While Expend4bles underperformed at the box office this weekend, the movie might find more of an audience once it hits streaming in the next few months. While I didn’t love the film, I still had a decent enough time with it. Director Scott Waugh, who previously directed Act of Valor and Need for Speed, kept the movie moving quickly and packed it with some good action, including a big fight between bad guy Iko Uwais and Jason Statham’s Lee Christmas. In our exclusive interview, Waugh explains how he made sure the fight was more two-sided than usual for a Statham scrap. Waugh also explains what it was like making an Expend4bles movie where Stallone’s role is pretty small. He also tells us about an Arnold Schwarzenegger movie he’s making, Breakout. He reacts to the surprising success of Hidden Strike, a Jackie Chan/ John Cena movie he made a few years back that was shelved before winning up on Netflix, where it was a big hit this summer.
Waugh also tells us why he thinks classic action heroes like Stallone, Schwarzenegger and Harrison Ford still draw in audiences as they hit their late seventies and how newer stars come up a little short.
Did you see Expend4bles this weekend? Let us know in the comments!
Here’s the synopsis: Armed with every weapon they can get their hands on, the Expendables are the world’s last line of defense and the team that gets called when all other options are off the table.
The film stars Jason Statham, Sylvester Stallone, Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson, Megan Fox, Dolph Lundgren, Tony Jaa, Iko Uwais, Randy Couture, Jacob Scipio, Levy Tran, and Andy García.