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Lets be honest, action movies aren’t what they used to be. Don’t get me wrong, we still have some incredible action movies but they lack something. There was a time when a name drew you to a film, a time where studios had bankable stars they could rely on to be their action hero. That time was the 80s. We had Rambos, Terminators, Die Hards, Predators, Aliens and a whole heap of others.

Twenty years later and without a truly iconic action movie that stands out for our generation it is up to the heroes of the past to do it for us. With an ensemble cast that boast more muscle between them than seen at Mr. Universe are we going to be treated to something we’ve longed for?

Led by Sylvester Stallone who writes, produces, stars and directs, the cast alone would be enough to draw any real man to see this film. Add to that Jet Li, Jason Statham, Dolph Lungren, Randy Couture, Eric Roberts and Stone Cold Steve Austin and you have The Expendables, a group of mercenaries who are sent to an island in the Gulf to rid a town of a vicious dictator.

If you like your testosterone pumping then The Expoendables delivers. What it lacks on plot and dialogue it makes up for in explosions and fight sequences. For some reason there is a loose love story between Stallone and the dictators daughter, Stallone deciding he is going to save her even though he only knows her for a brief moment as she drives him around town. In what has to be the most pain-staking scene in terms of dialogue, Stallone is coerced into going back by Mickey Rourke who believes his life could have been better if he had saved this one girl in his past.

But this isn’t why you want to watch The Expendables. You’re there to see stuff get blown up and to see the greatest ever action cast have one final blow out. And that is what you get. From the opening scene on a ship with an explosive shotgun, to the siege on the castle and the deadly heel to head neck split you’ll be hollering for more every time.

Unintentionally this film is hilarious, there are so many bad one liners, look out for Statham in the basketball court, but none more fun than from arguably the two biggest names to grace the film. From the trailers you’d be forgiven for thinking they have a much bigger role however Bruce Willis and Arnold Schwarzenegger are held to a brief cameo. But what a cameo, nothing blows up other than temper but this somehow manages to steal the film.

There is nothing about The Expendables that really stands out but it does exactly what you’d expect it to do. This is a real mans film that is perhaps a little too heavy on the actual plot and could have benefitted more from just blowing more stuff up. Annoyingly entertaining.