They Lost It At The Movies

The Losers 2010 US

Directed by Sylvain White

Screening at cinemas now

The Losers is a really great action movie. No doubt about it. If you’re into action movies, then The Losers is the one to catch.

I was expecting it to be a lot less than watchable and it turned out to be one of the better written action flicks of recent times. Jeffrey Dean Morgan is the “chief” of a “crack team” of five mercenaries who feels responsible for their fortunes after a mission goes well wrong and the five of them are, deliberately by their own hand, presumed dead. I didn’t know who this guy was when I saw the movie but I just looked him up on the IMDB (yeah, I know, not the most reliable source of movie information) and he’s the guy who played The Comedian in Watchmen. Would never had pegged that. Doesn’t matter... he seems to be one of those actors who can literally do nothing much on screen but you feel his charisma eating away at you from behind the celluloid (like Marlene Dietrich but just not as sexy).

I think the fact that the movie is based on an actual comic book rather than some illiterate, soulless action writers idea of a script (why is A Quantum of Solace just jumping into my mind? Hmmm) is why this one succeeds on so many fronts. Plus, with Zoe Saldana getting naked (oh rats... they did it tastefully) and Chris Evans playing a geek... this film really has a lot going for it.

And it has brilliant lines like... “You don’t need seatbelts. The G-forces will just hold you in.” You just know this movie is worth hanging in there for.

Plus the action editing is not going to confuse the f*ck out of you and the ending is... well not what you’d expect from a movie of this kind. Looks like they’re crossing their fingers for a franchise.

Seriously... if you like action movie writing which is up there with the likes of Shane Black... you should probably go and see this film.