If 'The Expendables 2' was dinner, it'd be a large, juicy beef burger with extra cheese - a meal that'd leave you sated, but would hardly classify as cinematic gourmet. Still, the pulpy and self-indulgent movie is bound to whet the appetite of fans of bombastic action films, and god knows we are a country full of them, if the box office collections of 'Ek Tha Tiger' are anything to go by.

What's it about?
The Expendables, led by Barney Ross (Sylvester Stallone), are a mercenary crew who are assigned by CIA agent Mr Church (Bruce Willis) to retreive a container from an airplane that's crashed in Albania. The group comprises of knife expert Lee Christmas (Jason Statham), ninja Yin Yang (Jet Li), chemical engineer Gunnar Jensen (Dolph Lundgren), barrel-weapons specialist Hale Caesar (Terry Crews), demolition man Toll Road (Randy Couture), sniper Billy (Liam Hemsworth), tech wiz Maggie (Yu Nan) and Ross' rival, Trench (Arnold Schwarzenegger). However, the container is taken from them by Jean Vilain (Jean-Claude Van Damme), who also murders Billy. Hungry for revenge, the team swears to track down Vilain and make him pay.

If you stripped Danny Ocean's band of merry men of brain and injected each one with a serum that would help them build brawn overnight, you'd be left with the Expendables. Stallone says as much to Nan in a scene where he explains that gut wins over common sense every single time. Fortunately, the film doesn't take itself very seriously. There's plenty of self-deprecating humour and gallons of theatrical blood are spilled in a variety of violent ways to satisfy action junkies. Of the cast, Stallone, Statham and Dolph Lundgren are the most fun to watch and Chuck Norris (think, firangi Rajinikanth) makes for a bunch of chuckles. However, Hemsworth's character is unbearingly sappy and Van Damme looks more constipated than conniving. The dialogue is the sort that elicits more facepalms than wolf whistles and just like the cast, some of the CGI effects also look recycled from flicks from the 90s.

What to do?
Action fans looking for a quick fix will find 'The Expendables 2' to be their adrenaline-flavoured cup of tea. Watch to find out where Salman Khan got all his moves from.

in.com rating: 2.5/5

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