Though this explosive action film didn’t quite reach the top of the ratings this weekend, the great visual effects, well casted characters, and perpetually twisting plotline were enough to wow the audience members who did attend, including myself.
The film follows an elite Special Forces army unit sent to the Bolivian jungle on a covert mission. However, when it appears that the team has been double-crossed by a powerful man on the inside who calls himself Max, they must fake their own deaths in order to escape. The five go into hiding in a Bolivian city, and while their colonel, Clay (Jeffery Dean Morgan, Watchmen) hopes for revenge on the man that framed them, the other men in his team just hope to make their way home to their families.
Now enters Star Trek’s Zoe Saldana, as Aisha, a not to be messed with chick with a penchant for killing, and the ability to handle a rocket launcher. Aisha has her own plan, which coincidentally also involves seeking vengeance on Max. However, she can’t do it alone, and she makes a successful attempt to seduce Clay in order to enlist the help of his team.
From here, the plotline thickens, and the men are smuggled back into the United States in hopes of reaching Miami in time to intercept Max, who they believe will be there, however what they find instead is a portable hard drive containing all of his monetary assets. The team then hatches a new plan to follow the information on the hard drive to Max’s main base of operations and expose his plan to sell a dangerous weapon to other countries in hopes of starting a war.
The visual effects in the film were as awesome and supercharged as you would expect from a high budget action flick, and the cinematography was creative, but in a good way. From blinding explosions, to a weapon of mass destruction with the capability to dematerialize an entire island, to shots of fleeing enemies in the reflection of falling broken glass, The Losers definitely didn’t skimp on the effects.
The Losers’ acting also didn’t fall short Though the cheesy comic book one-liners did make an appearance, for the most part the acting was believable and the characters seemed genuine. The casting team put together a group of actors that had the chemistry to pull off the roles of a close knit unit. Jeffery Dean Morgan does a great job of putting his charm, and his strong silent act on parade while portraying the determined Colonel Clay, and Idris Elba (Obsessed) portrays real emotion as the hard to please second in command, Roque who has a short fuse and an itchy trigger finger. Oscar Jaenada, who has acted mostly in Spanish films so far in his career plays Cougar, the stoic loner of the group who specializes in long range shooting.
Chris Evans (Push) and Columbus Short (Death at a Funeral) show great chemistry while playing the unit’s more comedic members, Jensen and Pooch. Evans puts on a stellar show as the quirky but tech savvy Jensen, who more than once is forced to embarrass himself for the good of the team, but with hilarious results. Short comes off genuine and likeable as Pooch, the pedal to the metal mechanic, who sometimes has Jensen hack into satellites in order to catch glimpses of his pregnant wife on security cameras.
All in all, The Losers is a great choice if you’re looking for a high adrenaline action flick this week. It is balanced on all accounts in terms of plot, effects, and acting and does not overpower itself in any one area by being too plot driven, or too horribly bloody. The film employs plot twists and dialogue at the right times, and then just leaves it to huge explosions and ass kicking at others.
