Summer Movie Guide 2010: Guys on a Mission

By Brian Salisbury , Hollywood.com Staff | Tuesday, April 27, 2010

There are few things on this planet that provide me as much joy as a guys-on-a-mission movie. If you are not familiar with this particular class of film, it is composed of films with large ensembles playing characters of badass distinction banding together for a common, often beautifully destructive, purpose. What's great about guys-on-a-mission films is that, while they share the common bond of being action-based, they tend to transcend genres.

For example, a pair of my absolute favorites is the western The Magnificent Seven and the war film, Kelly's Heroes. The Magnificent Seven is actually a remake of Akira Kurosawa's Seven Samurai, so samurai films are duly represented, and Seven Samurai was also remade by Roger Corman as Battle Beyond the Stars; adding Sci-Fi into the guys-on-a-mission mix. What truly excites me about this summer is that we are getting not just one, but a quartet of guys-on-a-mission films that will hopefully send that hyper six-year-old in the theater (me) into a fitful display of glee.

The A-Team

The A-Team

A big screen adaptation of the popular 80 TV series. The series revolved around a specialized military group convicted of a crime they didn't commit and sentenced to a maximum-security prison from which they promptly escaped. I am seconds away from humming the theme song aloud as I write this. They are then forced to survive as soldiers of fortune.

The Guys: Liam Neeson (Col. Hannibal Smith), Bradley Cooper (Lt. "Faceman" Peck), Sharlto Copley (Capt. "Howling Mad" Murdock) and Quentin "Rampage" Jackson (Sgt. B.A. Baracus)

The Mission: To find the guy who framed them and clear their names.

Potential Strengths/Weaknesses: I have to admit I was skeptical of the idea of a movie version of The A-Team despite my unfettered love for the series. But what ended up winning me over was the trailer that paints the film as possessing the same pretention-free, over-the-top fun factor that made the show so endearing. While the choice to cast a UFC fighter seems worrisome, it's not as if Mr. T was the world's foremost thespian, and Rampage appears to be having just as much fun with the part. Plus, I would watch a documentary about paint drying processes if Liam Neeson were in it!

The Losers

Based on a Vertigo Comic, The Losers is about a group of soldiers who are forced to become mercenaries when they are set up to take the fall for a madman's diabolical actions.

The Guys: Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Idris Elba, Chris Evans, Columbus Short, Oscar Jaenada, and Zoe Saldana (fully aware she's female).
The Mission: Find the guy who framed them and clear their names...hmmm sounds familiar.

Potential Strengths/Weaknesses: There is always the danger, when making a film based on a comic with which most audiences are unfamiliar, that it will be self-limiting. The other major concern of mine would be director Sylvain White’s previous projects Stomp the Yard and I’ll Always Know What You Did Last Summer. The one big advantage I see here is a cast that includes Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Idris Elba, and Chris Evans. These are guys I really like and have faith in their ability to play uber badasses.

The Expendables

A team of old school mercenaries is called up for one more job. This film ranks high up on nearly every movie geek’s most-anticipated list. Over the last couple of years, the casting rumors and cast additions/losses have provided plenty of fodder for chat room buzz.

The Guys: Sylvester Stallone, Dolph Lundgren, Jet Li, Jason Statham, Terry Crewes, Randy Couture, “Stone Cold” Steven Austin

The Mission: Overthrown a ruthless South American dictator

Potential Strengths/Weaknesses: The Expendables represents the movie geek equivalent of fantasy football; not that movie geekery and sports are mutually exclusive. But it really does seem like it was a project dream-casted across two decades with some of the coolest, toughest, most awesome action stars around. As if that weren’t enough, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Bruce Willis have cameos in the film to cement it as the greatest collection of action legends ever assembled. The only x-factor here is whether some of these old dogs can still hunt.

Predators

Sequel to the 1987 Sci-Fi masterpiece that is Predator. The film is being produced by Robert Rodriguez.

The Guys: Adrien Brody, Laurence Fishburne, Topher Grace, Danny Trejo

The Mission: The interesting twist here is that the mission of these hardcore mercenaries is one of survival as they are stalked by the universe’s deadliest hunters.

Potential Strengths/Weaknesses: Predators obviously has the built-in advantage of name recognition and therefore easily generates a great deal of excitement. The trailer is phenomenal and from everything on which producer Rodriguez was expounding at the South by Southwest Film Festival, the script seems solid. The only question mark as I see it is a pair of wild cards in the casting: Topher Grace and Adrien Brody. These are two names I fail to associate with Sci-Fi action epics.