CASEY PHILLIPS: With a main villain who’s evil “just because,” a series of predictable double crosses and a wacky super weapon, “The Losers” easily could have followed in the bootsteps of cheesy ’80s vehicles for Dolph Lundgren and Chuck Norris. Thanks to a committed, engaging cast, however, it proved a surprisingly enjoyable comic-book adaptation.
Chris “Human Torch/Captain America” Evans is apparently Mr. Superhero these days, but I was anxious about his inclusion here. He’s usually too intense, but his over-the-top personality is a perfect fit as “The Losers’ ” charismatic hacker, Jensen.
But wait until you get a load of Zoe Saldana. Forget giant alien Smurfs, Saldana left me drooling as the smoking-hot femme fatale Aisha. Every action heroine should now be required to have their hair blown back while hip-shooting a rocket launcher.
REVIEWED THIS WEEKMovie: “The Losers.”Starring: Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Zoe Saldana, Chris Evans, Idris Elba, Columbus Short, Oscar Jaenada and Jason Patric.Rating: PG-13 for sequences of intense action and violence, a scene of sensuality and language.Synopsis: U.S. special-forces operatives are betrayed while on assignment and are out for revenge against the one who’s responsible.
HOLLY LEBER: Not to mention dive through a doorway beneath a shattering mirrored ceiling, clad in black lingerie and shooting a gun. Seriously, that’s hot.
Had “The Losers” tried to shy away from the fact that it is wholly 2010 camp, it would have been insufferable. However, the actors embraced their archetypes, thus leading to a fun, action-packed flick that’s not afraid to laugh at itself a little. Or a lot.
Actually, it smacks a lot of “The Italian Job.” The remake, not the original, and no, there are no Mini Coopers. Evans, in particular, meets the parallel as a way-more-jacked version of Seth Green’s character.
CASEY: Not that being more jacked than Seth Green is much of an accomplishment.
The fight choreography and set pieces, such as a building-to-building sniping sequence, are excellent as well. I appreciated that director Sylvain White and writers Peter Berg and James Vanderbilt used slow motion sparingly and didn’t Japan up the combat. “The Losers” is all knife fights, grit and broken teeth, the all-American way Jean-Claude Van Damme and Arnold Schwarzenegger liked it in the ’80s.
HOLLY: Yeah, this is not a brain film. And I appreciate that it doesn’t try to be that. “The Losers” is very comfortable with its place as a testosterone flick. Forget about comic-book movies that try to be rife with metaphor and disguise themselves as some sort of cinema for the literati. This is “let’s blow some (stuff) up,” best described in language unsuitable for the respectable family paper that we are.
Also, my mother might frown on it.
CASEY: Indeed. Consider this the low-brow prelude to the “A-Team” remake in June. Thinking types need not apply.
HOLLY: The “A-Team” remake is going to be highbrow? All right, then, I’ll be sure to look out for Bergmanian influence.
CASEY: That was tongue-in-cheek, Holly. Geez.