Based on a popular comic book series, The Losers approximates the macho guns-blazing fantasies peddled by
not only its source material but also countless run-of-the-mill Xbox and PS3 shoot-‘em-ups. Director
Sylvain White’s saga involves an A-Team-ish squad of soldiers who, after being
framed and left for dead during a Bolivian drug raid by mysterious spook Max
(Jason Patric), become rogue mercenaries bent on revenge. They’re led by staunch
good guy Clay (Jeffrey Dean Morgan), who risks life and limb during the intro
centerpiece to save innocent children, and are aided by the mysterious Aisha (Zoë
Saldana), whose motives for wanting Max dead remain dangerously unclear. White
adequately stages a fiery erotic first encounter between Clay and Aisha, as
well as a downtown armored truck hijacking performed with a helicopter and a
giant magnet. Unfortunately, the proceedings’ strained witty banter and wild
cartoon action is encased in an attitude of smug coolness rather than the type
of self-deprecating goofiness that might have delivered requisite B-movie kicks.
Too lazy to imbue the Losers’ desire for retribution with even a trace of
resonant human emotion, the film colors its stale outline in ways both hackneyed (as
with Chris Evans’ impromptu rendition of Journey’s “Don’t Stop Believing”) and mundane
(be ready for that outta-left-field climactic twist!). Saldana and Morgan sweat
sexuality but their characters’ passion is as arbitrary as Max’s personality is
quirky, though as far as offbeat bad-guy performances go, Patric’s is a
reasonably effectively facsimile of a typical modern Nic Cage turn.
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