The Losers

As summer is quickly approaching, another season of blockbuster films are about to be released. There will be comic book action movies, the R-rated comedy hits, and all kinds of films that more times than not, always please the audience. However, all entertaining action film do not have to come out in the summer. A good example is “The Losers," a fast-paced, shoot-em-up action film which is good enough to tide me over until the summer season.

Meet the Losers, a team of five men that carry out special missions for the U.S. government. Clay (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) is the leader of the group that controls the operations. Pouch (Columbus Short) is the one that knows technology (in one scene he refers to himself as the black MacGyver). Roque (Idris Elba) is one of the tougher guys that does not always agree with the decisions made by the team. Cougar (Oscar Jaenada) is the sharpshooter who almost never misses with his sniper rifle. Last is the team’s funniest and most sarcastic member, Jensen (Chris Evans). These five are performing an operation in Bolivia and everything is going well until a group of children show up at the location that an air strike is about to be carried out in. When Clay tries to call off the air strike, he is talked to by a man named Max who, after the operation, tries to kill The Losers. Now presumed to be dead, The Losers are living in South America knowing that if they return, Max will most likely find them and kill them. Clay soon meets a girl named Aisha (Zoe Saldana) who claims to know how to get to Max. Longing for revenge, Clay and his team agrees to go with the girl back into the U.S. in an undercover operation to pay back Max and to clear their names.

The main attraction to "The Losers" is the action. Whether it involves chases, fist-fights, or gun slinging madness, this film is covered with action from start to finish. I figured this out at the very beginning in which the first ten minutes of the film consist of the five men taking out fifty bad guys. Is it pointless action? No. Is it well shot, entertaining action? YES! Many times action films only focus on action while totally ignoring other things, but thankfully this isn't the case for "The Losers."

Not only does this film have action, it also contains quite a bit of comedy (a good mix for a film). The Losers can take down men easily and they can crack jokes while doing it too. Most humor in the film is seen from my favorite character, Jensen that was played by Chris Evans who has played a smart-talking "hero" before (The Human Torch from the "Fantastic Four" films). Since I'm talking about comedy, this would be a good time to talk about the antagonist of the film, Max(Jason Patrick). You could tell from the dialogue and the way that Jason Patrick delivered his lines that the makers of the film were intending for the character of Max to be a both humorous and at the same time cruel villain. Sadly, the character was hardy funny and more of a wannabe villain than a smooth-talking, sarcastic bad guy.

A pro for "The Losers" is that the film had good acting. I am primarily speaking about Jeffrey Dean Morgan and Chris Evans who, after both staring in past comic-book films, showed that they are capable of being entertaining action stars(which is great for Chris Evans since he will portray Captain America next year). A con is that the film doesn't really have a complex story line and because of this, it doesn't focus that much on it's characters. One thing I would have liked to have seen was maybe a brief back story to each of the five members of The Losers.

"The Losers" is without a doubt a film that most action lovers will enjoy. Though it lacks a few things, the film makes up for it with good acting, plenty of action, and laughs. Once again, the movie is good enough to tide me over until May 7th ("Iron Man 2!!). I give it two and a half stars out of four.

"The Losers has a running time of 98 minutes and is rated PG-13 for sequences of intense action and violence, a scene of sensuality and language.