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Stars: Sylvester Stallone, Jason Statham, Megan Fox
Director: Scott Waugh
Distributor: Lionsgate UK

“I need better friends.”

Sylvester Stallone returns, albeit for roughly 20 minutes, in the fourth instalment of the Divorced Dads’ Club favourite franchise: Expend4bles.

Sent to Libya to prevent the hijacking of nuclear warheads, the Expendables face off against an elite squad led by Iko Uwais’ Rahmat. After finishing second best to Rahmat’s team in a battle that, hilariously, takes place at Gaddafi’s former base, the old boys must regroup and reignite their strengths as they take on a new terrorist.

Having failed miserably in their previous encounter with Rahmat. Marsh (Andy Garcia, slick as ever) hands the captaincy of the Expendables team over to Megan Fox’s Gina, who coincidentally, is a former girlfriend of Jason Statham’s Lee Christmas. Though, awkwardly, the intimate trailer featuring both actors almost suggested the characters to be father and daughter… Awkward!

Whilst the Expendables team welcome new additions, in parallel, they collectively welcome new threats equipped with higher stakes than ever before. Rahmat’s pursuit of the nukes, on behalf of a higher power, is the detonation of a plan to have an aircraft carrier – disguised as American – ignite the warhead on Russian soil, ultimately leading to an inevitable WWIII. Not only is the terrorist threat batsh*t crazy, but it has the intention of lining the pockets of the mastermind behind Rahmat’s antagonism. Can the Expendables go one step further and save the world?

Like originality, the VFX/CGi is somewhat of a horrendous afterthought. It is no coincidence that the best scenes are those at night onboard the aircraft carrier, where digital shortcomings can be masked successfully. Modern mainstream CGI can often be equated to looking like a video game – in the case of Expend4bles, any comparable video game CGI would likely be from the dated prime of the cast members’ careers. As for the action, this fourth instalment leans more towards having good action moments rather than being a good action film overall. Plenty of wild scenarios take place, one sequence involving Statham riding a motorbike on the deck of the aircraft carrier – which is also hilarious. Plenty of acceptable blood and guts, too, of course.

As a franchise sequel, Expend4bles manages to succeed where The Expendables 3 failed. The latter tried to usher in the next generation by discarding the old guard, which not only didn’t work, but literally attacked the concept and selling point of the franchise. In the latest sequel, however, rather than totally binning off the old boys, the new fighters are ushered in without issue – excluding Jacob Scipio’s Galan, as he was excruciatingly annoying. Megan Fox, 50 Cent and Levy Tran all exist well in the new lineup. But most importantly, Jason Statham, stepping out of Stallone’s shadow, does an excellent job in navigating the direction and leading the action in Expend4bles.

Ultimately, Expend4bles is by no means completely awful – it’s just not a good film. Sadly, it’s another poor entry in a franchise that has never truly lived up to its potential, which is a tragedy when considering that the original 2010 film shares a podium with Mad Max: Fury Road and John Wick: Chapter 4 as being the most anticipated action films of the last 15 years. If a fifth entry is upon us, a release exclusive to Lionsgate+ seems highly probable.