The Expendables 3 (2014) poster
2014 · action · adventure · thriller · spy

The Expendables 3

Directed by Patrick Hughes2h 6m2014
ElsewhereIMDb6.1206kRT32%Metacritic35
  • heavy
  • kinetic
  • extreme
  • epic-stakes
Movie DNA

Heavy, breathless, extreme action / adventure, grounded in texture. Ambivalent, epic, measured, hand-scored across twelve axes of taste.

How every film is hand-scored →

Barney, Christmas and the rest of the team comes face-to-face with Conrad Stonebanks, who years ago co-founded The Expendables with Barney. Stonebanks subsequently became a ruthless arms trader and someone who Barney was forced to kill… or so he thought. Stonebanks, who eluded death once before, now is making it his mission to end The Expendables -- but Barney has other plans. Barney decides that he has to fight old blood with new blood, and brings in a new era of Expendables team members, recruiting individuals who are younger, faster and more tech-savvy. The latest mission becomes a clash of classic old-school style versus high-tech expertise in the Expendables’ most personal battle yet.

Our read · The Expendables 3 (2014) reads as a heavy, breathless, grounded action · adventure · thriller entry — extreme in intensity, epic-stakes in scope, measured in temperature, ambivalent in outlook. Hand-scored on twelve axes of taste — mood, pacing, weirdness, hope, stakes, humour, reality, density, warmth, auteur, intensity, and era — with a derived palette drawn from its dominant cinematography.

Where the cast leads
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The shape of The Expendables 3

Tonight, this looks like

What watching it is actually like.

You want loud ensemble action with old-school stars trading quips and bullets.

ends triumphantyou’ll be fine aftersteady all the waygrips by minute 5attention 2/5breezes by
Date nightWith friendsSoloWith parentsKids around
Heads-upgraphic violence

Skip it tonightYou need tight plotting or fresh franchise energy beyond nostalgia casting.

DNA · twelve axes

The reading.

Each axis is hand-scored — not derived from votes or genre averages. The marker shows where this film sits; the gradient fill uses the film's own cinematography palette.

Mood · HeavyCosy
Pacing · Slow-burnKinetic
Intensity · GentleExtreme
Weirdness · ConventionalSurreal
Hope · NihilisticRedemptive
Stakes · IntimateEpic
Humour · NoneBroad
Reality · GroundedFantastical
Density · SparseTwisty
Warmth · ColdTender
Auteur · TransparentSignature
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