N.B. Film and TV reviews on this site are limited to identifying and analysing the degree of misandry and Feminist ideology they contain. They are not full reviews of plot, content and quality as are found elsewhere.
|
Man-Friendly?
|
The Expendables (2010) is touted as a homage to the good old days of action flicks. The days of Predator, First Blood, The Last Boy Scout and Terminator. Stallone had this to say about the violence in the film:
“”The ones that deserve it get it and they get it good and the ones that go after women really get it, you know what I mean? Really get it. People say: ‘Oh, isn’t that overkill?’ and I say ‘I’m not going to have a man having his way with a woman and wrecking her life and just shoot him with a bullet – it’s too civilised. He’s going to feel real pain’.”
You couldn’t make this stuff up.
This attitude from Stallone of chivalry and blindness, helps form a part of the Male Condition (a patchwork of liabilities in the male psyche that enables misandry to flourish). More than this, for someone who used to be such a fantastic film maker and writer, he has been feminised into inserting incongruous misandric plot-devices along with the rest of Hollywood.
Domestic Violence rears its misplaced head
The infection and corruption wrought by Feminism means that I wonder if Hollywood would even be capable of producing a film without Domestic Violence (DV) forming a part. Is it some part of the funding clause or demanded somewhere by the Writer’s Guild that all films must have at least one attack to the groin, one scene of DV against an innocent woman, and perhaps one scene of male sexual inadequacy?
If you want to produce an action film that can measure up to a great like Predator, you don’t do it by belittling manhood. It is counter productive. The Expendables has only one scene of DV but this is one too many. It simply didn’t fit and was an awkward, shoe-horned insertion of misandry that just didn’t belong.
The fact is that the Expendables didn’t need that scene and it took away from it’s stated aim of being a “man’s film”. Stallone was weak to want it in there and I can only hope it was in some way forced in by some other interest. Then again. judging from his words above, it probably was his idea.
The DV scene itself is typical. What strikes me about it, is something I’ve seen elsewhere, most memorably in the series 24 (possibly season 2 or 3). Jack Bauer is shown to be in love with what I would describe as a worthless woman. She is indifferent to him and can’t decide between him and another man. Therefore, the love interest for the heroic and noble Bauer is portrayed as a woman who has no recognisable qualities that would justify his love and someone who does not even reciprocate his feelings.
In the Expendables, it’s Statham’s character who finds out the woman he is about to propose to has been unfaithful to him while he was away and is now shacked up with the other man. As I said, she is worthless, at least to him. Yet, when he discovers that the new man has bruised her face for some reason, he beats the crap out of him (and about 5 or 6 of his friends for good measure). Leaving aside the issue of misandry here regarding domestic violence (where the cause or reason for the violence is of no relevance), this is what I have seen quite frequently from Hollywood: decent examples of men fruitlessly pursuing quite worthless examples of women.
It’s strange and subtle almost like it’s an attempt to train men, condition them to accept that worthless women are the best a man can get by showing noble men hopelessly in love with women who’s characters are clearly not worth his time. It doesn’t make sense unless you look at it in the light of a serious attempt to sell the idea to men (and perhaps, re-assure American women), that low quality women – selfish, uncaring, unfaithful, uninspiring women – are worth a good man’s undying affection.
It seems to me, that this may be about the growing issue of American men seeking wives and girlfriends from abroad. American women have become so corrupted by feminism, that growing numbers of men are shunning them and looking elsewhere for women that still remember what it is to behave decently and who can love a man for what he is rather than what he can buy her. These women are typically Far-East Asian and have been raised in a environment vastly less toxic than the Feminised West.
Perhaps to counter this trend, in the same way that the star of The Truman Show is assailed from all sides with messages telling him that there’s nothing to see outside his little town, it seems to me that Hollywood is engaged in a similar PR campaign. A farcical attempt to sell typical Feminist American women as the epitome of a man’s dreams. The best a man could get or want.
Yeah, right. It simply doesn’t fly.
Statham’s actions might actually be valid if the woman was portrayed as being worth it. As it is, he did what many would regard as the chivalrous thing for a woman who is entirely unworthy of it. It is a rare thing to have a woman in a Hollywood film that is worthy of a man’s love. They are mostly presented as selfish, arrogant and proud women with no real interest in the leading man, yet he is shown to head-over-heels in love with her.
What could have been
One unofficial trailer for the film (see below) is described by CinemaBlend as an attempt to “challenge men’s manhood” and seeks to
“rile up the men of America enough to get them off the couch and into the theatres to help support the biggest action movie of all time.“
The idea is that chick-flicks have taken over Hollywood output and dominate new releases e.g. “Eat, Pray, Love”. Coming in a close second to films aimed squarely at women, are heavily feminised offerings like “Twilight”.
There is much truth in this, but I don’t see the answer as being a film like the Expendables, even though it could have been. Drop the needless DV scene; lose the groin strikes and threats; don’t make the whole thing be about some woman; and it’s right up there.
As it is, The Expendables counts as a near miss. It nearly made it, but shot itself in the foot.
Its principal flaw is not that it’s not a good action film, because it is in fact, a great action film. It does all the right things, mixing ultra-violence with blunt humour and a high-power cast.
No, its unforgivable flaw is that it’s a film for men that quietly stabs them in the back.
Still, it could have been a lot worse and we should be grateful that they couldn’t find time to fit in a case of child sexual abuse by some man. Or maybe that one’s set aside for the sequel.
Click here for more on the Film Reviews page
Dear manwomanmyth,
Hollywood is only reflecting society in general, when you look around you will see that over 90% of so called “men,” behave in exactly the same nutless androgen manner as portrayed in the films & media these last 30 years.
Keep up the excellent work.
Agree with you about the misandry found in The Expendables.
Disagree that it is otherwise a great action film. I found it to be shitty on all counts, and just another Hollywood piece of garbage.
Reminds me of a line from Apollo Creed (Carl Weathers) to Rocky in Rocky 3: “You fight great, but I’m a great fighter.”
Here, I should have said “it has great action scenes, but it is not a great action film.” I wouldn’t call it pants, but I agree I was too generous in calling it a great film.
Thanks for the review. I will not see this movie thanks go tour review. I did this before at a theater. I actually stayed in the car while everyone went inside to see a movie. I will not pay to see these movies.
Well, I almost walked out when the DV scene started. It’s just poor, lazy and hateful writing to have it in there. I only stayed because I knew I would do this review and so I had to see the whole thing. I don’t go to the cinema anymore because I know what to expect regarding this stuff. This was a rare exception that I thought would be relatively misandry-free. I was mistaken.
Yeah I am from Brazil… Lots of western men thinks that the feminists moviment is only a western society problem but I can guarantee you that the feminism exists in the latin world in the exactly same level or even worst. Now about movies if you really wanna see how loaded a movie can be with feminist propaganda you should watch ” Up in the Air ” with George Clooney. Better yet do not watch this… This movie basically says in a lot of ways by the entire movie that the man is irresponsible and a boy if he choose do not compromise himself with a toxic woman wedding with her. Now the trick thing about is that the trailer that they made for ” Up in the Air ” does not allow you see the hatred against man but if you watch the movie than you will be agonizing like I was. t’s amazing how can man not see the depth of misandry in our society.
Guys who lose their shirts upon divorce and who still remove their jackets and place them over mud puddles for gals make movies like this are expendable. Guys who participate in movies like this for money. They’re expendable, too.
We, the men who understand the dynamics of politics and gender, are not.
I don’t think a woman being at the center of it all is a problem. I only hate the statham-charpenter relationship.
At least the stallone woman had a lot of positive characteristics. The charisma charpenter character has none, she is promiscuous and fucked a worthless piece of shit who beat her. That scene was completely pointless and wrong
The Expendables sucked. Stallone and the others appeared to be geriatric cases trying to regain their lost youth. There was no plot line of interest, no real life to these characters, and no believability. Just some old men trying to make a buck in an exploitation film.
Red, with Bruce Willis, on the other hand has a lot of old guys too, but is believable, enjoyable, and worth watching.
Hi,
I saw Red as well and there is still the Pussy Whipped men message, as in all the new movies, you cannot get away from the hype, like having dog shit stuck to your shoe:
Tough guy killer Bruce Willis, reading a romance novel.
Man getting, fu#ked-off by strong woman, after, he had taken her to dinner.
Desperate older man (Bruce), breaking into the house of a younger woman & kidnaps her by force.
Sadistic man, who hangs another man and shows him no mercy, even though he begs for his life.
Lecherous man, keeps staring at his nurses arse.
It just go on and on…..
This is certainly not a man positive film.
Speaking of misandry in cinema and violence against young boys, I went to see the new comedy “Due Date”. In this film, Robert Downey Jr’s character punches a young boy in the stomach (while the boy’s sister watches) for the crime of pestering and annoying him. It was met with the audience in laughter.
So glad I didn’t waste my time watching this at the cinema, it was my choice but others wanted different films so we ended up watching Piranha 3D instead – and at least that was a lot more entertaining with a nude lesbian underwater scene thrown in that was, of course, crucial to the plot.
Anyway, Expendables looked as if it had been written by someone with unfortunate mental problems who had watched the 80s action films a long time ago … and then struggled to recreate them with a script written in crayon and covered in dribble.
The acting was awful,the story limply pathetic and a failed attempt by Stallone to match the ridiculous body count in Arnie’s Commando.
I wondered why Seagal and Van Damme weren’t in it and then heard later that despite all the shit films they’ve both been in they couldn’t face this one. Don’t blame them.
Re the strange “back story” for Statham’s character – Statham’s girlfriend shagged someone else while he was away, didn’t even warn him to let him know it wasn’t worth showing up despite all their time together, managed to choose a prick who hit her, then went with Statham to watch the guy getting beaten up putting him at risk of arrest and prison.
And the whole premise of risking everyone’s lives to save a girl Stallone barely knew after she’d turned down the chance to leave a very dangerous situation – how many men die in the film thanks to her? But as usual, men can die by the hundreds as long as cupcake gets rescued.
This film was advertised as a film just for men. It was a joke. It took the worst aspects of films in the past, added shit dialogue and worse acting and was a massive waste of time.
Don’t bother. Guess I’ll carry on waiting for a film that isn’t polluted with tired cliches and men dying for women, while action women laughably save the day.
Well said. I entirely agree and you should probably be in the film review business.
Jack Bauer is fantastic, I really wish they should hurry up with the movie if they’re going to make it!