The newest installation of “The Expendables” franchise was released on August 15. It opened with $16.2 million, but was expected to open with at least $25 million. “The Expendables 3” is viewed as a “flop” by most because of the low opening earnings, which were possibly caused by the movie being leaked and pirated a week before its release.

I personally went into this movie with low expectations and I did not want to watch it. As a teenage girl, it was not my idea of the perfect “Friday night movie”. But, I was convinced to see it and walked out of the theater surprised because I actually liked it.

Like all of the movies in “The Expendables” franchise, “The Expendables 3” included many famous action movie stars. Not only is Sylvester Stallone back for his role as team leader Barney Ross, but Jason Statham, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Mel Gibson, Dolph Lundgren, Randy Couture and so many more star in this action film.

The movie opens up with the “Expendables” in a helicopter-train chase to extract a former member, Doctor Death (Wesley Snipes), from a military prison. Shortly after the extraction, the team goes on a mission to intercept a shipment of bombs from Somalia. There, Ross finds out that the arms dealer is Conrad Stonebanks (Mel Gibson). From that point on, the movie revolves around Ross’ dedication to capturing Stonebanks, who he previously believed he killed, for the CIA and also for the revenge of Stonebanks injuring an “Expendable”, Hale Caesar (Terry Crews). The CIA operative, Max Drummer, is played by Harrison Ford.

Later, as new faces are introduced to the “Expendables” team, a rivalry between the “old” members and the “new” is exposed. The most memorable of these new characters, for me, was Galgo (Antonio Banderas). Banderas’ characterization of Galgo was hilarious and the character brought a lot of life to the movie.

From the get go, “The Expendables 3” is full of action and continues throughout the movie with hilarious jokes thrown in. Compared to the more serious of the “Expendables” series, “The Expendables”, and the silly “The Expendables 2”, “The Expendables 3” blends the two tones perfectly and it results in a great comedic-action movie.

Overall, I would recommend “The Expendables 3” to people who like action and comedy. “The Expendables 3” is rated PG-13, which is a good rating for it as I would not recommend taking children to this movie. I rate “The Expendables 3” 3 out of 4 North Stars.