The Expendables 2

Simon West’s 2012 sequel loses one of its mercenaries on a job and sends the rest into Eastern Europe to settle it. The carnage was not made the way it looks: visual effects supervisor Ajoy Mani says the film was shot entirely as a PG-13 picture, every bullet wound staged as a dust hit. Once the edit turned it into an R, the blood, severed limbs and decapitations fell to the effects team. The miniature shoot booked for the cave plane crash was cancelled, so that sequence is fully digital. Schwarzenegger is brief on screen because of scheduling: he finished his part in four days. Van Damme stayed cold toward the cast to hold the role, knocking on their trailer doors only after the wrap. He is also why the finale is a fist fight: as written, Vilain escaped by helicopter and Ross downed it with a chain in the rotor. The cobra line Norris gets came from the internet Chuck Norris jokes, added at Stallone’s suggestion. Good if you want that confrontation as sustained hand to hand work rather than a stunt gag. Poor if practical gore matters, or if dialogue quoting the cast’s own back catalogue leaves you outside the joke. The credits close on a dedication to Kun Liu, the stuntman killed during the Bulgarian shoot.