This was an unexpected extra but pretty informative and intense for a movie as fun and tongue-in-cheek as The Expendables 2. This extra introduced a number of private military contractors (don't call them mercenaries) who talked about their job, the training that goes into it, the misconception that they're "hired assassins," and even the effect it has on their friends and families back home. Guns for Hire: The Real Expendables (~25 minutes): Some of the weapons include the FN-SCAR-L assault rifle, the M 1911 A1 pistol, the M4 Carbine assault rifle and the Steyr Aug A3 assault rife. Gun nuts will love this extra as it gives a ton of stats on each of the weapons used in the film and shows Couture firing off a few rounds. On the Assault: The Real Life Weaponry of The Expendables 2 (~15 minutes):Ĭouture takes viewers on a tour of The Gun Store in Las Vegas where a vast array of weaponry is on display, many available for live firing.
The discussion on the films is interesting enough, but it becomes more engaging when dissecting the heroic action roles and the men who played the part.
Referenced films include First Blood, 48 Hrs., The Terminator, Commando, Rocky IV, Lethal Weapon 2 and Die Hard. Experts from various forms of media lead this historical account of action films that dips into nostalgia for those who lived through it and paints a concise picture for those who haven't. *The most interesting part here was learning how Stallone and West divided their workload.īig Guns, Bigger Heroes: The 1980s and the Rise of the Action Film (~25 minutes):Īn incredibly interesting retrospective about the state of America in the late 1970s and how counterculture and pop culture informed upon one another to bring about the rise and evolution of action films and action heroes. They also talk briefly about The Expendables 3and tease that they're bringing in a new wave of action hero apprentices to train. Gods of War: Assembling Earth's Mightiest Anti-Heroes (~20 minutes):Ī behind-the-scenes commentary with cast and crew that addressed the writing process with franchise potential in mind, the transition from The Expendables to the sequel, expanding the cast and creative team*, giving the audience their money's worth and giving each character sufficient screen time. The commentary track is worth listening to alone just to hear West talk about Van Damme's "unpredictable" style of acting. West reveals other interesting behind-the-scenes facts, such as the opening sequence taking three months to plan and originally being twice as big, or the fact that Li, Norris, Willis and Schwarzenegger all had extremely tight schedules and proved an editing and creative challenge to work them into the film as much as they did. 50 caliber gun used blanks that were $6 each and the production went through $25,000 just for ammo on that gun alone. West's commentary is a worthwhile listen (moreso than a lot of the commentary tracks, especially on action films) because he reveals little details about the scenes, such as the evolving relationships of the characters on screen, the original intent for a particular scene, where it was actually filmed (meaning on set or on location) and some of the costs associated with the shoot.
This time around, Stallone handled the acting, writing and character development, while the action direction fell to Simon West. It's a fairly well-known fact that Stallone wrote, directed and acted in the first Expendables and suffered physical and mental exhaustion because of it. Audio Commentary with Director Simon West:
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