a few years ago when "the rundown" came out, i thought we might see an eventual return to that era. i was all excited. the rock wasn't a great actor, but he had some of that massive 80s presence and it was good mindless action, reminiscent of a lot of classics. he needed time to develop into the role (hell, arnie even "passed the torch" at the beginning of the movie). but after "walking tall" he just did terrible film after terrible film, followed by lame kid's movies. wasted opportunity for an entire generation to have a slight taste of what made 80's cinema so fun i think.
people are pinning their hopes on "expendables" but i have a feeling sly might have gone into "intelligence" mode for this one. i hope i'm wrong and it kicks ass. i saw the new universal soldier movie a couple weeks ago and they did what i feared - tried to make it sophisticated, "arty violence". objectively, it made for a better film maybe, but not fun at all like the original.
