A nearly incoherent all-stars-on-deck actioner that plays like "Grown Ups" on nitro or a brutish, blue-collar "Ocean's Eleven."
What are people saying?
What are critics saying?
The New Yorker by Anthony Lane
The Expendables is savage yet inert, and breathtakingly sleazy in its lack of imagination.
Arizona Republic by Bill Goodykoontz
You see this cast, you expect to see a lot of violent action. And in that regard, The Expendables delivers, and then some. In this case, then, the old saying applies: Be careful what you ask for, you just might get it.
The thought behind this body-splattering nostalgia trip is unformed and stagnant.
Village Voice by Nick Pinkerton
This is action as timeless as the reptilian brain-and if The Expendables is no classic, for about 20 minutes, it blowed up real good.
Entertainment Weekly by Owen Gleiberman
The way that Stallone directs, though, every machete thrust and relentless round of bullet spray is staged with a certain undeniable...conviction.
Boxoffice Magazine by Pete Hammond
A who's who of classic action stars light up the screen for pure combustible entertainment in Sly Stallone's The Expendables, a sort of "Dirty Dozen" meets "Inglourious Basterds"--and then some.
Orlando Sentinel by Roger Moore
The Expendables feels, well -- disposable, a movie whose nostalgia isn't enough to make this 50. caliber trip down Memory Lane worth the fake napalm.
Movieline by Stephanie Zacharek
The whole exercise has the trying-too-hard vibe of a bad toupee.