Mercenaries

On the one hand, we can highlight the fact that this time Asylum surpassed Hollywood, where no one has balls or, better said, where everyone has too much balls to make the long-heralded female counterpart to Stallone’s macho (and strictly hetero) parade of action stars, The Expendables. Unfortunately, the substitute that Asylum presented to viewers is rather a form of punishment. The ensemble is magnificent – from the old guard, we have Brigitte Nielsen, Cynthia Rothrock and Vivica A. Fox, with Zoë Bell and Kristanna Loken representing the younger generation. Unfortunately, everything else is a disaster, with all of the film’s shortcomings falling squarely on Asylum’s head. What we have here is a typically (for Asylum) idiotic screenplay with offensively insipid peripeteias, made with zero budget in a handful of bland interiors and desert exteriors. The action sequences are limited to terrible anti-choreography in the style of “we’re just making it up as we go along” and shootouts where the actors wildly point airsoft props at each other, with muzzle flashes added in post-production. And that’s a shame, because these action stars deserved something more dignified. (29.09.2014)

The ladies' "Expendables" are definitely not as fun, probably because no capable person took charge of directing or writing the script and the ladies sometimes play really stupid roles. Nevertheless, I am quite glad that something like this was created and that we will eventually see some better pieces. I definitely missed someone like Gina Carano, who would have stood out superbly in a similar film. (15.08.2014)