The Losers

The Losers is an explosive film filled with explosions (of course), hand-to-hand combat, gun battles, espionage and humor.  It’s based on the comic book from DC’s Vertigo Comics, of which I was completely unaware, until I saw the opening credits.  I must confess that I haven’t read the comic book so my commentary is solely based on the film alone.  I seem to be on a roll watching movies based on comic books (unintentionally).  It stars Jeffrey Dean Morgan (the Winchester brother’s Dad from Supernatural) as Clay. He’s in charge of an elite Special Forces military group who become fugitives after one of their Ops in Bolivia goes horribly wrong--resulting in the deaths of 25 children.

The Special Forces team is of comprised of a group of men with various military specialties and also features Chris Evans (Push, Fantastic Four) as Jensen, Idris Elba (The Wire, Daddy’s Little Girls) as Roque, Columbus Short (Armored, Stomp The Yard) as Pooch/”Legless” Pooch, and Oscar Jaenada as Cougar.  Zoe Saldana (Star Trek) also stars as the smoking-hot, and mysterious Aisha who agrees to bank roll their operations if they agree to kill Max (Jason Patric) the evil genius responsible for their exile.  

As far as villains go, Max is an affable yet eccentric character who wears one glove over a disfigured left hand.  He has a penchant for killing; which he demonstrates when he shoots his female assistant in the head for merely letting an umbrella, she was holding to shield him from the sun, get away from her for the briefest of seconds. 

Clay has a weakness for bad women.  Case in point: how many guys do you know can pick up a girl at a bar, take her back to his hotel and end up having the hotel burned to the ground? 

I told myself I was not under any circumstances going to watch the A-Team movie that was also released this year.  The TV series was a classic, and it pains me to see different actors mimicking the original actors that played the characters. Remakes of classic popular TV shows are rarely about actors interpreting who the characters (like Hannibal, BA, or Face) really are and making them come alive or putting a fresh spin on them through the actor’s own talents. It’s usually about how good an impression of George Peppard, Mr. T, or Dirk Benedict the actor can do.  That aside, The Losers is so reminiscent of the A-Team that I’m going to have to watch it just to compare the two.  So stay tuned for a future blog. 

**SPOILER ALERT**  If you’ve read any of my earlier blogs, you’ll know the answer to this question: why is this black man in the film?

Although The Losers is decent and the characters are very likeable, it is typical to the action-adventure genre and doesn’t do much to set itself apart from any other movie.  But it’s certainly enjoyable and shouldn’t be overlooked as a DVD rental.  For the film’s strict adherence to the action-adventure formula and lack of innovative twists, I’d give it 3 fingers out of 5.