The Losers are a special forces team that specializes in covert
operations. Led by Colonel Clay (Jeffery Dean Morgan, who played the Comedian in
Watchmen), the Losers find themselves in Bolivia at
the beginning of the film, where they’re busy "painting" a drug lord’s compound
with a laser so that a fighter can come in and accurately bomb it. Yet once this
is done, with the fighter on the way, the Losers spot a truckload of young
children (whom are being used as mules) being brought into the drug lord’s house.
Clay tries to cancel the op, but when a mysterious man named Max overrides him
and then jams their signal, the Losers have no choice but to go in and rescue
the kid before the bomb hits. Mission accomplished, the kids are all right…at least until the helicopter that’s
ferrying them to safety gets blown out of the sky on a direct order from Max
(and is overheard on the radio by the Losers). Clay and his team were supposed
to have been aboard the chopper, but there was no room for them because of the
kids. The Losers are all assumed dead, and stuck in Bolivia--until they can find
a way to get back home, and then get some revenge.
Jeffery Dean Morgan makes for a
great, laid back leader of an unconventional (and funny) group of soldiers who’re each brought
convincingly to life by a talented cast with great chemistry. Zoe Saldana
(Star Trek, Avatar) is also good as their mysteirous ally who helps
them to get back in the States and seek their revenge. And Jason Patric plays Max
with perfect prissy malevolence--like an annoying, nerdy dweeb who is far too powerful
for his own good.
The film deftly makes fun of the very same action film clichés that
it employs; about two thirds of the way through, when I watched a van come racing up to the
bad guys, who shoot it full of holes, only to have the Losers come charging out
the back doors with gun blazing, I realized that I was basically watching an A-Team
rip-off, and a pretty good one at that. If you're looking for an action movie that defies
logic, but delivers some good, dirty fun, you can't go wrong with The Losers.
--SF
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