The Expendables II

[MightyB]

Hasselhoff should be in this movie.

[GeneChing]

Some one here must have seen this. How was it?

[GeneChing]

Machinegunorgasmic. Lots of CGI splats that are funny in their graphic digital splash.

Arnie & Chuck are so painfully tongue-in-cheek that the dialog fires off homages like, well, like machine guns. They both look like they're having a lot of fun shooting machine guns. JCVD delivers a good villain.

The action is pretty constant and entertaining. I laughed out loud heartily at two scenes. The plot is ridiculous if you give it a moment's thought. It's best when the characters are riffing off each other in top bromantic rapid fire machine gun snips. Most of the dialog focuses on Sly and Statham, and Sly totally outclasses Statham with his gravitas. Dolph, Crews and Couture have a great chemistry with their affectionate trash talk. Comic ultravi with snarky remarks. What more does an action film need?

Jet is only in the very beginning. He has a decent opening fight that goes from machine gun vs. lots of machine guns to batons & blades vs. frying pans. Then he leaves the film and is replaced by Nan Yu, a Chinese actress that looks a little like a younger Jet in drag, and then there's this romantic element between her and Sly. Whaaaat?

No sword fights, but some big "that's not a knife; that's a KNIFE" knife fights, which are close enough. But it's all about the machine guns.

[GeneChing]

Firstly, it annoys me that it cost someone's life and a someone else's career.

Secondly, it annoys me that they got Jet's body count wrong.

Chuck Norris fact: Biggest body count in 'Expendables 2'
By Bryan Alexander, USA TODAY
Updated 8/21/2012 10:04 PM

The Internet is filled with Chuck Norris "facts" proclaiming the action star's legendary toughness, like "Chuck Norris had a staring contest with the sun — and won" or "There is no chin under Chuck Norris' beard, just another fist."

Chuck Norris returns to the silver screen in 'The Expendables 2,' with a growing legacy, and following, thanks to the internet meme "Chuck Norris Facts."
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These might be exaggerations. But one fact is undeniable: In the action-star heaven of The Expendables 2, Norris is the one who tallies the biggest bad-guy body count when he takes out a mini-army single-handedly, saving his trapped co-stars.

"It's pretty cool," says Norris, 72. "I deserve the most kills. I'm the oldest guy out there. I'm 39 with 33 years of experience."

He's also Chuck Norris.

The Expendables 2 is the nation's No. 1 movie, earning $28.6 million on opening weekend, and features mega-watt stars like Sylvester Stallone, Bruce Willis and Arnold Schwarzenegger. But Norris' legend has its own spotlight because of the Internet hype that started about seven years ago as his film career was waning.

Norris' personal favorite: "They wanted to put Chuck Norris on Mt. Rushmore, but the granite wasn't tough enough for his beard."

With a buildup like that, Norris "demanded the ultimate entrance," says director Simon West.

"The worldwide phenomenon of these Chuck Norris jokes set him up as the ultimate hero," West says. "You couldn't meet him at a bar. It had to be on a battlefield with defeated bad guys all around him."

The Missing in Action star and karate champion is retired and lives on a working cattle ranch near College Station, Texas, where he trains his 11-year-old twins, Dakota and Danilee, in karate (naturally, they will soon be black belts). But he returned to star with his action pals, "many whom I've known for 30 years," he says.

West says it would have been "tragic" if Norris had declined the offer. "Not to be able to brag that I had Chuck Norris would have broken my heart."

Norris' arrival immediately caused ripples on the Bulgarian set last year. Martial arts star Scott Adkins found that his own full beard would have to go.

"When people saw it, it was like, 'I don't know if Chuck's going to be happy with that. He's the one with the beard,' " Adkins says, laughing. " 'The Beard' has got the beard."

Adkins switched to a goatee.

Naturally, Norris was asked to provide his own Chuck Norris tall tale for the script. "It was Sly who said that these 'facts' are everywhere, let's put one in a scene," says Norris, "After I gave it to him, he laughed and gave me a big bear hug."

The entry: Norris is bitten by a cobra and, after five agonizing days, the cobra dies.

[GeneChing]

Funny how little we heard about this when the film came out.

'Expendables 2' Faces Second Lawsuit in Stunt Gone Wrong
November 30, 2012 17:39:43 GMT

Nuo Sun, one of the stuntmen injured in an explosion scene on the Bulgarian set, is suing for 'great mental, physical and nervous pain and suffering'.

"The Expendables 2" is deeper in legal trouble. Millennium Films and other parties involved in the movie are facing another lawsuit as the result of a stunt that went wrong during the filming on Bulgaria's Ognyanovo Reservoir last year.

A stuntman named Nuo Sun, who was believed to be standing in for Jet Li, was injured in an explosion scene that killed fellow stuntman Kun Liu. Sun said in his 12-page lawsuit, that "explosives and other similar ultra-hazardous activities" caused a tragedy on top of a rubber boat during the second unit filming that took place October 27, 2011.

"As a direct and proximate result of defendants' negligence, carelessness and unlawful conduct, plaintiff was hurt and injured in plaintiffs health, strength and activity, sustaining severe shock and injury to and upon plaintiffs nervous system, neck, head, body, arms and legs, all of which injuries may be permanent and all of which injuries have caused and continue to cause plaintiff great mental, physical and nervous pain and suffering, for which plaintiff seeks general damages," the filing stated.

Represented by Robert M. Klein, Sun is seeking damages in loss of income and earnings past, present and future. He's also seeking general damages in excess of $25,000, medical costs past present and future, legal costs and whatever else the Court decides.

Millennium Films, Barney's Christmas Inc., Second Choice Productions International and Second Choice Production Services who are named the defendants have yet to comment on the lawsuit. After the incident, they released a statement, saying "Our deepest condolences go to the family of Kun Liu. His passing is tragic. Our sympathies also go to Nuo Sun, who was seriously injured as a result of the same explosion. We have been informed his condition has stabilized. He has been transported to Munich, Germany, where he is receiving top medical care from the best specialists."

Liu's family also filed a lawsuit against the defendants earlier this year. They were suing for $25,000 as well as compensation for funeral expenses and for the loss of Liu's "society, love, comfort, attention, services and support."

[GeneChing]

This was the honorable thing to do for Jet.

Dead stuntman’s family receives HK$5.8m donation from Jet Li
Wednesday August 9, 2017
12:37 PM GMT+8


Stuntman Liu Kun was a double for Jet Li during filming for ‘The Expendables 2’ in Bulgaria in 2011. — AFP pic

HONG KONG, Aug 9 — Jet Li has donated HK$5.8 million (RM3.17 million) to the family of his stunt double, Liu Kun, who was killed on the set of The Expendables 2 in 2011.

While there has been no official comment, Hong Kong entertainment sites reported that the martial arts star had intended for the donation to remain a private one.

It is unclear when the donation was made, but the news comes after Liu’s parents, Liu Zong Yu Liu and Bai Yan Mei, were awarded a meagre HK$195,000 after a protracted court battle lasting four years.

They had filed a wrongful death lawsuit in 2012 against Millennium Films and the movie’s stunt coordinator, following their son’s death in October 2011.

The 26-year-old stuntman, who came from Shangxi Province, lost his life while filming on the Ognyanovo dam in Bulgaria.

He died from wounds he suffered from an on-set explosion nearby.

At the time of Liu’s death, the Bulgarian press reported another stuntman who was the double for Sylvester Stallone was seriously injured during the explosion.