A CIA operative hires a team of mercenaries to eliminate a Latin dictator and a renegade CIA agent.A CIA operative hires a team of mercenaries to eliminate a Latin dictator and a renegade CIA agent.A CIA operative hires a team of mercenaries to eliminate a Latin dictator and a renegade CIA agent.
- Director
- Writers
- Dave Callaham(screenplay)
- Sylvester Stallone(screenplay)
- Stars
Top credits
- Director
- Writers
- Dave Callaham(screenplay)
- Sylvester Stallone(screenplay)
- Stars
- Awards
- 3 wins & 5 nominations
Grifon Aldren
- Tall Pirate
- (as Senyo Amoaku)
- Director
- Writers
- Dave Callaham(screenplay) (story)
- Sylvester Stallone(screenplay)
- All cast & crew
- Production, box office & more at IMDbPro
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaSylvester Stallone sustained fourteen injuries making this movie, including breaking a tooth, rupturing his ankle, and getting a hairline fracture in his neck that required the surgical insertion of a metal plate. He also had bronchitis and shingles during the shoot.
- GoofsSeveral problems with the Fly & Die scene: Christmas turns left and fires the flare slightly out from the plane, but in the reverse shot the flare is coming from the right side of the plane. A flare is slower than the plane, meaning that firing it backwards would still make it fly in the direction of the plane, only slower. The flare passes through the cloud of flammables, but doesn't ignite it. The explosion stops at the end of the pier for no reason, even though the highly flammable cloud extends beyond the pier all the way to the plane.
- Quotes
Sandra: What are your names?
Lee Christmas: [points to himself] Buda...
Lee Christmas: [points to Barney] ... Pest
Sandra: Follow me, please.
[walks away]
Barney Ross: [slowly turns to Lee; deadpan] Buda and Pest? Nice.
- Alternate versionsTo receive a 15 certificate the UK cinema version was cut by two seconds to remove two shots of a knife being twisted into a guard's neck. The DVD features the same print though the cut was waived for the upgraded 18 rated Blu-ray release.
- ConnectionsFeatured in Breakfast: Episode dated 8 July 2010 (2010)
- SoundtracksKeep Your Hands to Yourself
Written by Dan Baird (as Daniel Baird)
Performed by The Georgia Satellites (as Georgia Satellites)
Courtesy of Elektra Entertainment Group
By Arrangement with Warner Music Group Film & TV Licensing
Review
Top review
Sliding Planes
"Speedracer" and the "Transformer" movies, even the second "Charlie's Angels."
These are silly or even bad films by the conventional measures. This is too. It is vapid, misogynistic and fundamentalist. I wouldn't recommend that anyone go unless they know themselves well enough.
But like those other movies, there is a lot of cutting edge filmmaking craft in this and I enjoyed it for that reason alone. I think there must be some separation from Sly the image and Sly the filmmaker. I surely — for example — admire the effectiveness of cable TeeVee demagogues at the same time I find the effect vile.
There are three notable things.
There is a neo-Kurosawan notion of planes, even in the fight scenes. Here is a sophisticated example: The film starts with Sly checking out the mission and deciding to not follow through, abandoning a woman to rape and torture (torture by the way by waterboarding). As in all his combat movies there is a scene where he pensively encounters his conscience and decides to do the right thing, turning into a killing machine for justice. The setup has Micky Roarke in the close foreground giving a story about how he is cursed by not having saved the life of a woman. (What he is doing while giving the speech is cool. The speech itself is pure formula, but the fact that he is painting flowers on an old guitar for a woman who has left him is sweet. He plans to smash the guitar when finished.)
During the scene, Sly is in the background out of focus. This is not the way Akira would do it: he would and back and use a telephoto so both would be in focus. Welles talked about compositing two shots with multiple focal points. But here Sly is blurry; he is further away than he would be in reality. We shift to a closeup of Sly as he meets himself and comes to his decision. It is a closeup. His face fills the screen, but he is still out of focus. What they did was crop the shot to zoom in. It takes a craftsman to even think of this and the cinematic effect it gives. And how it mitigates the worst part of any Stallone movie, that turning point, because he just cannot act. So the camera does it for him by setting planes.
Throughout, we have muted colors, lots of shadows that swallow the scene with piercing lights. This not only makes the thing Eastwood-moody, it allows for strobes and shadows to animate the battle scenes. They are done well if you can allow for the macho silliness and magical powers.
And for every key sequence of scenes, we have a sliding three dimensional camera. Christopher Doyle has changed the world of the eye, bless him. There is a seaplane that glides and swoops like seaplanes do. The camera emulates these movements after showing them to us, and continues throughout much of the movie.
Bruce and Arnie make fools of themselves.
Ted's Evaluation -- 2 of 3: Has some interesting elements.
These are silly or even bad films by the conventional measures. This is too. It is vapid, misogynistic and fundamentalist. I wouldn't recommend that anyone go unless they know themselves well enough.
But like those other movies, there is a lot of cutting edge filmmaking craft in this and I enjoyed it for that reason alone. I think there must be some separation from Sly the image and Sly the filmmaker. I surely — for example — admire the effectiveness of cable TeeVee demagogues at the same time I find the effect vile.
There are three notable things.
There is a neo-Kurosawan notion of planes, even in the fight scenes. Here is a sophisticated example: The film starts with Sly checking out the mission and deciding to not follow through, abandoning a woman to rape and torture (torture by the way by waterboarding). As in all his combat movies there is a scene where he pensively encounters his conscience and decides to do the right thing, turning into a killing machine for justice. The setup has Micky Roarke in the close foreground giving a story about how he is cursed by not having saved the life of a woman. (What he is doing while giving the speech is cool. The speech itself is pure formula, but the fact that he is painting flowers on an old guitar for a woman who has left him is sweet. He plans to smash the guitar when finished.)
During the scene, Sly is in the background out of focus. This is not the way Akira would do it: he would and back and use a telephoto so both would be in focus. Welles talked about compositing two shots with multiple focal points. But here Sly is blurry; he is further away than he would be in reality. We shift to a closeup of Sly as he meets himself and comes to his decision. It is a closeup. His face fills the screen, but he is still out of focus. What they did was crop the shot to zoom in. It takes a craftsman to even think of this and the cinematic effect it gives. And how it mitigates the worst part of any Stallone movie, that turning point, because he just cannot act. So the camera does it for him by setting planes.
Throughout, we have muted colors, lots of shadows that swallow the scene with piercing lights. This not only makes the thing Eastwood-moody, it allows for strobes and shadows to animate the battle scenes. They are done well if you can allow for the macho silliness and magical powers.
And for every key sequence of scenes, we have a sliding three dimensional camera. Christopher Doyle has changed the world of the eye, bless him. There is a seaplane that glides and swoops like seaplanes do. The camera emulates these movements after showing them to us, and continues throughout much of the movie.
Bruce and Arnie make fools of themselves.
Ted's Evaluation -- 2 of 3: Has some interesting elements.
helpful•1313
- tedg
- Aug 19, 2010
Sylvester Stallone's 20 Highest-Grossing Movies
Sylvester Stallone's 20 Highest-Grossing Movies
See which movies starring Sylvester Stallone raked in the most cash at the global box office.
Details
- Release date
- Countries of origin
- Official sites
- Languages
- Also known as
- Biệt Đội Đánh Thuê
- Filming locations
- Production companies
- See more company credits at IMDbPro
Box office
- Budget
- $80,000,000 (estimated)
- Gross US & Canada
- $103,068,524
- Opening weekend US & Canada
- $34,825,135
- Aug 15, 2010
- Gross worldwide
- $274,470,394
- Runtime1 hour 43 minutes
- Color
- Sound mix
- Aspect ratio
- 2.35 : 1
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