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I've never actually read
the graphic novel "The Losers" is based on and sometimes that's a good
thing, since a film adaptation tends to garner its own flavor and
narrative path from its source material and that can be said for the
film adaptation of "The Losers" a movie that doesn't try for Oscar gold
or even legendary status but instead tries to make us laugh and cheer
about as much as humanly possible in the ninety minutes it greets us
with an array of bad asses, each with their own skill, who have a bone
to pick with their government. Like "The A-Team," this group of soldiers
were all framed for a crime they didn't commit, and deemed dead after a
failed assassination attempt, disband and lose touch. After the
enigmatic and gorgeous Aisha comes knocking down the doors of their
ex-leader Clayton (Jeffrey Dean Morgan, I bow to you and your
McQueen-like machismo), the Losers re-unite to take back what's theirs
and go down with some dignity. Part "The Dirty Dozen," part "The Wild
Bunch," and part "The Sting," Sylvain White's action comedy is something
of a pure party for anyone looking to kick back and laugh while heads
get blown off. Researching the comic, the casting director manages
to compile a variety of top notch actors all of whom look their
respective roles to a tee.
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As if Morgan
was too much to handle, Idris Elba is fantastic as knife
loving Roque, Clayton's second hand man who engages in a
bromance throughout the entire story unwilling to trust Zoe
while Chris Evans brings the deadpan comic timing of Jensen
the nerd of the team who is hopelessly out of place in his
world, while Columbus Short is a perfect rival to Evans' own
one-liners. |
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Óscar Jaenada says
very little in the film but brings a gravitas to his hard boiled
sniper character Cougar, and the entire respective cast has a
chemistry that makes "The Losers" an actioner you want to get sucked
in to and watch for the long haul. Like other directors before him
tackling comic book movies, White elicits much of the same comic
book style transplanting it on to the screen in full motion offering
some unique segways, fantastic introductions, and action sequences
that splash from the screen with pacing and energy that keeps the
excitement rolling from minute one and never lets up with the sexual
allure of Saldana, the wicked choreography, and the cleverly staged
action set pieces. Not to be outdone Jason Patric has fun as the
villainous megalomaniac Max, target number one for the Losers who
take every opportunity to humiliate him before the final showdown.
"The Losers" works as both a comedy and a balls to the wall action
film, and this testosterone filled romp is strictly for the male
persuasion still coming down from "The Expendables." It works
wonderfully as a double feature, and as a surefire guilty pleasure
that won't break the mold but will surely entertain you time and
time again.
This is not a movie you
break down and examine, and I knew that going in to it. "The Losers" is
exactly the kind of movie is advertises itself as and I love it for
that. It's fun, funny, action packed, dons top notch performances, and
reveals Jeffrey Dean Morgan to be one in a line of Hollywood tough guys
who have yet to be given their due in film. For shame.
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