DVD Review # 46 (The Losers 2010)

The Losers (2010) Zoe Saldana, Jeffrey Dean Morgan Directed By Sylvain White

For the life of me I can’t figure out why Peter Berg (director of Friday Night Lights) who co-wrote The Losers didn’t direct it. This film needed a sharper director to make it work right, because it was close to being really good, but fell short because of some lazy mistakes in execution…let me list them: (1) First of all you needed a bigger name than Jeffrey Dean Morgan (of The Watchmen and Grey’s Anatomy fame) to pull off a role that required that much bravado and respect. (2) In order to make the double crossing plot twists of the film work we need to understand the characters of this mercenary group and why they were loyal to each other…and the ten minute opening is not enough…just ask The A-Team why that doesn’t work. (3) Lastly the tone of the good guys and the tone of the bad guys don’t sync up right…in fact we want Jason Patric (the bad guy) to win, because frankly he is the only really magnetic character in the film (and BTW this is the first decent acting I’ve seen by Patric in a long time…since NARC) and if the film is centered around these lovable Losers I should want them to win…and I didn’t. All that said it is watchable and it was slightly better than The A-Team. I said to another disappointed A-Team viewer that had you inserted this plot into The A-Team film it would have been better because we understand those characters already (at least if you watched the show you do) but this comic book adapted film needed to introduce it’s heroes better.

The Losers is the story of a U.S. Special forces team that is set up on a Bolivian operation by a mysterious CIA agent known as Max (played cleverly by the usually awful Jason Patric). While in exile their team leader Clay (played well but not well enough by Jeffrey Dean Morgan) is visited by another CIA agent (presumably anyway) Aisha (played by the wicked hot Zoe Saldana), who explains to them how they can both help her and get their revenge on Max. The plot is layered well at times, but ultimately fails to make sense because it opts to entertain us instead of keep us intrigued. The rest of the team includes the very funny Jensen (played well by the next Captain America-Chris Evans), Roque (played like an old spice commercial character by Idris Elba), and Pooch (played very solid by the good Columbus Short). The plot twists aren’t what they should be and the ending is average at best. I think it was my mistake to expect more from this film that had a good trailer, but nonetheless it is a solid action film for a rainy day.

(The Shawshank Scale 1-10) Zoe Saldana and Chris Evans performances (I refuse to give Jason Patric credit) bump The Losers up to 6.0 on the scale…but I’m being generous like I was with The A-Team. Possible but unlikely in rewatchablity