To me, The Losers is one of many movies that fits into the hereby newly made genre that I just created on the spot: the guy’s version of the “chick flick”. Dick flick?
Okay, the name needs work. So sue me, I just created it.
Okay, the name needs work. So sue me, I just created it.
Now, most people should know what a chick flick is. Y’know, Sex and the City, Leap Year, Confessions of a Shop-aholic, just to name a few to come out in the last... year. There’s a huge market for them and I will admit to the soft spot I have in my secret heart for them. (Please don’t tell anyone.)
There is something comforting about going into a movie, knowing that they’ll live happily ever after, that it’ll be cute and there’ll be a moment when a guy gets some balls and makes a huge statement of a declaration of love for his lady.
I won’t speak about every woman, but yes, there may be a TINY bit of me that wouldn’t mind that type of affection. It’s not every day you get declarations of love--especially by conveniently handsome and just-happens-to-be-perfect-for-your-quirky-slash-type-a-personality that these movies package.
Realistic? Of course not. But it’s still nice to have an hour and a half to get swept away by a /mostly/ entertaining movie, know what will happen, when it’ll happen and have a d’awwww moment towards the end. There are worst ways to spend, in this case, my $5.99 (cheap movie Tuesdays ftw people).
I’m sure most people will turn their noses to it, but if a movie like the Wedding Date or The Notebook is playing on tv, you can bet your ass that I’ll at least watch a portion of it. (Or if I’ve been going through a break up, they may get popped into the dvd player.)
So, I’ve obviously gone a little off track? My point of this... Well I will say that while the charm tries a little too hard, the humor is a little stale and the plot is predictable, right down to the dialogue, The Losers is a hard movie to hate.
It’s the Legally Blonde or Centre Stage of the predictable action movie world. A charming, and on the better end of the scale of the genre, but still not mind blowing and doesn’t try to re-create the wheel.
The plot of the Losers is fairly easy and pretty much a paint by numbers, character development wise. Five guys, lead by a sexy but morally questionable leader get stranded out in Bolivia after having a mission literally blow up in their faces after a voice known as “Max” orders a hit on them. Presumed dead/possible traitors, they’re stuck in middle of nowhere with only vengeance and the will to survive to guide them.
Enter hot chick who conveniently has the same goal as they do but is also morally questionable (is she with us or against us? Who knows! Maybe she’ll save our ass at the end of the movie, after supposedly betraying us two thirds of the way in) and has some sexual chemistry with our leader. (Although, I can imagine it’d be hard /not/ to have sexual chemistry with Zoe Saldana cause, day-um. Girl’s a knock out.) Add the other guys, the geeky comic relief and the family guy and viola, one action movie on a silver platter.
I will give the Losers some credit here, the dialogue is snappy and I’d like to say I enjoyed it a lot more than I did but I believe some of it needed more from the actors, charisma wise. There was just something that didn’t quite click for me, despite me knowing the dialogue was humorous and the bad guy was straight out of a Joss Whedon script, the type of villain who can have some /fun/. Which is generally all the more scary when heads start exploding.
Aside from the dialogue, the other thing is some of the camera work really does put the movie over the edge. There is one scene that did stick with me and showed off the comic book roots much more than the typical slow motion punching ala, Matrix, Watchmen, et all. In one fight scene a mirror is shot at and instead of showing one of the characters diving away, it’s shown as a reflection in the piece of mirror falling to the ground. Had there been more shots like that, I probably would have appreciated the film a lot more.
However, for the most part I can just say it holds the same appeal that any chick flick does in my head. While we all know that the group of heroes will get from point A to point B and throw a few witty lines our way, that over-all the bad guy will either die in a glorious explosion towards the end of the movie or get away to set up the all important sequel, it’s still entertaining--albeit over-all forgettable movie that while it captured your full attention, would be hardly be classified as the type of movie to blow you away or stick with you beyond that night.
And sometimes a movie doesn’t have to do anything more than that.
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