The film thunders through its paces, under the energetic direction of Simon West.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Aug 30, 2012

Why make a new mediocrity when the old ones are still so much more fun to watch?

| Original Score: 2/5 | Aug 24, 2012

The over-the-hill gang engages in various shoot-outs punctuated by lame wisecracks that refer to their iconic roles. Guess whether someone says, "I'll be back."

| Original Score: B- | Aug 23, 2012

"The Expendables 2" is lazily satisfied with repeating the first movie's formula, shortcomings and grisly strengths alike, just as the first movie was content to slavishly, ploddingly cover the hits of the '80s.

| Original Score: 2/4 | Aug 23, 2012

Nice to know America's action stars, no matter how old they get, will never lack for gainful employment.

| Original Score: 2/4 | Aug 22, 2012

The Expendables 2 makes a franchise out of a novelty item, and the nostalgic kick is gone: It's a reminder that most of those '80s actioners were xenophobic and dumb, that many of its stars had more muscle mass than charisma.

| Original Score: C- | Aug 17, 2012

Someone more experienced in such matters told me that when Willis wears a wig the film is generally awful; when he is bald it's often okay. Here he's hairless.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Aug 17, 2012

Yeah, yeah, I get it: "The Expendables 2" is a fun-loving throwback to the gloriously bad action films of the 1980s. Here's what I don't get: Why couldn't it be a throwback to the good ones?

| Original Score: 1.5/4 | Aug 17, 2012

At least it's efficiently and breezily forgettable. What's more, there are laughs too and here's the best part - one or two of them are actually intentional.

| Aug 17, 2012

It's hard not to like a movie in which Bruce Willis' toupee-less CIA agent accuses Stallone's ragtag band of mercenaries of engaging in "male pattern badness.''

| Original Score: 2.5/4 | Aug 17, 2012

What gives "Expendables 2" its charm is the film's unabashed nostalgia for the genre's best B-movie moments.

| Original Score: 3.5/5 | Aug 16, 2012

The Expendables 2 is corny, barbaric and sometimes visually murky. But humor and self-deprecating macho charm make this male pattern badness crowd-pleasing fun.

| Original Score: 2.5/4 | Aug 16, 2012

The movie is excellent crap, fine junk, an exercise in campy movie nostalgia, and a demonstration of American supremacy in the field of nutty cosmetic enhancements for aging movie stars.

| Original Score: B | Aug 16, 2012

Pleasantly dumb fun if you watch it with the right mind-set.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Aug 16, 2012

The Expendables 2 is reasonably cathartic in a fall-down-go-boom way, and if the picture's self-conscious riffing becomes tiresome after a while ... it's still much wittier than its predecessor.

| Aug 16, 2012

Does it all have to be so tedious?

| Aug 16, 2012

I wanted to like this movie. Really. But this sequel doesn't wear down your resistance; it just wears you out.

| Original Score: 2/4 | Aug 16, 2012

Partly a cautionary tale about the dangers of decades of bodybuilding and partly a throwback to the good old days of the Reagan era, when all you needed to make an action film was a man with muscles, an exotic setting and a hundred screaming extras ...

| Original Score: 2/5 | Aug 16, 2012

Stallone is once more an amiable host. He even pulls off heroics despite having an ill-advised 'stache laying over his mouth, which nowadays looks like a squished octopus.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Aug 16, 2012

I was thoroughly appalled, mainly at myself for enjoying it.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Aug 16, 2012