23","modified_gmt":"2021-04-23T06:08:23","slug":"review-expendables-dc-bd","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/moviemansguide.com\/main\/2011\/12\/review-expendables-dc-bd\/","title":{"rendered":"The Expendables: Extended Director’s Cut Blu-ray Review"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>The Expendables: Extended Director\u2019s Cut<\/em><\/strong> isn\u2019t great but still a functional action-thriller bringing together manly men on the same screen together. On that front, the film succeeds and is at least a fun way to spend 110-minutes.<\/p>\n

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\nThe Expendables: Extended Director’s Cut (2010)<\/strong><\/p>\n


\nREVIEW NAVIGATION<\/strong><\/span>
\nThe Movie<\/a> | Special Features<\/a> | Video Quality<\/a> | Audio Quality<\/a> | Overall<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

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Genre(s): <\/strong>Action, Drama
\nLionsgate | Unrated \u2013 114 min. \u2013 $24.99 | December 13, 2011<\/p>\n

MOVIE INFO:<\/span>
\nDirected by: <\/strong>Sylvester Stallone
\nWriter(s): <\/strong>David Callaham (story), David Callaham and Sylvester Stallone (screenplay)
\nCast: <\/strong>Sylvester Stallone, Jason Statham, Jet Li, Dolph Lundgren, Eric Roberts, Randy Couture, Steve Austin, David Zayas, Giselle Itie, Terry Crews, Mickey Rourke<\/p>\n

Theatrical Release Date: <\/strong>August 13, 2010<\/p>\n

DISC INFO:<\/span>
\nFeatures: <\/strong>Intro, Featurettes, Music Video, Digital Copy
\nNumber of Discs: <\/strong>1<\/p>\n

Audio: <\/strong>English (DTS-HD MA 7.1)
\nVideo: <\/strong>1080p\/Widescreen 2.40
\nSubtitles: <\/strong>English SDH, English, Spanish
\nCodec: <\/strong>MPEG-4 AVC
\nRegion(s): <\/strong>A<\/p>\n

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THE MOVIE<\/strong> \u2013 3.5\/5<\/strong><\/h2>\n

The Expendables<\/em><\/strong> was billed as the man\u2019s man flick, so much testosterone that the entire universe might explode and end mankind as we know it. And why shouldn\u2019t it when you got 80s\/90s icons Sylvester Stallone, Dolph Lundgren and Mickey Rourke together with current muscles Jason Statham, Randy Couture, Steve Austin and Terry Crews along with the short but dangerous martial artist Jet Li into the mix. Oh, and add in smarmy Eric Roberts and superstars Arnold Schwarzenegger and Bruce Willis into the mix and you\u2019ve got something going… Well, when it comes to movies, the build-up often is better than the final product.<\/p>\n

The film follows mercenaries Barney Ross (SYLVESTER STALLONE), Lee Christmas (JASON STATHAM) whose specialty are knives, martial artist Yin Yang (JET LI), demolitions expert Toll Road (RANDY COUTURE) and weapons specialist Hale Caesar (TERRY CREWS) on their latest assignment \u2013 from the mysterious Mr. Church (BRUCE WILLIS), who probably works for the CIA \u2013 to the fictional island country of Vilena. There, they are to assassinate brutal dictator General Garza (DAVID ZAYAS of \u201cDexter\u201d).<\/p>\n

Doing some reconnaissance, Ross and Christmas meet a local woman named Sandra (GISELLE ITIE) who gives them a tour of the land. During this scouting, they discover that Garza is merely a puppet and rogue CIA agent James Munroe (ERIC ROBERTS) is pulling the strings, with henchmen Paine (STEVE AUSTIN) and The Brit (GARY DANIELS) doing the dirty work, using the land and its people to grow drugs and take in the massive profits.<\/p>\n

Unbeknownst to either, Sandra is in fact Garza\u2019s estranged daughter. After a shootout and car chase through the small island, Ross and Christmas barely make it out, but despite their insistence, Sandra chose to remain behind. Of course, like any good mercenaries, they make a statement by blowing away some of Garza\u2019s military in a massive gun and firestorm.<\/p>\n

When I first saw The Expendables<\/em><\/strong>, I thought it had a few things going from a decent if not obvious story, some good action scenes, and a few OK performances (Stallone, Statham, Rourke) mixed in with some bad ones (Lundgren and Couture mainly). But it\u2019s not the performances that were the selling point, it was the ensemble and I think on that level the movie was at least serviceable.<\/p>\n

Sylvester Stallone as a director is efficient, nothing more, nothing less. Stallone has shown that he\u2019s a good enough director when the script is there (Rocky II<\/em>, Rocky Balboa<\/em> and Rambo<\/em>) and when it\u2019s not (see: Staying Alive<\/em> and his debut, Paradise Alley<\/em>), for The Expendables<\/em><\/strong> he does a good\/respectable job giving the ensemble their due\/fight scenes but otherwise it\u2019s nothing special.<\/p>\n

The cast does their best with a limited script and especially limited screen time with, aside from Stallone, Jason Statham getting the most character development followed by Mickey Rourke (whose role is there as a mirror for Ross) and the others get their time to kick ass in their own ways and styles. It\u2019s kind of the macho version of Ocean\u2019s Eleven<\/em> where Danny Ocean (Clooney) and Rusty (Pitt) get the most development while everyone else fulfilled a specific function.<\/p>\n

In terms of this \u201cExtended Director\u2019s Cut\u201d, despite it being around 10-minutes longer, I felt it was a tighter film with a better sense of drama and an all around better flow throughout. There are several scenes that have been cut, re-cut or added in (mainly character moments) and even the opening credits are new with the great song, \u201cSinner\u2019s Prayer\u201d playing as the camera pans over each character. Having said all that, I still don\u2019t think this is a particularly great film and even though others felt Gunnar\u2019s turn was handled better; it still doesn\u2019t make a whole lot of sense when he turns up at the end…<\/p>\n

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SPECIAL FEATURES \u2013 3.5\/5<\/strong><\/h2>\n

This release comes with a Digital Copy<\/span><\/strong> download code (compatible with iTunes) and, like the other version, a glossy slip cover.<\/p>\n

Introduction (2:32; HD)<\/span><\/strong> \u2013 Sylvester Stallone provides an explanation for this cut and why he\u2019s more proud of it versus the theatrical version.<\/p>\n

Action: The Expendables<\/em> (20:33; HD)<\/span><\/strong> is an EPK featurette that originally aired on Spike TV and features interviews with the cast about the movie. This was only made to advertise the movie so you\u2019re not going to get anything in-depth.<\/p>\n

Sylvester Stallone: A Director in Action (20:21; HD)<\/span><\/strong> \u2013 Intermixed with behind-the-scenes footage from a variety of his films, Stallone sits down for an honest talk about directing and the challenges it presented. The featurette takes us back to his directorial debut on Paradise Alley<\/em>, its failure into the successful Rocky<\/em> sequels, the lauded Staying Alive<\/em> and beyond. This is truly an engaging featurette worth checking out.<\/p>\n

Inferno: The Making of The Expendables<\/em> (1:31:42; HD)<\/span><\/strong> is a four-part documentary chronicling every aspect of the production. It begins with Stallone\u2019s inspirations and then goes into behind-the-scenes footage, introductions to the cast, etc. It\u2019s a well done feature that, like the previous featurette, is well worth checking out if you haven\u2019t already (it was included on the theatrical version).<\/p>\n

Also included is the Music Video (3:47; HD)<\/span><\/strong> to \u201cSinner\u2019s Prayer\u201d by Sully Erna. I normally would recommend skipping these, but I kind dug this song; great mix of rock and folk.<\/p>\n

Previews<\/strong> \u2013 Set Up<\/em>, Conan the Barbarian<\/em>, Rambo<\/em> BD, Pulp Fiction<\/em> BD<\/p>\n

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VIDEO \u2013 4.0\/5<\/strong><\/h2>\n

The Expendables<\/em><\/strong> basically has the same video transfer as the theatrical version. The movie is presented in its original 2.40 widescreen aspect ratio and 1080p high-def transfer. Given the movie has a darker tone to it, the black levels immediately jump and out and are, for the most part, impressive. I didn\u2019t notice much in the way of artifacting and it doesn\u2019t seem the levels were crushed. The color palette is kept to the minimum never really straying from darks but even so, they seem to be well balanced. Detail levels look pretty good although nothing particularly jaw-dropping.
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AUDIO \u2013 4.5\/5<\/strong><\/h2>\n

The disc comes with a 7.1 DTS-HD Master Audio track and as one would expect, this is a whammy of a track. Obviously it majorly benefits from the numerous action scenes and sequences which certainly sound incredible and will give your home theater system a workout, but even the quieter moments, which there are a few, also provide clear dialogue levels. I\u2019m not prepared to say it\u2019s the perfect HD track as it seems to be missing some subtleties, but I don\u2019t think you will be disappointed.<\/p>\n

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OVERALL \u2013 3.75\/5<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Overall, The Expendables: Extended Director\u2019s Cut<\/em><\/strong> isn\u2019t great but still a functional action-thriller bringing together manly men on the same screen together. On that front, the film succeeds and is at least a fun way to spend 110-minutes. The Blu-ray has solid audio and video transfers while the features are pretty good, though the best one was ported over from the previous release.<\/p>\n

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The Movieman<\/em>
\nPublished: <\/strong>12\/23\/2011<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Expendables: Extended Director\u2019s Cut isn\u2019t great but still a functional action-thriller bringing together manly men on the same screen together. On that front, the film succeeds and is at least a fun way to spend 110-minutes.    <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[145,116,50,1213,511,1214,1217,1215,341,144,1216],"class_list":["post-3420","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blurayreviews","tag-arnold-schwarzenegger","tag-bruce-willis","tag-dolph-lundgren","tag-expendables","tag-jason-statham","tag-jet-li","tag-mickey-rourke","tag-randy-couture","tag-steve-austin","tag-sylvester-stallone","tag-terry-crews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/moviemansguide.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3420","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/moviemansguide.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/moviemansguide.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/moviemansguide.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/moviemansguide.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3420"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/moviemansguide.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3420\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25901,"href":"https:\/\/moviemansguide.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3420\/revisions\/25901"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/moviemansguide.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3420"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/moviemansguide.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3420"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/moviemansguide.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3420"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}