The Losers (C-)

(Rating: PG-13 for scenes of sensuality, profanity, unrelenting violence):  The ratings nearly always flag the kind of flick on hand - certainly true here.

What can be expected from a movie made from a comic book, something readily simplified for the "effete" script writers who think, "Will it sell?" over "Will it be worthwhile entertainment?"

Here's a script created in the guise of far better ones from the past, from "The Dirty Dozen" to "Kelly's Heroes" - a band of military men left for dead by the CIA in a Bolivian jungle, fighting not only for survival, but revenge as well - their ultimate motivation to track down their nemesis. 

Two other people enter the already complicated scene:  one, an ultra-sexy, constantly seductive yet dangerously deathly in hand-to-hand combant.  The other, a devious head of one-of-those-duplicitous corporations that works with the CIA on one hand & secretly has plans to blow up the world on the other.

Are you with me yet?

They weave in & out, as any action comic book is inclined to do, from one part of the exotic world to another - Dubai, Nogales, Puerto Rico, Los Angeles - as the cat/mouse game is played out. 

The nearly half dozen "losers," in devil-may-care roustabout duds & perpetually day-old beards are a nice contrast to Max, the evil man - in neat pin-striped suits with an American flag pined prominently to his lapel - all facetious & cunning.  The femme?  Well, she's there not only to complement the half dozen but fill in the cracks between fight sequences with a little sex on the side - or sometimes on the top or bottom, depending...

Add to the mix the ubiquitous explosions (wow, plenty of noise, destruction, mushrooming flames & black smoke just about every 10-minutes, & like all similar action flicks with the most impressive saved for last), battling sequences and dirty sotto-voce dealings leaving you with plenty of rapidly cut, unoriginal, sequences adding up to 97-minutes of seen-that, done-that-but boy-is-it-ever-fun on the least demanding level.

The cast does all the right things right - all readily identifiable stereotypes with minor personality quirks.  Script by Peter Berg & James Vanderbilt is spare on dialog & connecting material & long on every action device ever used in other such action flicks, while director Sylvain White smashes it all together with  MTV short-cut action & tongue-in-cheek satire on demand - before, during & after all the intrigues & action. 

Only Scott Kevan's camera manages to show visual promise if not originality, using all the capable, tricky stuff - play with speeds, freeze frames, shaky hand-held shots - you know, the kind that acts like perfume heavily doused to conceal body odor.  But even his slight-of-hand camera work can't conceal the terribly handled BIG finale in India, which is a real let-down, to put it mildly.

The movie does exactly what it has been created to do: offer some easily-generated excitement & sex & humor that certain audiences have come to expect - and no more.   (Grade: C-)