What were action movies like before digital special effects? Movies weren’t in 3D. The heroes couldn’t fly or shoot lasers out of their eyes. In fact, the only super power action heroes from the 80’s and 90’s seemed to have had, was the ability to not get shot, despite heavy incoming machine gun fire. No this was a time when larger-than-life men, with larger-than-life muscles, punched people in the face, shot AK-47’s indiscriminately, and made things go BOOM. And when it exploded, it was really exploding in real life. Well, the aging icons may have lost a step, but they seemingly haven’t lost the ability to dodge bullets and make stuff explode. And nothing can make us happier. Check out the Expendables 3 trailer:

Sylvester Stallone has been sharpening his Expendables blade with each successive film, while steadily adding big-screen icons to the fray. This go around Sly has gotten serious and brought some old fashioned 1980’s bazooka’s to the battle in Wesley Snipes, Harrison Ford and Mel Gibson, tactfully cast as the film’s villain. It seems that each star will get their individual moments to shine, while they have reportedly cut down on some of the obvious and hokey humor of the second installment. Here is what Stallone had to say to MovieWeb:

“With the first one, I didn’t know which direction to go. It was experimental, more dramatic and heavier. In the second one, I think we went too far in the comedy and one-liners. (For the third film) I realized we should get back to being more dramatic. When men and women know each other, there’s a kind of human comedy, not jokes, but when the action starts I don’t like to do jokes. So, I believe we finally got it right on the third one. It’s kind of like marriage.”

Seeing all of these legends sharing the screen is this film’s greatest special effect. It’s old-fashion. It’s nostalgic. And yes it’s corny and it seems to know it. Kind of like your favorite uncle at the barbeque, but you let it slide because you know he was cool in his day. It might not be The Avengers, heck, it’s probably a lot closer to Celebrity Deathmatch… but what’s not to like about that?

Let us know what you think of the trailer. What about Snipes’ dramatic reintroduction to the big-screen? How did Frasier end up in this? This is insane…

 

For those of you not familiar with MTV’s old show Celebrity Deathmatch. Enjoy this battle to the death between Ahnuld and Sly Stallone:

 

Source: MovieWeb, Movie Clips Trailers, MTV