4.6 Stars (out of 5) - Rated R

Synopsis

In this high-octane thriller, Mr. Church brings the Expendables back together for an easy job -- but things go wrong, and one of the mercenaries is brutally murdered. Now the band of hired guns goes on a mission of revenge in hostile territory.

Starring:

Sylvester Stallone, Jason Statham, Jean-Claude Van Damme, Jet Li, Dolph Lundgren, Chuck Norris, Bruce Willis, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Terry Crews, Randy Couture, Liam Hemsworth, Scott Adkins, Yu Nan, Amanda Ooms, Charisma Carpenter, Nikolette Noel

Director:

Simon West

Blu-ray Release Date:

November 20, 2012

Subtitles:

English, English SDH, Spanish

Rating

Overall rating weighted as follows:

Audio 40%, Video 40%, Special Features 20%, Movie - its just our opinion so take it with a grain of salt

Audio 4.8 Stars (out of 5)

Dolby and DTS Demo Discs used as basis for comparison

Subwoofer - 5.0 Stars

Dialog - 4.5 Stars

Surround Effects - 5.0 Stars

Dynamic Range - 4.5 Stars

English: DTS-HD Master Audio 7.1 optimized for Neo X 11.1, Spanish: Dolby Digital 5.1, English: Dolby Digital 2.0

This Blu-ray gives you what you want, big booms, lots of pows, and bunch of bangs. Gunfire sounds heavy and comes out of every speaker you own, surrounding you with sounds of flying metal. Thuds from hard hitting punches and the heavy engines of vehicles also bring extra rumbles to the soundtrack. Rear speakers get lots of action from sharp breaking glass, whizzing bullets, and screams of agony. Keeping in mind that half of the cast have major accents, it's still hard to hear all the corny lines of dialog under all the action. It doesn't sound as clean or tight as I would like, but explosions major highlight of this sound mix. They keep the subwoofer busy with deep and wide balls of fire, and there are plenty of them.

Video 4.7 Stars (out of 5)

Spears & Munsil Benchmark Blu-ray Edition used as basis for comparison

Color Accuracy - 4.5 Stars

Shadow detail - 4.5 Stars

Clarity - 4.5 Stars

Skin tones - 5.0 Stars

Compression - 5.0 Stars

Codec: MPEG-4 AVC, Resolution: 1080p, Aspect ratio: 2.40:1, Original Aspect Ratio: 2.39:1

The video presentation fits the movie perfectly, its dark and gritty. It's not a colorful movie, in fact it seems like most of the film has a slight gray tint to it, which makes dark scenes even harder to see. Skin looks natural, and no compression issues were noticeable. The clarity isn't the best, but it's good enough to see hundreds of wrinkles on the aging action stars faces, flying debris, spurts of blood, and in the all the beard stubble you can stand.

Bonus Features 4.0 Stars (out of 5)

• Audio Commentary with Director Simon West.

• Gods of War: Assembling Earth's Mightiest Anti-Heroes (HD; 21:19) discusses the film's casting.

• Big Guns, Bigger Heroes: The 1980's and the Rise of the Action Film (HD 24:59) is a great featurette detailing the rise of the action heroes of the 80's.

• On the Assault: The Real Life Weaponry of The Expendables 2 (HD; 13:36) A look at the massive firepower in the film.

• Guns for Hire: the Real Life Expendables (HD; 24:19) Interviews with real mercenaries.

• Deleted Scenes (HD; 4:39)

• Gag Reel (HD; 5:09)

Movie - 3.5 Stars (out of 5)

Review

This movie isn't shy about delivering the goods. If you like the action movies of the 80's love movies with corny one liners, this movie's for you. It's not a great film, there are lots of holes in the plot and logic. However, Expendables 2 is a fun movie to watch. It's filled with lots of action, blood, testosterone, funny quips, guns, and explosions. I grew up watching the action movies of the 1980's, and seeing Stallone, Willis, Schwarzenegger, and Norris fight alongside each other put a smile on my face. The action sequences are so huge that when they're over the movie seems to slow down. However, there are so many interesting characters there's still plenty entertainment to be enjoyed.