Arnold Schwarzenegger announced yesterday that he would be returning to The Terminator franchise.  Rumor is that he would play a human character.  Arnold also revealed his plans to also star in the new Conan the Barbarian movie as well as a new Twins movie. Terminator 5 will start shooting in January.

Today comes news that Arnold would return to The Expendables 3.  Other Casting rumors for the new Expendables movie have Mel Gibson as the villain and Jackie Chan, Nicolas Cage, Wesley Snipes, and Milla Jovovich joining the cast.  Sylvester Stallone, Jason Statham, and Mickey Rourke are rumored to be reprising their roles from earlier movies. The Expendables 3 begins shooting in August.

What can I say about this one? I did not like the first one and yet, thanks to an old friend of mine, I’m now the not so proud owner of the following statement; “I saw The Expendables 2 in theaters.” What can I say about this film that you cannot already predict from the trailers that were released? Was the acting bad??? Yeah, you didn’t see that one come a mile away? Is the action good??? It’s actually underwhelming. Are the one liners are rapid fired?!? Of course they are!

(spoilers follow) The Expendables 2 follows the group as they are black mailed into doing a top secret mission for the mysterious Church (Bruce Willis) that sees them heading to Eastern Europe. However, before they can complete the mission, they are thrown for a whirlwind when one of the members of the team is brutally killed and their loot is stolen. Now, they’re on both a mission for Church and a mission of revenge as they find themselves becoming heroes in one of the most unlikely places. This is a film riddled with cliches and judging from the plot line I just provided, it shows you that there’s no ingenuity here. You’ve seen this plot a hundred times before and I know we’ll see a rehash of it down the line. For a men on a mission-vigilante-revenge tale it is not even executed all that well. The plot will get you shaking your head more then once and that’s just a big no-no in my book.

The film’s best actor is actually its youngest one in Liam Hemsworth and I cannot help but feel that he, like his brother Chris, is a future action star. The guy has great screen presence and easily held his own against all these action vets. Speaking of them, how in the hell did Jean Claude Van Damme become the most entertaining of them all?!? As Jean Vilian, he was brilliant as the film’s bad guy and I cannot help but think that he should be sticking to playing the villain and this might be his best turn since starring in JCVD. I will say that Chuck Norris’ entrance in the film was a hoot and his presence on the screen was appreciated after so many years off, but I absolutely hated that they butchered the classic “The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly” music to elevate his character. That really wasn’t cool.

The story of the film was really stupid though and in the end the novelty of the premise is wearing off. Not sure if I’ll be back for a third installment, but I know that these guys had enough fun to want to come back. And how can you blame them? They have nothing else going for them. Well, except for Arnie and Stallone. And maybe JCVD if he can build some momentum and stick to more comedic roles. Was this film a good bad film? Yes. Just wait for this one to hit a Redbox near you. Not worth the price of admission. Everybody in this film has done better. Everybody.

[rate 1.5]

Release Date: August 17, 2012
Studio: Universal
Director: Simon West
Starring: Sylvester Stallone, Jason Statham, Jet Li, Dolph Lundgren, Chuck Norris, Jean-Claude Van Damme, Charisma Carpenter, Terry Crews, Bruce Willis, and Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Plot: The Expendables are reunited when Mr. Church enlists them to take on a seemingly simple job. When things go wrong, the Expendables are compelled to seek revenge in hostile territory, where the odds are stacked against them. Hell-bent on payback, the crew cuts a swath of destruction through opposing forces, wreaking havoc and shutting down an unexpected threat in the nick of time – five tons of weapons-grade plutonium, more than enough to change the balance of power in the world. But that’s nothing compared to the justice they serve against the villainous adversary they seek revenge from.

Thoughts: I feel like I’m in a minority when I say that I’m not a big fan of the first Expendables. To me it was like a lot of the straight to DVD films that most of the cast was starring in before this big nostalgic reunion. It was too violent for its own good with poor acting, poor story telling, and poor directing- even if the cast was having a blast on screen (literally and figuratively).

For me, I do have some raised expectations when it comes to The Expendables 2, with a change in director and writers. But most of all because of the inclusion of some of the more funnier leading action man of yesteryear in Arnie, Bruce Willis, and Jean Claude Van Damme (who also impressed the hell out of me in JCVD). I’m hoping for a film that improves on the first one. The trailers have been pretty cool and I’m hoping this is just a lot more fun then the first film and that it becomes a little more cheesey (on purpose) and a bit little less serious. If director Simon West gets the tone right this time around, I think it will be safe to say that The Expendables is the newest action franchise for a lot of these yesteryearers,. I’m just hoping this one pans out, especially since I’d like to see a few new Chuck Norris movies- it has been far too long, even if he’s spent his break saying things that, well, I don’t necessarily agree with.

This guest post from Edgardo Rosa.

I like to take my children to our local movie theater, Waterford Lakes, once every other Saturday. My daughter is eight and my son is ten. They democratically pick a movie at the beginning of the month and I get to pick the movie that we see at the end of the month. My wife has three votes while the kids each have one. No one messes with my week, unless my wife really wants to see something else. This usually leads to a combination of Toy Story 3 followed shortly by the Expendables.

I was a child of the eighties and I thought that the Expendables was totally awesome. The only thing it was missing was Chuck Norris. Maybe Sylvester Stallone will put him in the sequel. Jean-Claude Van Damme and Steven Segal would have been nice, but I don’t think that they have it in them anymore. Van Damme has lost his action credibility and Segal is just out of shape.

On our bimonthly outings, we usually set the ADT hempstead security alarm and leave the house about an hour before the film starts. That leaves us plenty of time to get to the theater, grab the kids some popcorn and a drink, send everyone in for a last minute potty break, and find a decent row of seats in the middle of the theater.

Welcome to another (mid-week) Pit! After this post, the site will be going on a semi-hiatus for two weeks. During that time, you’ll still be getting your weekly wrestling recap, and maybe a review or two, but general news and opinions will be on hold. As usual, thanks for visiting and making the site a success!

• Green Lantern‘s Kilowog has been revealed and sadly (like everything else about the film) it looks really bad. I’ve waited so long for a GL film, and I hate what it looks like so far. I hope they surprise me. Right now, I’m worried about DC Comics film adaptations in general.

• The X-Men vs the Hellfire Club in First Class? Recent rumors point to Kevin Bacon playing Sebastian Shaw, and now even more rumors have been going around that Sarah Harding could be portraying either Selene. This fits in with the fact that Emma Frost, aka the White Queen, has a key role in the film.  Sadly, without Hugh Jackman in the film, we will not be able to have the iconic image of Wolverine in the sewer ready to save the team.

• We talked about the Scott Pilgrim avatar creator the other day, but there is also a revamed Mad Men avatar creator (which is the bomb!). Check it out here.

• Interested in making it big in Hollywood? What about a virtual Hollywood? Hollywood the Game is an awesome Hollywood Simulation where you write, cast, advertise, and making movies (and TV!). Check it out.

• There is a new trailer for this weekend’s epic action film release, The Expendables. I want to see this movie right now, no, make that two days ago!

• Have you been staying with Persons Unknown? I wonder how it will end…

It is a new week, and there is a lot going on.

• Warner Brothers Animation has announced a new Green Lantern series that will be fully computer-generated. It is set to follow Hal Jordan, Kilowog, and an unspecific Red Lantern.  This is the first fully computer generated series with DC Comics superheroes.  There is rumored to be a Batman CG series that will follow this one also.  I’m not sure how I feel about this. I love classic animation and DC/WB put on some great superhero shows. I guess I’ll give the new style shows a chance, but if it isn’t broken, I don’t see why they are trying to “fix” it.

• I have to do a shout out for myself, please head over to YouTube and watch The Paw! It is a little modern noir. You can also watch it on our side bar, thanks!

• Scott Pilgrim vs the World has a new i-trailer! This movie looks awesome, and I can’t wait to see it.

• The Twilight Saga took home 12 award wins at the Teen Choice Awards, proving once again that teens are stupid.

• This is shaping up to be a really awesome weekend at the movies. In addition to the above mentioned Scott Pilgrim, we also have Stallone’s action flick The Expendables!  Expendables features the biggest cast of ass kickers ever assembled. I can’t wait to sit down and finish off two large popcorn buckets while it’s on.

• Enjoying any summer TV shows? Movies? Video games? Comics? Books? Music? Let us know in the comments!

AICN has been doing another round of fan Q&As with action movie legend Sylvester Stallone in anticipation for his upcoming flick The Expendables (which hits theaters of August 13th, 2010). These Q&As are awesome, with Stallone sharing stories about past films and dropping a lot of behind the scenes nuggets along the way. One of the questions Sly got was as follows…

“Have you ever been approached about playing the Punisher and do you have any thoughts about/interest in the character? None of the filmatizations have quite hit the spot and I always thought you were the obvious choice. Especially now you are the only actor I can imagine capable of pulling off an undiluted portrayal of Frank Castle with his Vietnam war origin intact. My imaginary dream project would be a run of HBO miniseries’ adapting Garth Ennis’ defining run on Punisher MAX mixing real-life horrors with bloody vigilante justice. You are probably not familiar with it, but with Rambo fresh in mind the material and sensibilities should be right up your alley.”

To which, he replied…

“I’m very interested in THE PUNISHER on several levels and think the story should be resuscitated with or without me. Its just always been mounted improperly.”

If I was Marvel Studios, I’d be on the phone with Stallone’s people right now.  Who could better step into the shoes of Marvel’s ultimate vigilante then one of the biggest action movie stars of all time? Not only does Sly look the part, but he could direct the thing better than anyone Marvel has gotten in the past.  Bring the gore of the latest Rambo, with the broken ex-boxer of Rocky Balboa and you have Frank Castle. A man with nothing, fighting for vengeance and to make sure no one loses what he has already lost. At Comic-con, Marvel Studios revealed that they have gotten the rights for The Punisher back and that they would like to make a movie that does his justice, well Marvel, now is your chance!

Check out day 5 of Stallone’s fan Q&A here, click on cool news for the rest.