The Losers Come Out Ahead

From the moment I saw the trailer back in January, I was instantly convinced that The Losers was going to be a fun-filled action flick with moments of over-the-top action, a little naughty Saldaña, and a whole lot of happy triggers.  Now it’s three months later and opening weekend for the film and as for all those assumptions I made back in January, they were pleasingly true.

Hailing from the pages of DC Comics, the movie follows five operatives, collectively known as the Losers, who seek a little vengeance on a mysterious man of power back in the States who simply goes by the name Max.  Why the anger toward someone the Losers don’t even know?  It just so happens that Max is a sellout whose actions nearly (and intentionally) cost the special ops platoon their lives.  That’s where Zoe Saldaña comes in and adds a little spice to the gun-toting five-some.

Jeffrey Dean Morgan (Grey’s Anatomy; The Watchmen) plays Clay, the seasoned leader who guides his group on their death-defying missions.  Chris Evans (Fantastic Four) is Jensen, the team’s communications guy and general tech geek.  Columbus Short (Death at a Funeral) assumes the demolitions duty of Pooch while Idris Elba (The Unborn) is the blade-wielding Roque, and last but certainly not least, let us not forget Oscar Jaenada as Cougar, the man behind the Barrett .50 caliber.  Combine all these guys and what do you get; some decent team chemistry that is beautifully agitated by the addition of Saldaña’s character, Aisha.

You will find a fair amount of sarcasm and tongue-in-cheek humor in the film, specifically highlighted by Chris Evans in his goofy t-shirts and Journey moment as well as Jason Patric as the heartless bad guy.  Go fish.  The film is fluidly carried from beginning to end with its aforementioned moments of humor that had both me and the rest of the audience laughing throughout.  The action is attention-consuming and the acting had to have been at least good enough, or else that convincing chemistry I mentioned would have never gotten off the ground.

My only real beef with the film is a small one but is something that bothered me with the G.I. Joe movie as well; the vehicles were wrong.  In G.I. Joe, the good guys drove civilian-grade Hummers in the field. In The Losers, we find a U.S. fighter pilot flying what appeared to be either a French Mirage or a Russian Mig-21, while the U.S. also used some kind of personnel transport helicopter that was neither a Black Hawk, a Chinook, or a Huey.  Maybe what I was looking at was a U.S. military chopper, but I know my military vehicles fairly well and details like this are a distraction to me.  Then again, most of the public probably isn’t going to recognize these things or cause them to take off points for the film’s overall presentation.

In the end, The Losers is a fun, action-juiced movie that does not require a lot of thinking.  The explosions are big, the bullets are many, and the plot is straight to the point.  As for its relation to the comic book that spawned the film, I cannot say how close it stuck because I have never read the book(s).  However, one fellow audience member did say they were night and day.  For me, that wasn’t a deal-breaker, so The Losers gets a recommendation from this writer to see it in the theater.

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