The Losers (2010): C

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.