Movies & TV

Two movie trailers were popular amongst the fellas here this week.

The first movie, The Expendables, is about the world's greatest mercenaries (I believe an industry trade magazine ranks them annually). We learn they've only known war and are a tight group. Presented with a new job and a bag full of money, they take it. Turns out the mission is different than normal -- it is "for something that counts," and offers the possibility of "changing history."

In Machete, a Mexican man is looking for menial labor when he is offered a large amount of money to assassinate a politician. He is then double-crossed, which leads him to not only seek revenge, but to lead a sort of uprising involving several low riding vehicles with hydrolics. He both "knows the score" and "gets the women."

Both of these movies are nods to movies from the 80s and earlier. The casting decisions are definitely a hat-tip to the movies many 25-40 year old guys grew up enjoying.

The Expendables features Jet Li, Jason Statham and the late Brittany Murphy with old schoolers Sylvester Stalone, Dolph Lundgren, Mickey Rourke, Eric Roberts, Bruce Willis and Arnold Schwarzenegger (the latter two seem to be cameos). Machette stars Danny Trejo (who's in The Expendables too!), Jessica Alba, Lindsey Lohan and Michelle Rodriguez. The older contingent is Robert DeNiro, Cheech Marin, Don Johnson and Steven Seagal. More obscurely, you'll also notice Tom Savini and Jeff Fahey.

My only complaint is that neither film found room for Van Damme.