By Michelle Hart, Staff Writer
In theory, “The Losers” has many of the elements that should, by any means, make it a standout popcorn flick: a diverse, eclectic ensemble, a revenge story and some stirring action sequences. It even has the inherent advantage of stellar source material, having been adapted from Andy Diggle’s Vertigo comic series of the same name. Yet, director Sylvain White (“Stomp the Yard”) has managed to create a stupidly fun, but rather anemic action movie that fails to combine the aforementioned elements into a convincing and coherent whole.
“The Losers” centers on five members of an American Special Forces team sent deep into the Bolivian jungle on a clear-cut search and destroy mission. After the mission ends, though, the team quickly discovers that this mission was designed to be their last. Having been both presumed dead and framed for the murder of 25 Bolivian children, the team settles into a new life deep within the slums of Bolivia, marking time while plotting their revenge against the man who framed them—a man known only by the name Max.
What Sylvian White and screenwriter Peter Berg (“Friday Night Lights”) have is a concept desperately in search of a movie. While the plot certainly suffers from incoherency, the story is also a lot lighter, less grim and a lot less political than it needed to be. The characters—who have the potential to be multi-dimensional action heroes—become uninteresting antiheroes who seem to go through the motions, even when executing a brilliant maneuver. Thus, the film feels a lot like a series of great action sequences with no overarching story to bring them together.
The saving grace for this movie comes in the form of Chris Evans as communications expert Jensen. Evans somehow succeeds in taking a potentially annoying character and making him vibrate at its highest possible frequency. One scene, in which Jensen breaks into a highly protected building by singing Journey’s “Don’t Stop Believing” at the top of his lungs, before exposing himself to an unwitting (but intrigued) group of women particularly exemplifies Evans’ comedic talents. Every time on he is on screen, he completely steals the scene, which, admittedly, is not the hardest feat. Still, Evans infuses the film with enough humor and chutzpah to not make “The Losers” a complete waste of time.
This summer is slated to be the summer of ensemble action flicks with “The Expendables” and the reboot of “The A-Team” right around the bend. As such, “The Losers” can be seen as the precursor to all this—a primer for what is to come. Let’s just hope those films offer much more of what “The Losers” did not. It shouldn’t be too difficult either because, as a film, “The Losers” was, well, pretty expendable.
Columbus Short, Chris Evans, Oscar Jaenada , and Idris Elba in ‘The Losers’ (Photo Courtesy of Warner Brothers)
