Movie Squad - The Expendables, Scott Pilgrim vs. The World

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Breakfast with Barr,

Presenter

Peter Barr

Published

Friday 13th August

Movie Squad vs. The World – the struggle to battle the 7 crap movies of times gone by to the reach the 1 film of true love. Oh and you know some gratuitous gun violence thrown in for good measure.

In the Red Corner – the Movie Squad team featuring Paul ‘no time for’ Grace, Anita ‘run don’t’ Walker and Peter ‘always in the’ Barr.

In the Blue Corner – ‘The Expendables’ and ‘Scott Pilgrim vs. The World’.

Round one – Grace vs ‘The Expendables’

Directed by Sylvester Stallone. Starring Sylvester Stallone, Jason Statham, Jet Li, Dolph Lundgren, Randy Couture, Steve Austin, Terry Crews, Mickey Rourke, Bruce Willis.

Plot: A team of elite, highly-trained mercenaries known as The Expendables are sent into South America to overthrow a ruthless cold-blooded dictator. But once the mission begins, they discover a plot far more sinister than they were led to believe. With innocent lives in the balance, The Expendables are forced to take on an even more difficult challenge.

Review: It has the plot like a film from the 80s – shades of Tommy Wiseau. A team of mercenaries? Check. A tinpot Latin-American dictator? Check. Double Dealing CIA Agents? Check. Hot, rebel love interest? Check. Didn’t go the Hot Shots avenue – taking the piss. Could have set it in the 80’s or set it post 9-11 now…but it’s not really anywhere. 2000 blergh. Bored the crap out of me. The dialogue when I could understand it was ridiculous. Too many characters. Jet-Li wasted. This is the problem with nostalgia – you only remember the good stuff. This is part of the good stuff. I went from cheers to jeers.

Round two – Anita vs ‘Scott Pilgrim vs. The World’.

Directed by Edgar Wright. Starring Michael Cera, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Kieran Culkin, Chris Evans, Anna Kendrick, Alison Pill, Brandon Routh, Jason Scwartzman.

Plot: It’s fairly straight forward – Scott Pilgrim must defeat his new girlfriend’s seven evil exes in order to win her heart.

Review: Fuses X and Y generations nicely. Laden with Pop-Culture references. A Mash-up movie. Lovely nostalgia as opposed to bad nostalgia. A Downside – you do like the characters but they lack a little heart. I wish my life was like a video game. The soundtrack is pretty cool as well.