Missed Mindless Movie - The Losers

A few months ago, I saw The Losers. It wasn't very high quality (the viewing, not the film). So when it came out on DVD a few days ago, I grabbed the chance to watch a higher quality version of it.

The Losers it based on a comic book, named because each of the members of the team has been responsible for the death of someone in the field (I think. I could be way off ... yup. After checking Wikipedia, I'm way off). In the movie, they're losers because insults = love. Or something.

Anyway, it starts off with a simple mission in Bolivia that goes wrong because an air strike can't be cancelled and there are children in the target area. Cue the team rescuing the children, only to have them blown up when a missile hits the chopper they were supposed to be on (but put the kids on instead). They get blamed for the death of 25 kids and listed as deceased.

So begins their adventure of revenge against Max, the guy that got them blacklisted (and blew up the kids, but that seems to be the lesser motivation). Pretty soon we get a heist, a break-in, a twist, a betrayal, and a lot of violence. And a lot of jokes. Seriously, this is one funny film.

In fact, it's pretty much exactly what I want in a film. Everyone seemed to be having fun. Jeffrey Dean Morgan got to relax and have fun, Zoe Saldana got to look sexy and have fun, Jason Patric got to chew scenery and have fun, and Chris Evans got to be Chris Evans and have fun (he has a lot of the best lines).

It contains the single best 'caught with his pants down' line ever - "Like the angle of the dangle?" Plus, everyone seems to be a little genre-savvy, so there's no one holding the idiot ball or villain ball (for too long. It crops up a bit).

Violence and jokes - this is what I like. Throwing Zoe Saldana in there is just a very nice bonus (extra points if you knew she was in Pirates of the Caribbean before you read this). It's just really good fun.

My only complaint is that they didn’t use the song Black Betty enough. They played a few seconds of it right at the beginning, but then switched to something generic. Black Betty is a great song that can work in an action movie, as seen here.

This is a theatre movie. Unfortunately, it's out on DVD so the best chance is to get a big TV. There were some sequel hooks in there (one of them looked like it involved the satellite from Goldeneye), but because this movie was marketed poorly, it didn't get a long theatrical run. Which also means its chance of a sequel is nearly none. But just like the soundtrack, "Don't Stop Believing."