Expend4bles – or The Expendables 4, for people who know what an “a” looks like – is an action sequel marketed as an apology. One of its earliest trailers opened with the declaration that “we heard you loud and clear,” and proceeded to highlight tweets from franchise fans enraged by the PG-13 rating slapped on Sylvester Stallone, Arnold Schwarzenegger, and co’s previous murder spree, 2014’s The Expendables 3. And, sure, Expend4bles is violent. But it’s hard to imagine any of those disgruntled customers having their hunger for guts and gore satiated by what amounts to a bunch of copy-and-pasted, CGI blood splatters.
What they’ve been offered, essentially, is Hollywood’s equivalent to a disinterested babysitter leaving their pint-sized charge alone with an out-of-battery iPad, a single tub of Play-Doh, and a two-little bottle of Pepsi. Expend4bles has a vague understanding of what you like, but no resolve to make sure you have fun. You can figure that one out yourself.
