The Losers

Tagline: Anyone else would be dead by now.

So this week it was between The Joneses or The Losers and we went with The Losers since the other one was playing at a different theater down the road. The trailer looked cool enough and I love me some Chris Evans, okay and Jeffrey Dean Morgan. It looks a little similar to The A Team, which is coming out later this summer, but it seemed like it would be entertaining enough and hopefully not over-the-top. The studio had actually moved the release date around several times before picking this past weekend, which now seems to have been a bad decision as it came in fourth and brought in only $9.4 million. It may be important to note that this past weekend was also one of the worst weekends across the board for this year for movies nationwide.



The plot is loosely based off a comic of the same name and follows a rag-tag military team consisting of five special op agents, including Jeffrey Dean Morgan and Chris Evans. During a mission in Bolivia the team go against orders when they try to save the lives of 25 innocent civilians and end up being framed by ‘Max’, a mysterious sinister war lord, and left for dead. Soon they are approached by a mysterious female, Zoe Saldana, who promises them anything they need if they agree to take down the infamous ‘Max’. The film then sets down a course of action and adventure with different missions, heists, and fight sequences galore.


The plot wasn’t anything special or even very interesting. It revolved around some new devastating bomb and some type of special hard drive with secret information on it, similar to most other action movies of this nature which include new weaponry and/or secret technology. The plot wasn’t very realistic however it was semi-plausible, although this team seemed to have access to endless supplies of money and technology without having real means to have those things. Also the whole matter disintegrating bomb should have been left out, or at least the special effect that showed the actual bomb. It really brought the movie down a notch because it was just ridiculous and unnecessary.With this type of movie however, realism is not very important. I did enjoy the dialogue and banter between the characters. They did not take the situations seriously and created humor in the suspenseful moments. I especially loved Chris Evans’ character and he really provided a lot of the humor and amusement, in my opinion. The characters were somewhat stereotypical but yet likeable. Honestly, the plot could have been about anything and it wouldn’t have affected the movie.


I really loved the editing in this movie. The trailer doesn’t have any indication in it that would allude to this awesome editing. It was my kind of editing with just these great jump cuts, and motion and warp effects. It had great freeze frames with superb slow motion thrown in there at just the right moments. I’m really glad that the director allowed the editors to put style and artistry into the movie instead of just putting the sequences in order and showing the action while pretending that the suspense and plot were interesting. The cinematography was also really great with nice hand-held shots and interesting angles. I actually liked the way the ‘love scene’ was filmed with the motion time warp effects on the cuts. The titling in the movie was also done quite nicely. Again, I didn’t expect to find this in this type of movie since normally the director is trying to get the movie finished as quickly as possible in order to please the studios and really doesn’t focus on the editing or cinematography as anything other than a means to an end. I’ve also got to mention how awesome the soundtrack and sound mixing was in this movie. It worked perfectly and kept us interested in the scenes when the plot was failing. And props to any movie that can put Journey’s ‘Don’t Stop Believing’ during a fight scene and make it seem cool.


I’m going to come out and say that this movie was really carried by Chris Evan’s performance. He was just really comical and entertaining without being annoying or overbearing, in my opinion. The entire scene with him entering the office building as the IT guy was just priceless. Jeffrey Dean Morgan was a pretty good bad-ass leader, even if he did wear the same suit throughout which never seemed to get dirty, although he did wear it quite well. Zoe Saldana again proves that she can play the hot female lead that can kick butt and take names. Jason Patric was different. He bordered on annoying, unbelievable, and metro sexual, but didn’t seem to really cross into those categories but just walked a fine line over them. He gave a different portrayal of the normal villian in most action movies to say the least.


Overall, I enjoyed this movie because of the editing and Chris Evans. This movie kept me entertained and pleased from the editing and soundtrack and Chris Evans provided the humor and eye candy. The rest was pretty hit or miss and especially the plot was forgettable and actually not that interesting. It was the dialogue and nuances of the way the characters pulled off the actions that was the entertaining part. I actually enjoyed this movie but if you don’t like either bad-ass editing or Chris Evans, then it will most likely be a forgettable action movie that has some funny parts in it. “Did you know that cats can make 1000 different noises and dogs can only make 10? Never trust a cat.” -- The Losers.