Why So Blu?

The Losers are Really Winners IMO

Don’t let the movie’s name deceive you.  If you are looking for a wild romping good time this weekend with no brain power required, then look no further than your local cinema to check out Dark Castle’s adaptation of the Vertigo and DC Comics comic book series of the same name, The Losers.  The film features very improbable and intense action sequences, frequent comedic relief moments, the sensuality of the beautiful Zoe Saldana and a very funny villain.  How often do you come across those nowadays?  It’s the perfect escape for the 1980’s A-Team fan in all of us.

The film is rated PG-13 for pretty much all of the reasons I listed above.  I also would like to make a quick trivial statement while I have  the mic and your undivided attention.  This film is the first movie released by Dark Castle Entertainment and the first Vertigo film adaptation that has not received that stigmatic R rating that keeps so many families away, unless your movie is called The Hangover or something like that.

What truly sells this movie is the fun likable cast.  I already mentioned the sexy Star Trek vixen Zoe Saldana for all the guys out there, but I neglected to address the female population about the star studded nearly all-male cast.  The all-male action ensemble of stars includes Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Columbus Short, Idris Elba, Oscar Jaenada, Jason Patric and Captain America himself, Chris Evans.  I’ll tell you what, I spent nearly the entire film mentally prepping Chris Evans for his eventual Captain America role.  Guess what folks?  He not only looks the part, but he is Captain America and my wife could not be more excited about it.  I’m putting my man card down for a moment when I say that much like Robert Downey Jr. in Ironman, we are going to see an influx in the female population of comic readers all the sudden interested in the Marvel superhero no one has seemed to care about for the past 20+ years.  I’m talking of course about Captain America.

All right.  Moving right along.  The screenplay of this movie must have been ultra simplistic.  Let’s write a film about outrageous over-the-top action sequences and blowing stiff up.  It already sounds like a winner to me.  Does it to you?  Of course it does or else you wouldn’t be still reading this.  So our story begins with a tale of five US Special Forces soldiers being sent into Bolivia for a job.  The only problem is that this isn’t any ordinary job.  It’s a setup.  And if I can be frank about it, it’s a very treacherous one indeed.  Believed to be dead, the group makes plans to return to the US soil and avenge the man that tried to have them killed, the hilarious, but very evil Max (Patric).  Let’s put it this way.  If Austin Power‘s Dr. Evil had hair and we took him seriously, then we would be calling him Max.  The Special Forces team also has a little help from the stunning, but very mysterious operative Aisha (Saldana) who seemingly has her own hidden agenda/endgame.  But what we d0n’t know is can we trust her or not?  That seems to be the million dollar question throughout the feature.

I mentioned the screenplay before in the paragraph above for a reason.  It goes without saying that the script must have been good to have gotten made into a big-time Hollywood feature film, right?  Don’t answer that.  But seriously, the script follows the very fundamentals that all new students of film are exposed to.  It had danger, it had romance and most importantly, the “all is lost” moment was easily identifiable and believable.  I was sold.  You don’t need a chemical engineering degree to figure this film out in order to have a good time with it.  It’s not perfect by any means and nor do I think it was ever intended to be.  It’s just something that we all need from time-to-time.  That is your mindless cliche popcorn action flick that everyone seemingly adores.  It just feels weird seeing a film like this so early in the year.  Typically, this would have been a summer release.  But anyway, do yourself a favor and whether it is hot or cold wherever you live this weekend, go warm up with the explosive action of The Losers at a theater near you.  And don’t forget the obligatory popcorn!