‘Expendables 2′ gets old fast

By Roger Moore
McClatchy-Tribune News Service

Of course, “The Expendables 2″ is all good fun and games and recycled catchphrases. Until somebody gets hurt. A lot of somebodies.

When you’re filling the screen with most every big-screen action star of the past 25 years and every one of them needs his own body count, you see the problem. “Expendables 2″ is a too-cute trip down Action Film Memory Lane and has one past-his-expiration-date action hero too many for its own good.

Still, it holds together, more or less, right up until the moment when Chuck Norris and his dyed beard make their preposterous appearance. The arrival of Norris lowers the bar on stupid for the rest of the picture.

Sylvester Stallone and his team bring their soldier-for-hire thing to Nepal, Albania and environs this time around. There’s a debt to be paid to the spy boss (Bruce Willis), who has one more assignment for this “little gang of psychotic mutts.” And there’s a Belgian-accented heavy (Jean Claude Van Damme), all sunglasses and big knives and a high kick waiting to happen.

The expendable mercenaries — Stallone, Jason Statham, Terry Crews, Randy Couture, Jet Li and Dolph Lundgren — avenge their own. When somebody in their ranks dies, Stallone has three things to say about the bad guy who did this: “Track ‘em. Find ‘em. Kill ‘em.”

Liam Hemsworth is a sniper who joins the crew, and Maggie (Nan Yu) is the “weapons-proficient” expert brought along for the ride.