My prediction for this movie was right on the money. It was a fun enough diversion, but was nothing more than that, and not even one of the better examples of a pure "fun" movie.
Part of this franchise's problem is also part of its appeal. It is so full of in jokes and references to the actor's past roles and personal lives that they seem to be playing themselves more than actual characters. It's difficult to even keep track of the characters' names, they're so indistinctive. It's a given that you'll forget all their names between installments and even now, less than a week after seeing the film, I can't remember ninety percent of them. The in jokes are often humorous, but its a bad trade off when they result in a complete dearth of characters to actually care about. In the first film, the novelty of this approach helped, but when there's no growth by the third installment, that's a problem.
The story is standard action movie fare, but unable to create the illusion that it has any purpose other than to set up set piece sequences. When those sequences arrive, they are entertaining to watch, but never once got my heart racing. Partially this was because I wasn't that invested in what happened, thanks to the aforementioned blandness of the characters. But the action on its own merits never brought anything new to the table, either. Each successive scene of gunplay felt interchangeable with those that came before. They were somewhat entertaining, but there are a heck of a lot of "just entertaining" films out there that are a heck of a lot more entertaining. See one of them instead.
C
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