This is what I hoped the first film would be like.
I was disappointed with the first Expendables movie quite a bit, especially after Rambo (the fourth one), one of the best action films I've ever seen; I was expecting something a lot better from a film that's directed by Sylvester Stallone (he directed Rambo) & has so many action legends, but it was just boring and crappy. Expendables 2, however, was great - seriously great action film; it was actually funny, unlike the painfully cringey attempts at humour from the first film; and I actually cared about the characters this time around. & All the action scenes were a lot better than the action scenes in the first one.
Just a few other thoughts:
Jean Claude Van Damme was brilliant in this.
Liam Hemsworth calling Sylvester Stallone "sir" all the time was annoying.
The in-film, direct mention of Rambo was weird - Sylvester Stallone plays a character in the Expendables, so how does this work? I always assumed films in which actors from the film you're watching play a a part in, do not exist in the universe of the film you're watching. But, apparently, the Rambo movies exist in the universe of The Expendables, but the character of Rambo is played by a different actor? #confused