The Expendables 2

Once again, an All-Star team of Action Film stars have assembled in one movie. It is The Expendables 2, the sequel to the 2010 blockbuster that I certainly disliked. Fortunately, this bloody, loud shoot-em-up is much better than its predecessor.

As usual, Barney Ross (Sylvester Stallone) and his mercenary squad, The Expendables, make it their mission to blow up bad guys. Their handler, Mr. Church (Bruce Willis), gives them the assignment to retrieve something from a downed plane. That something, they find out too late, has the location of an abandoned Plutonium mine. They get it, but the evil Jean Vilain (Jean-Claude Van Damme) takes it from them. So now, it's up to them to stop the villain before he can sell his spoils to the wrong hands.

And that's what you need to know about the plot.

While Stallone directed The Expendables, he left this sequel to Simon West (Con Air). What this results in is a film that punctuates carnage with humor. The heroes make fun of their actors' greatest hits while under gunfire. A bloody fight ends with a villain going through an Airport X-Ray Machine. There's also a good supply of amusing one-liners as Good cuts through Evil.

This relaxed tone benefits its characters the most. This time around, they make up an amusing ensemble of rogue heroes that's fun to watch. Amongst the new characters, Booker (Chuck Norris), revels in the film's extremities. Meanwhile, Mr. Church and Mr. Trench (Arnold Schwarzenegger), the best characters of the last film, have a delightfully expanded part. Next to them, the hulking Gunnar (Dolph Lundgren) was the best of this Wild Bunch.

This is what the first film should've been like: bloody fun, not bloody boring. That's all its trying to do, and for that reason, The Expendables 2 wildly succeeds.