Movie Review: 'The Losers' is a fun, old-school, loony action cinema with MTV sensibilities

The Losers (PG-13) Dir: Sylvain White

In this film, CIA black ops team of Clay (Jeffrey Dean Morgan), Jensen (Chris Evans), Roque (Idris Elba), Pooch (Columbus Short), and Cougar (Oscar Jaenada), each with special, yet different, skill sets, are sent into Bolivian jungle on a search and destroy mission. Suddenly, they are betrayed by their superior, Max (Jason Patric), are blamed for wrongdoing, and presumed dead. While trying to even the score, they are soon joined by Aisha (Zoe Saldana), a female operative with her own agenda, who, along with them, wants Max dead. Meanwhile, Max is bent on staring a high tech global war using a new technology.

Based on a comic of the same name, this film is an old-fashioned action movie with tough guys, guns, chicks, and explosions. The plot has the main characters, The Losers, traveling from place to place, working together, carrying out various missions, exchanging witty banter, while trying to find and destroy the ever-so-elusive Max, a ruthless boss who is very well-protected.

Sylvain White (Stomp the Yard) directs this action flick with lots of confidence, zooms, action still shots, music video / Tony Scott-style quick cuts and various editing tricks. Luckily, given that all of these things worked quite well together with the whole, and fit with the pace of the film, I was not distracted by it. The plot is straightforward most of the time, with occasional new developments, with some great satiric jabs along the way. Each scene manages to be clever, action-packed, with doses of humor.

Wherever the plot may go, the characters and their relationship dynamics truly make this film shine. One can believe these characters truly know each other and are great friends. Jeffery Dean Morgan (who played The Comedian in The Watchmen) is charismatic as the decisive, yet flawed leader of the group. Idris Elba as Roque is refreshing as a tough-as-nails, no-nonsense, old-school soldier. Chris Evans is awkwardly hilarious as the gadget guy Jensen. Columbus Short brings some heart and good-natured humor to the driver/pilot Pooch. Oscar Jaenada brings a Clint-Eastwood-style mystery and coolness to Cougar, the super-talented sniper guy. Zoe Saldana brings a lot of feminine charm and spunk as Aisha. The banter between the characters brings a lot of humor and life to much of the film.

Jason Patric is particularly great to watch each time he is on screen as the bad guy, Max. He is a well-dressed, mad genius of some sort, who is a bit “off,” yet just short from being completely insane. He is often surrounded by women. He kills and gets people killed for small things. Of course, he may not be a realistic bad guy, but is a great cinematic bad guy.  A type of bad guy this film needs.

There are occasional missteps here and there. A fight scene between Clay and Aisha appear to make little sense in regards to plot (but hey, it looks cool). Also, while the stunt work and real-life action scenes look good, whenever there is CG, they look out of place, and in some cases, took me out of the film. Now, given its comic book origins, I have forgiven a lot worse in other films that were also made from comics.

There’s the A-Team movie that is coming out soon. I wouldn’t be surprised if The Losers winds up being the better movie. Everything that I may have liked about the TV series The A-Team—guns, camaraderie, plans coming together, funny characters, wisecracks, stunts—this film has in spades. There’s a bit of that old school action mayhem mixed in with some contemporary sensibilities. This film also reminded me a bit of the 2003’s Italian Job, in terms of flavor. Overall, this film, padded with humor, action, and fun characters, was made purely to entertain, and the filmmakers have certainly accomplished that mission. I give The Losers *** out of **** stars.

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