‘The Expendables 3′ Trailer: Stallone and the Gang Are Back For More
Call us suckers, but going by the new trailer for 'The Expendables 3,' we think this may be the one that finally gets it right. Both 'The Expendables' and 'The Expendables 2' were well-meaning but sloppy nostalgia exercises, but we're hoping that the third time is the charm and that this one will be a well-meaning and actually entertaining nostalgia exercise.
After the direct-to-DVD cheapness of the previous films, 'The Expendables 3' actually resembles a real movie, at least in these brief glimpses. That may be the guiding hand of relatively new director Patrick Hughes, taking the reins from Sylvester Stallone and Simon West. Despite the all of old the senior citizens on screen, this is a series that desperately needed young blood behind the camera.
This trailer realizes that people come to these movies to see past-their-prime movie stars, po-faced MMA fighters and Terry motherf---in' Crews bounce off each other (and snap each other's necks and blow each other's heads off with shotguns and so on). This is less of a movie and more of a tribute to the dinosaurs of the '80s, one last big hurrah for the heroes of the Reagan years. So the choice to make the trailer more about "LOOK AT ALL OF THESE PEOPLE YOU USED TO LIKE" instead of things like plot and character and sense feels like the right move.
Here's the official synopsis:
Barney (Stallone), Christmas (Statham) and the rest of the team comes face-to-face with Conrad Stonebanks (Gibson), who years ago co-founded The Expendables with Barney. Stonebanks subsequently became a ruthless arms trader and someone who Barney was forced to kill… or so he thought. Stonebanks, who eluded death once before, now is making it his mission to end The Expendables -- but Barney has other plans. Barney decides that he has to fight old blood with new blood, and brings in a new era of Expendables team members, recruiting individuals who are younger, faster and more tech-savvy. The latest mission becomes a clash of classic old-school style versus high-tech expertise in the Expendables’ most personal battle yet.
'The Expendables 3' is scheduled to arrive in theaters on August 15, 2014. The enormous cast includes Sylvester Stallone, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Mel Gibson, Jason Statham, Harrison Ford, Kelsey Grammer, Antonio Banderas, Wesley Snipes and probably your own grandfather if you squint hard enough.