REVIEW: The Losers

I remember when Chris Evans was that douche from Not Another Teen Movie.

I'll admit I was pretty jazzed up to trash the The Losers, the trailer looked to indicate a movie that was suffocatingly hip, in the wonderful ADD Tony Scott way. It starred Jeffrey Dean Morgan, an actor whose appeal has always been lost on me. Dude is fucking boring, and I wait to be refuted otherwise. A weak A Team rip-off that came in the summer of the real thing. But, alas, its pretty entertaining, unexpectedly funny and features a couple of good performances. Its a dumb, useless movie, but a charming one. So I guess I'm going to have to collect my shit, somewhat disappointingly.

This movie owes Chris Evans a lot though. Given a slender comic relief sidekick role, he's hilarious and kind of awesome in a way the movie had no right to expect. Its not Johnny Depp in Pirates Of The Caribbean or anything, but he's a very entertaining presence. And in the scene that no doubt y'all saw in the trailer, in which he shoots people with finger guns, he cracked me up good. I felt kind of guilty afterwards but whatever he made me laugh. Maybe the fact that he shares the screen with the mighty JDM, who just looks too much like a used car salesman to convince as a worldwide badass. I think he was going for an aloof cool, but generally comes across bemused and possibly impaired. The second performance I enjoyed quite a bit was Idris Elba's Roque, and while Stringer Bell himself is always going to be good, he bothers to create the only convincing character in the thing, including Evans who just basically brings the funny, which one always appreciates in such disposable fluff such as this. It girl Zoe Saldana shows up pretty much to fill the T&A category, but does get to waste a couple of guys at least. Jason Patric leaves camp in the dust as the bad guy, and whether that's a good thing or a bad thing depends on Patric's mood.

The plot is just your standard action movie clearing yo' name shenanigans, so that's all fine and good. The action is slick if a little familiar, but what I liked I think was how unexpectedly funny it was, and being funny is something that is always going to go down well in my book. So screw rocket launchers and downed helicopters, this movie is it its based when its characters are pissing about and bantering, particularly Evans. It's not Tarantino or anything, but its fun. Which is pretty much all this movie wants to be.

Rating: 6/10