The Losers

We are getting 3 versions of the same movie this year and I have absolutely no issue with that. The Losers clocks in first in the badass mercenaries genre and sets the bar quite high for The A-Team and The Expendables later this summer. No one may end up seeing it but that is their loss.

The Losers is another in what seems like an unending line of variable quality comic book adaptations. Like many of the others, this was one of the better stories in the past decade so at least the source material was of high quality. The movie only uses the first book in the series so some of the stranger plot twists don’t have to be dealt with. The key point is that none of the characters are significantly altered in any way in fact most of them are damn close to the book.

The standout performance, in a nice foreshadowing for the future, was by Chris Evans. The future Captain America dominated every single second of his screen time. Jensen may have been the comic relief but Evans just went all out. The “Don’t Stop Believing” scene is quite simply the greatest use of Journey in movie history. Coming in right behind Evans is Columbus Short as Pooch. Pooch is one of the only noticeable changes made and that is just the common Hollywood idea of taking a character who is much older and turning him into a young man. No matter, Short has turned into a dependable actor since that masterpiece Stomp the Yard. And of course there was Stringer. Ah Idris Elba you will forever have a free pass to show up in whatever you damn well please. And once again Zoe Saldana is ridiculously hot.

When I turn my brain off, The Losers is exactly the type of movie that I want to see. Slick action, great characters, and constant hilarious one-liners. Please make some money so they might make more?

9 out of 10