Synopsis:
A CIA special forces team are betrayed and left for dead. They’re The Losers. They decide to return from the “dead” and fight back.
Directed by: Sylvain White
Written by: Screenplay by Peter Berg and James Vanderbilt, comic by Andy Diggle and Jock
My Thoughts:
To begin, let me just say that I have never read this comic. I’d not even heard of The Losers prior to watching the movie. Buuuut, I like Vertigo a lot, so I was pretty excited to find a movie based on a Vertigo comic that had previously escaped my notice.
Unfortunately, The Losers seems to have kind of escaped everyone’s notice collectively. I don’t know about you, but I don’t remember hearing about this, seeing any marketing, none of that – because I’m sure, with a cast like this one, I’d have seen that movie in a heartbeat – although I certainly wouldn’t have been able to properly appreciate Chris Evans’ role back then, because at least appearance-wise, this look was pretty par for the course for him in our pre-MCU-50,000-phase-plan-universe.
Let’s all just breathe a collective sigh of relief that we’ve moved beyond that as a society. You want a sweater picture, don’t you? Well, you’re not getting it, Thirsty. You’re getting a beard pic, cuz I like that look just slightly better.
You’re welcome.
Well, as usual, I digress (hi, have we met?). Anyway – this movie. I was feeling a little pensive about it because (queue hypocrisy music) even though I’m all about giving PG-13 a chance, I was kind of in the mood for something hyper-violent – Like Ninja Assassin or The Raid (a new favorite) levels of crazy-bloody. But, that just wasn’t working out for me and my $2 Vudu credit, soooo…I gave this movie full of my imaginary boyfriends a chance – and I’m really glad I did!
I can’t believe the whole world slept on this one – it grossed less than $5 million more than it’s budget. It was definitely PG-13, but it was also well-plotted, fast paced, and funny! And honestly, I really appreciated the length – it seems like every movie now has to top 2 hours, so having one that was just a hair over 90 minutes felt like some sweet relief. Especially since I’ve been watching a lot of James Bond and MI lately (and yes, I realize neither franchise is at all super violent).
“That’s right bitches, I got a crossbow!”
The dialogue was pretty silly, especially for snarky Jensen (Chris Evans), but that didn’t keep the movie from being funny at all, it just gave it a really….2010…feel (see what I did there?). And the entire cast played together wonderfully. Jeffrey Dean Morgan was an absolute gem as usual (shut it about Negan – I know somebody’s thinking it right now, and I don’t want to hear about it. That show had devolved to unwatchable long before he arrived), Idris Elba was hot, mysterious, and gruff (just the way we like him, right? Can we get him as Bond now please?), Chris Evans was playing early Chris Evans, Zoe Saldana was tough as nails, and the other two were people I’ve not seen before, but I’m sure they were in top form as well.
The action was good, but I will say there were several scenes where the decision to do with really minimal blood made absolutely no sense and really detracted from the story – see guy gets shot in both legs, there’s no blood, and he can still walk with help.
My Edition:
$2.99 digital rental from Vudu. Also, updated to add that I bought a copy at Dollar Tree too (right? That’s the name of the green store, yeah?).
My Rating:
I thought The Losers was a lot of fun. If you ever come across it in the wild, and are looking for something fun, but not violent, this one should definitely be considered.
The Losers Directed by: Sylvain White Release Date: April 23, 2010 Dark Castle Entertainment, Vertigo (DC Comics), Weed Road Pictures Action Comedy DVD, Blu-Ray, Digital PG-13 97 Minutes
Haha, I would have watched it for the posters, those are awesome but also silly. Loved reading your review, a shame to hear that they cut down on the blood on the wrong moments (really, how does someone just walk away from 2 shotwounds in his legs and not have blood flowing everywhere???), but I am also kind of happy with that as my level of how much I can handle gore/blood/violence have been going down with the years.
You should check it out – you might love it! It really is a lot of fun, even if it doesn’t always make sense.
OOH you finally saw it? I adore this movie: bought it as soon as it came out. The hotel fight scene and the high rise Chris Evans IT scene are two of my favorites. I LOVE Chris Evans in this.
Yeah, I had never even heard of it before. We rented it on a whim. Money well spent!