If you are in the mood for a deeply serious social commentary about the CIA and government corruption, also if you want Comic-Book Comedy about a group of delta force set of commandos is right up your alley. Brought to us by Producer Joel Silver, (Lethal Weapon, Predator, The Matrix movies), The Losers is an outrageous action packed buddy film with plenty of funny points to make the comic-book style appealing on many levels.
The plot is straightforward, about a group of black ops commandos led by Clay (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) on a mission to kill a Bolivian drug lord. Upon realizing that there is a group of children within the jungle compound, Clay halts the strike. Their CIA handler, Max (Jason Patric) orders in an air strike and now the group have just minutes to get the kids out and kill the bad guys. Now we meet Clay's team of highly skilled soldiers, Roque (Idris Elba) seemingly his second in command, Jensen (Chris Evans), Pooch (Columbus Short), and Cougar (Oscar Jaenada). Like the "A Team," each member has their own skill-set and personality. Columbus Short ("Death at a Funeral, "Armored") Pooch is the driver of the group and attaches a bobble headed Chihuahua to the dash of each of the vehicles he uses. Chris Evans (Push, Fantastic Four) as Jensen plays it over the top singing Journey's "Don't Stop Believing." Cougar, played by Spanish actor Oscar Jaenada is the only one of the group who doesn't talk much but is a wiz with a sniper rifle. Although he doesn't say much throughout the movie he rounds out Evan's over the top with quiet sureness. After getting the kids to safety after Mr. Pooch's wild school bus ride through the jungle, and after loading the children onto a helicopter that is swiftly destroyed by the mysterious Max. With me so far? We have established the good guys and the bad guys now we have to establish the love interest. Realizing that they Max betrayed the group, they throw their dog tags into the burning wreckage. Now the former commandos settle down in Bolivia bidding their time until they can figure what to do with themselves. Enter Zoe Saldana as Aisha, the mysterious love interest who is willing to bankroll the groups return to the United Sates to exact revenge on Max for some unstated offence. By this time Clay, now in slacks, white shirt, and a worn jacket that he wears throughout the rest of the film is starting to remind me of Jim Rockford from the "Rockford Files." Jeffrey Dean Morgan plays Clay like Garner's Rockford getting beat up for a noble cause and getting the girl from time to time. On his first encounter with Aisha, Morgan and Saldana's fight-for-foreplay would have made Brad and Angelina proud. Working to defeat Jason Patric's megalomaniac Max, the group travels the world tracking him down. Patric plays his alter ego with all the panache of any decent comic book super villain.
I remember the day my dad took me to see the The Wild Bunch. I was probably no more than 11 years old. I did not understand much of the Wild Bunch story, but I did see characters that my dad identified with. Although there certainly was a lot of blood, guns, and action, Films like The Wild Bunch or the The Loser stays with you because of characters, and the action. This experience gave me the understanding of what a formula film is, and The Losers is a formula movie. The opening comic book montage at the beginning of "The Losers," clearly reminds us that we arid going to see a comic book transfer to big-screen film. The producers set expectations for the audience pretty low, and not only lives up to that low expectation but surpasses it to some degree. The characters are thin but memorable and, the dialog is unassuming but not crude. The banter between the characters is not Shakespeare, yet it is funny. Throughout the film, I heard the audiences laughing over the sound of my own chuckles. Director, Sylvain White makes sure we know where each location is with immense white location titles reminiscent of something out of a Quentin Tarantino flick. The music, other than Journey's Don't Stop Believing is not very memorable. The story, not particularly believable, but that's not the point of this movie. We go see films like this for the fun of it for the pyrotechnics and the action.
I am giving this movie points for the straightforward plot, no thinking involved. I am also giving points for fun characters, and lots of action. Do not mistake the rating as a representation of a quality film. The rating is purely for the enjoyment factor that this movie gives its audience. The bottom line is The Losers is a fun shoot-em up flick to take your significant other, forget about the crappy week you just had and enjoy a mindless romp around the world and have an enjoyable
Movie Data
Genre: Action, Adventure, WarYear: 2010
Staring: Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Zoe Saldana, Jason Patric
Director: Sylvain White
Producer(s) Joel Silver, Kerry Foster
Writer: Peter Berg & James Vanderbilt
Rating: PG-13
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