'The Losers' a loser?

OK, I haven't seen the film, don't know a thing about it beyond its comic book connection, but I wanted to share with you what critic John Anderson said in his review of The Losers in The Wall Street Journal. In what I think is one of the better put-down lines, Anderson said, "If their target audiences were as brain-dead as the filmakers seem to think, they would be just as enchanted by any shiny object being waved in front of their faces."


Anderson goes on to say, "'The Losers' is a videogam writ large, and that's where studio films are blithely headed. (See 'Avatar,' if only for an example of how visual machismo is trumping narrative.)"

Now that's bound to bring some yowls from the Avatar fans. But is this where Hollywood is going? An unholy amalgamation of comic book storylines, action films, and video game spinoffs?

Yes.

I havent seen anything on The Losers Will look it up

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Here's a recent review.

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Odd, I thought it had already gotten there.

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I thought the trailer for The Losers looked pretty good. Like I care what The Wall Street Journal thinks about an action movie.

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We are both the source of the problem and the solution, yet we do not see ourselves in this light...

I'm with PW!

though I'm sure the actors, directors, producers, etc. care and are "hurt" by such a writeoff. I heard about the movie, so Ill def see it. Funny thing - I think Im gonna like it!

I guess despite my several degrees, and all the money my parents spent on my education, I'm still brain-dead and enchanted by shiny objects...... oh dad, if only you knew how your money went to such WASTE!

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I just looked at the trailer. I'm not standing in a line to see that. The premise sounded somewhat like The A Team, so I watched the trailer for that. It looked a little better.

I must be getting old because I don't recognize any of these actors.

PW, I never would suggest you should "care" about the WSJ's or any other reviews. All I was trying to do was to share what I thought was a funny line in a particular review, followed by what I thought was an interesting statement open to debate.

There's a thing that shows up ever so often in my emails here at work that gives the breakdowns on several reviews for several new movies--how many excellants, how many poors, how many goods, how many bads--and the breakdown on the sources--newspapers, magazines, TV, and gawd knows what else. I remember most reviews of The Losers really dumped on it. Was that accurate or even fair? I don't know--like I said up front I haven't seen the movie. And from all I've read and heard of it so far, I likely won't see it. It wasn't made for me--its made for young people who like comic books and like to see explosions and chases and mayhem on the big screen. I don't. I'd rather watch Gary Cooper in For Whom the Bell Tolls where the raid isn't succesful and the good guy doesn't survive, but the story (written for my generation) has depth and meaning.

Welcome to my world! Standing in the checkout line at the grocery, I look at the cover of a People magazine in an adjacent rack and don't recognize any of the names and pictures on the cover. Who are these people? And wasn't there a similar but different bunch on last week's cover?

I recognize several of the actors. Avatar or Watchmen anyone?

Not to mention The Wire.

Fantastic Four

Let's name more movies!!!

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Suspect's Reviews

Music video director Sylvain White must have been thrilled to helm a mainstream comic film, after delivering critical disasters like the straight-to-video horror flick I’ll Always Know What you did Last Summer and the dance-themed, battle-driven movie Stomp the Yard. I didn’t anticipate much from this April action release, and I was still disappointed in almost every way. I expected more from Friday Night Lights screenwriter Peter Berg than amateur banalities like “showtime fellas!” The filmic result of DC Comic’s war series is an utter mess – a one-and-a-half hour wild and exhibitionistic music video with a cast lackluster enough to make one reminisce the good old action movie days of the 90’s – when superstar heroes (Schwarzenegger, Jackie Chan) weren’t given enough successive lines to ruin the film.

I usually love revenge movies because of the sheer simplicity of the story. Someone wronged you. Now you’re willing to put everything on the line for justice. Here we have a CIA special ops team sent in to the Bolivian backwoods to locate and destroy a drug operation. After the team is attacked and presumed dead, they decide to follow the voice on the (inter)”com” which led to their seeming demise. They escape South America through the help of Aisha (played by Avatar’s Zoe Saldana), a mysterious operative with her own plan. Masquerading as a native prostitute (I’m sure there is an ample supply of good-looking-enough-to-be-a-supermodel hookers roaming the backstreet bars in Bolivia), Aisha happens to know where they can find Max, the group’s enigmatic target on the other end of the “com."

The plot was thick enough with revenge, but it congeals like tar as we discover Max (played to uncanny, comic perfection by Jason Patric) intends to purchase “green” weapons of mass destruction. These smart bombs are described as “pure destruction. No pollution.” Terrorists with a conscience and a reverence for the environment? Absurdity.

This film is unbalanced and out of control in so many ways that it becomes comedy to continue watching. We expect Aisha to hook up with Clay (loser leader Jeffrey Dean Morgan), but when she saunters into his room at night, ready for action and holding a bottle of liquor, it’s more confusing than sexy. There’s been no establishment of a connection between them at all.

What’s even more daunting is the devotion the losers have to Clay. Established in the beginning of the film to be in charge of “operational control,” Clay is the officer in command. I get it. But there’s a nonchalant arrogance Morgan gives his character that seems completely unwarranted by any real talents or leadership. He wears a tuxedo shirt and slacks throughout the film for no reason I could decipher other than a futile attempt to channel George Clooney à la Ocean’s Eleven. Clooney was in a casino in that movie. And he’s Clooney.

The only engaging scenes in The Losers are owed to Patric’s cunning Max. Watch for the chemistry between him and his beefy sidekick Wade (Holt McCallany) as an exasperated Max places three orders for a firing squad. With the exception of this duo’s onscreen chemistry, the end of this film could not come quickly enough for me. With ostentatious shots that simultaneously speed up and slow down while zooming in and pulling out, then turn to comic Lichtenstein within five seconds, the speed of White’s movie alone will make the audience want to throw up his/her popcorn. The urge to regurgitate should only continue with lines like “payback’s a bitch,” and a steady bombardment of ridiculousness that does not stop (before a young Bolivian boy catches a helicopter ride to safety, note Morgan’s affected grin as he hands him a stuffed teddy bear and speaks to him in broken Spanish).

If you’d like to watch a good result of a music video director given reign with a feature film, rent David LaChapelle’s Rize. I understand entrusting an acclaimed video director with a documentary chronicling a dance movement. The only result you’ll get from watching The Losers is nausea. If you must see it, go to a matinee - and save the extra four dollars for Dramamine.

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I saw it, and I liked it. Nothing incredibly special, but it sure was a fun action flick to watch.

I liked Losers too, very enjoyable... would have made a good TV series, but then the comparison to A-team would have got in the way..

Ive seen the trailer for this and it looks pretty funny and I most prob will watch it on DVD but I hope it isnt ANOTHER case of Trailer looks good but in actuall fact the film is poop

I have to say The Losers is nearly The Winners if you ask me. I have just watched it and thought the movie was very cool but there I have a few problems with it but as a comedy action flick it does deliver IMO. I think the whole formual of the film has been done before, but this film does indeed make a good watch and when it comes out on dvd I will buy it for another viewing



I give this movie,

as it is a cool action film and has some very funny times in the film.