The Racked Focus Review: The Expendables 2 (2012)

On August 17, 2012, a review appeared on The Racked Focus for the film The Expendables 2.  The movie was directed by Simon West, the director of such classics as Con Air and Lara Croft: Tomb Raider.  It starred many actors, including Sylvester Stallone, Jason Statham, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Bruce Willis, Jean-Claude Van Damme, Chuck Norris, Jet Li, and Liam Hemsworth.  The review was written by none other than Maxwell Haddad.

The most prominent thing in Max’s review is the topic of nostalgia and how it is influential in the current movie business.  This line of thought brings up the ideas of how nostalgia has influenced movie viewing throughout the past couple decades and how it has affected the ever-changing landscape of filmmaking.  More and more movies have become nostalgia driven.  They will star actors who were popular in different eras for the sole purpose of people craving another movie with that actor.  Movies will play upon older films through remakes, reboots, parodies, and homages.  These movies celebrate or use elements of other films that people will notice and perhaps like based on their knowledge of that element.  Maxwell Haddad covers all of these thoughts while highlighting the franchise of The Expendables and the actors involved.  It makes for a meaty review that is filled with a lot of stuff to chew on.

Like any review of The Expendables or The Expendables 2, some time is taken to direct attention to each of the actors in the film.  These movies have a wide array of action stars that bring their own thing to the movies.  Maxwell does as much as he can to not bog down his review by simply name dropping each of the actors and he succeeds for the most part.  In the final paragraph he does list of some of the actors and some of their movies.  This changes the pace of the review, but does not affect the overall product because of the placement in the final, closing moments.  Max knew the right place to insert this sort of commentary, and did an exemplary job of how it should be done.  He did the obvious in a way that did not hurt his review.

One thing that I love every time I read a review by Max is his use of words.  Throughout the entirety of each review he writes, Max sprinkles an array of prose that I would never think of while writing my reviews.  This is an aspect that I adore while I read.  He makes interesting choices throughout and his review of The Expendables 2 is no different.  Reading a work by Maxwell Haddad makes me feel like I should spend some time reading a dictionary to broaden my own vocabulary.  His use of words, such as ostentatious and infectious, adds to the overall delightful and delicious reading of the review.  Max knows when to use his words, and he knows how to use them.  It makes for a highly enjoyable review reading experience.

By the end of the review, the reader is left thinking about their own nostalgia regarding the actors involved in The Expendables 2.  The review is brought full circle on the subject of nostalgia, going from the general movie aspects all the way to the nostalgia specific to this movie.  It is this idea of bringing a review full circle that is truly fascinating about Max’s review of The Expendables 2.  He has beautifully brought the original thoughts back into the mind of the reader while connecting them to what was hinted on by the film.  It takes a skilled touch to succeed at this, and Maxwell did it flawlessly.

All in all, Maxwell made another solid review.  It brings me back to the previous reviews that I’ve reviewed which have each had their own great aspects.  I think specifically about the review for Seeking a Friend for the End of the World which had an underlying feel to it which was much like how I would imagine the final seconds before the end of the world to feel.  Three reviews in, and I already feel nostalgia for these reviews, much like Max feels nostalgia for the components of The Expendables 2.  There is something to this nostalgia thing.  Whether it is good or bad, it is here.  Max knows it, I know it, you know it.  We all know about this nostalgia thing now, thanks to Maxwell Haddad.

Maxwell’s review of The Expendables 2 gets 5 ripped muscles out of 5.