The Losers

To be fair, by the time late April gets here, people just want summer movies. Everyone is waiting for Ironman, or the kids are waiting for the next Shrek, or the females are waiting for Sex and the City 2. No one is looking out for new movies this week or next week (Well, I am anxiously awaiting Nightmare on Elm Street this Friday!), so this week kind of felt like it was a dumping zone for movies. Granted, The Losers did not suffer from a lack of promotion. As Erik put it "I want to see the movie, but I never want to see the trailer again." The Losers did seem hindered by a year full of this kind of movie. Later this year we have The A-Team and The Expendables that are both similar in plot and probably tone. The other two movies are summer movies, so those are the ones we are actually waiting for. However, The Losers has a great cast of actors on the rise and that was my initial pull into the film.

A small group of soldiers with names like Clay, Pooch, Jensen, Roque and Cougar (Jeffery Dean Morgan, Columbus Short, Chris Evans, Idris Elba and Oscar Jaeneda, respectively) are on a mission to kill a bad guy. However, things take a turn when they realize the place they are about to bomb has 25 little kids in it. They try and stop the bombing, but they realize they have to go in and save the kids. They have this awesome shoot out and get the kids out, but they were being set up and the opening sequence ends in tragedy a lot more serious than I was expecting given the overall tone of the movie. These four men are always cool under pressure and always have quick quips to bring levity to any situation, which is good because in their quest to find out who set them up, they need that levity. Helping them find the villain Max (Jason Patric) is the super sexy Aisha(Zoe Saldana). She may or may not have ulterior motives and Clay may or may not have really bad taste in women, but the girl is super sexy and can kick your ass, so how can one blame him? Max is connected somehow, and he is trying to sell some sort of eco-terrorism weapon and that does not really matter to the story. What matters is The Losers need to find him, kill him and get their lives back.

Shot, scripted and acted with a sense of breezy confidence, the Losers is an effective mindless action movie that does not take itself seriously enough to make the plot holes that important. In a similar fashion to The Oceans franchise, this is a movie that when the good guys need something, they just find it. When they need to get somewhere, they are just magically there. The soldiers are all excellent at their jobs and they have no reason to be overly concerned, so we never are either. We know this will turn out alright and even the twist, which is moderately effective does not rile us up, because these good guys are just too good at what they do for us to worry about them. Hell, one of the guys gets shot in both of his legs and we still know he is going to somehow help the good guys come out in the end. The action is fast paced, with the usual mix of slow motion and hand held camera stuff that is far too common in action movies, but it is still fun.

The acting is fine. All of the guys are similar in personality, so we never get a great idea of what the actors are capable of, except Chris Evans does his usual snarky, sarcastic humor that is funny, but worries me in terms of his ability to play Captain America. Idris Elba is a star in the making searching for the right role, he just cannot seem to find it. I really like Jeffery Dean Morgan. He has this old Hollywood charisma to him that he just looks cool all of the time. He is a pretty talented guy, but I wonder if he is better served on television. I really like Columbus Short. I keep waiting for him to break out, but his movie selections just keep him right under the radar. Zoe Saldana has very little to do other than look sexy, which is not tough for her. She is too skinny, but she oozes sex appeal and while her various accents in the movie are less than effective, she can wear a tank top. However, the real acting star of this movie is Jason Patric. He is the perfect villain, getting into Over-the-top Bond Villain status.

Sylvain White does not have much in his filmography as a director and there is nothing in that filmography that makes me think he should be directing action movies, but he does a pretty good job handling the action. There is not a serious visual flair, but he is capable. The first fight scene between Morgan and Saldana is sexy, funny and pretty brutal for a PG-13 movie and the climatic action sequence which spans about 15 minutes and takes place all over this dock, is quite entertaining. In fact, I just think the movie is entertaining. It does not aspire to be some big sweeping epic and it is not out to be this genre busting, subversive form of entertainment. It just tells a simple story in a snappy and breezy way that made me laugh and held my interest for the entire 97 minutes. I think the cast could have handled meatier material, but they are clearly having fun and in turn I had fun.

Final Grade: B